The first-ever DVD drawn from Johnny Cash's landmark 1969-71 TV series would be a pop treasure even if it only offered performances by such celebrated guests as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Louis Armstrong and Merle Haggard.
But "The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show," a two-disc package that will be released Sept. 18 by CMV/Columbia/Legacy, delivers far more.
You realize the larger ambition of the collection when the first images on the disc aren't musicians but scenes from a Southeast Asian battlefield.
"While a war in Vietnam divided America, a revolution on television brought us all back together," explains a narrator, who goes on to cite examples of the social and political upheaval of the late '60s. "Through it all, one man served as the ultimate ambassador."
That man, of course, was Cash, who brought both an uncommon sense of musical integrity and social consciousness to the weekly ABC show. By showcasing gifted artists who cut across generational and racial lines, Cash sought to use the cleansing power of music to help unify and heal the greatly divided nation.
"John approached the series with an absolute sense of mission," says Lou Robin, the late singer's longtime manager. Indeed, Cash made sure before agreeing to host the series that he would have the freedom to book musicians, regardless of musical genre -- not just familiar, mainstream figures that ratings-happy network executives might favor.
And Cash tested that power by inviting Dylan to appear on the opening telecast.
While that move would seem a brilliant coup today, Dylan in 1969 was aligned with the youthful counterculture -- meaning he might alienate older, conservative country music fans who presumably were the TV show's target audience. Just six years earlier, CBS censors had prohibited Dylan from singing "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" on Ed Sullivan's variety show.
ABC-TV executives weren't apparently thrilled by Cash's choice, but they gave him the green light, and Dylan, quite fittingly, is the opening performer on the new DVD. He does an acoustic version of the country-ish "I Threw It All Away" and then teams with Cash on "Girl From the North Country."
While those and other clips have appeared on YouTube and in bootlegs, this is the first time the Cash show has been featured on an authorized home video, and it's a triumphant slice American pop culture.
