JOHNNY CASH FANZINE

Today would have been Johnny Cash's 90th Birthday and to celebrate I thought I would look back at my work on the Johnny Cash Fanzine including some highlights, comments from family and friends when I ceased publication and an interview that I did a few years ago. I am also offering a special offer on the Fanzine.

I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that when I published the first issue of Johnny Cash-The Man in Black in December 1994 that it would run for almost twenty-five years.

Of course, it was down to the subscribers, the Cash family, band members, producers, photographers, management and record companies whose support made it all possible.

The decision to cease publication in 2019 was not an easy one to make and I wish I could have celebrated by reaching one hundred issues but alas it wasn’t to be. Health issues and a decline in membership signalled the end. However, I am proud of what I achieved and hope everybody enjoyed the journey with me.

I had been a Johnny Cash fan since 1969 and my first Cash album was At San Quentin. I was hooked and in the years that followed I collected all his albums on vinyl and began my library of Cash related books. My first concert was in 1979 at the Brighton Centre and since then I have seen him in concert many times including concerts in Portsmouth, Croydon and London. I was also fortunate to see the Highwaymen when they toured in 1992.

Music was a passion and I was also a big Elvis fan, going back to the early 1970s, and again had collected all his albums and books.

Trevor Cajiao, editor of the excellent rock and roll magazine Now Dig This had started an Elvis magazine, The Man And His Music, back in 1988 and unlike previous Elvis magazines this was a serious look at his career with great articles and reviews, not your usual poems, tacky photos and over the top fan stories.

In 1994 I realised that there was no longer a source of information on Johnny Cash in the UK and I had the idea of starting a magazine. It is thanks to Trevor and the Elvis mag that I went down the same road, planning on producing a serious magazine that would include newly written articles, honest reviews, rare images, interviews and much more. To ensure subscribers were getting fresh articles the aim was to write my own  and not fill the magazine with previously seen articles. Of course, I would include a few, but the majority of the 24-page issue would be previously unseen.

Working at the time as a graphic designer in the print trade producing the magazine would be a lot easier and in December 1994 I published Issue #1 of Johnny Cash The Man in Black.

The first issue included articles on 1969 and the San Quentin concert, the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference, American Recordings, Cash/Dylan-The Lost Album, Concert/CD reviews and much more.

Our early issues were 24-pages and printed in black & white but when increases in production and postage forced us to move to a digital magazine it gave us the opportunity to include colour and add an extra four pages.

Now for some highlights from my twenty-five years working on the Fanzine

• Interviewing people associated with Cash’s career including Lou Robin, Rosanne Cash, Bob Wootton, Reggie Young, Chips Moman, Jimmy Tittle, Kathy Cash, Cowboy Jack Clement, Johnny Western and many more.
• Building up a good working relationship with and the respect from Lou Robin, the Cash Family and record companies.
• All the friends I made over the past twenty-five years.
• Receiving advance copies of the latest Cash product… CDs, Books and DVDs.
• Working on various Cash CD projects including the Johnny Cash Outtakes 3-CD set.

• Attending the press launch at HMV in London for the release of Walk The Line on DVD.
• Being asked by the BBC to help on their Johnny Cash-The Last Great American documentary and although I didn’t get paid (no surprise) I was given loads of material on video, much of which has never been seen.

• Having the opportunity to see Rosanne Cash in concert on a number of occasions and the kindness she showed both Carole and I whenever we met her backstage.

• Having the chance to go on tour with Bob Wootton and his lovely family during four UK tours. The laughs we had backstage in the dressing room and the great concerts in Worthing, Croydon, Southampton and Hastings.

• Meeting Johny Western and his lovely wife Jo when they visited Brighton. We had a lovely meal and a long and enjoyable chat.

• Spending time with W.S. Holland in 1995 at his hotel and  the photos of us together… and him reading the best Cash magazine around.

