Did Sun Overdub Johnny Cash?

LaserWolf

I am listening to a stack of Johnny Cash Sun lps.

So many songs are ruined by vocal group overdubs. Were these done while he was signed to Sun or something they dubbed in later to make them more commercial after he signed to Columbia (1958)?
All these records are Sun labels with tan print, some are stereo, was that faked later?

Big River is as great a song as he ever recorded, but the rest of the Sun stuff is OK to terrible.
I have no love for his RnR sides like Ballad of a Teenage Queen, Hey Porter...

Unknown

A lot of that stuff was infamously overdubbed, and I know the liner notes to the Complete Sun Sessions say it was done after he left the label. (That collection has the material without the overdubs and it's a big improvement.)

LaserWolf

How much of it had come out on non-overdubbed 45s when they were recorded?
How much was sitting in the vaults and dragged out and cleaned up for the cash in?

I wonder.

Not that I care that much. I prefer the Columbia and American stuff more anyway.

pickwick33

LaserWolf said:

How much of it had come out on non-overdubbed 45s when they were recorded?
How much was sitting in the vaults and dragged out and cleaned up for the cash in?

Seems to me it was about half and half. "Guess Things Happen That Way" and "Ballad Of A Teenage Queen" were hits with the voices. Evidently it was all producer Jack Clement's idea, to keep up with the "countrypolitan" sound.

And believe it or not, Clement (or somebody) had the nuts to overdub voices on "Folsom Prison Blues!!!" The funky part of the situation is...it actually sounds good! I have it on an old Nashville various-artists compilation entitled Folsom Prison Blues, an album of C&W songs about prison. Nashville was a Starday subsidiary. I don't know if or when this appeared on any Sun albums.

Not that I care that much. I prefer the Columbia and American stuff more anyway.

I think Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis did some great things for the Sun label.

But they really came into their own when Cash switched over to Columbia and Jerry Lee went to Smash/Mercury. And I'm probably a bigger rockabilly fan than Laser Wolf is (I'm assuming). Rockabilly is just as legitimate as straight country, IMO.

I don't think Cash's semi-rock Sun sides like "Get Rhythm" or "I Walk The Line" are anything to be ashamed of, but I find myself spinning his Columbia sides much more. Same thing with Jerry Lee - when Rhino came out with a box set back in the nineties (All Killer, No Filler!), "Whole Lotta Shakin'" and the rest of the Sun sides sounded great as usual, but I kept going back to the Smash/Mercury tracks like steel to a magnet.

LaserWolf

Thanks for the info.

I see these lps on collectorsfrenzey like they are rare collectibles. They seem fairly common for me, though mint and mono are less common. Only Hot and Blue Guitar came out while he was still at Sun.

I am sure you like rockabilly more than me. Don't you play in a rockabilly band at rockabilly festivals?

I like some Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and Stray Cats.
I have zero patience for a 2nd rate singer hiccuping all over a slapped base about his baby at the soda fountain.

pickwick33

I see these lps on collectorsfrenzey like they are rare collectibles. They seem fairly common for me, though mint and mono are less common.

Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis are by far the most common Sun artists ever, as far as 45s go. And while I seldom see actual Sun albums (before Shelby Singleton bought 'em out), the few times I do, it's usually JLL or Cash.

LaserWolf said:

I am sure you like rockabilly more than me. Don't you play in a rockabilly band at rockabilly festivals?

Well, not quite "rockabilly," more like "roots-rock." A lot of my bands have been rockabilly-influenced, but not to the point where I was trying to slavishly imitate the Sun sound beat for beat.

I like some Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and Stray Cats.
I have zero patience for a 2nd rate singer hiccuping all over a slapped base about his baby at the soda fountain.

To me, that describes the modern-day rockabillies more than it does the actual boppers of the time. Like the Stray Cats, I have to admit; they never did much for me.

To me, rockabilly at its' rawest may as well be Appalachian mountain music with a backbeat (and that's a compiliment). Charlie Feathers comes to mind - that man was the real Southern deal, and there were no "cute" maltshop touches. If Dock Boggs ever came to terms with rock & roll, he'd sound pretty close to Feathers. Others include Dale Hawkins, Sonny Burgess, Billy Lee Riley - those guys had solid blues roots, and weren't exactly soda fountain hiccup acts.