• The opportunity to finally meet one of my music heroes. It was May 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall and Cash’s last concert here in the UK. I met him backstage where he signed a photograph for me and took time to have his photo taken with Carole and I, holding a copy of the Fanzine.

• Writing various articles on Johnny Cash for magazines including Record Collector, Get Rhythm and Vintage Rock, including being interviewed for their Cash special edition (see below).
• Writing my book on Johnny Cash’s career. I’ve Been Everywhere-A Johnny Cash Chronicle detailed his career in a day-by-day format covering tours, TV appearances, record releases and much more. I was so pleased when the book was nominated for an award - The 2002 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, unfortunately I didn’t win. It was also a highlight to receive a signed copy from John.

• Our 1998 holiday in Nashville and Memphis where we had the chance to visit many places associated with Cash including Sun Studios and The House of Cash.
• My invite to the Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute Concert at the Ryman Auditorium in November 2003. Having the opportunity to watch artists including Carlene Carter, Marty Stuart, Johnny Western, Steve Earle,  ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and many more paying tribute to Cash. A moving event and one that did bring tears to my eyes during Rosanne Cash’s speech and her heartfelt performance of I Still Miss Someone and when all the family joined on stage to sing We’ll Meet Again. An amazing night.

Comments from Cash Family and Friends

Hi Peter. I am disappointed over the fact that the Fanzine will be shutting down. You have done an incredible job through the years in keeping the Cash image alive. I know that John and the Family have always been proud of your efforts. We understand that You and Carole have not been feeling well which makes keeping the Fanzine schedule even tougher. You are fine people and it’s been wonderful working with you – Lou & Karen Robin

Peter, I am sorry to hear of your retirement of the Fanzine, but grateful to you for your many years of love, devotion and fine reporting. I wish you all the best in the future, including a return to good health. Please know that you have the gratitude and good wishes of the entire extended Cash family! With love and warmest regards – Rosanne Cash

Peter, your dedication, love and hard work has never gone unnoticed or unappreciated from me. My gratitude to you for helping to keep his legacy and memory alive is immeasurable. On behalf of Jimmy and I and the entire family, we send you an enormous THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. Much love to you and Carole. Please keep in touch. Much love to you both – Kathy Cash

My dear Peter. It has been quite the ride, hasn't it?  No one has done more to protect the legacy than you. We all owe you so much for everything you have done. Thank you for your work, your heart and your personal kindness to me over these many years.  You are a special man. But the road does not go on forever, no matter how much we want it to.  As you close this final chapter, know that up ahead is still a wide open road. With respect and admiration – Mark Stielper

We are sad to see the end of the Johnny Cash Fanzine. You have done such a wonderful job for so many years. Thank you! – Jonathan Holiff

It’s sad but like so many things these days it’s inevitable. But the important thing to remember is that you have done splendid work over the years and it has been greatly appreciated by me and many, many others – Richard Wootton

Peter, we all grow older and some things have to slip away. Thank you so much for keeping the Johnny Cash name out in the public in such a great way for so many years along with the articles on many of us associated with the Johnny Cash organization and show. It has been a work of art and love and you are so appreciated. Blessings to you and your loved ones and please keep in touch from time to time regarding your books and anything else you might think I would be interested in. Blessings – Earl Poole Ball

PETER LEWRY on JOHNNY CASH

Jack Watkins (Vintage Rock)

Peter Lewry, music writer and photographer, is an authority on the music of Johnny Cash.  He has chronicled the day-to-day career of his hero in the book I’ve Been Everywhere and produced the quarterly e-magazine Johnny Cash - The Man in Black, which prides itself on going into more depth than the average fanzine.

When did you get into Johnny’s music?
About the age of 13 or 14. I was bought the Johnny Cash At San Quentin album for Christmas, about a year or so after it had come out. Around the same time the BBC broadcast three shows from the prime-time series he made for American ABC-TV. The guy had such charisma, I was totally hooked.
 
He did have a remarkable aura. When he sang that line “San Quentin, I hate every inch of you,” there’s real menace and loathing. There was a period when a lot of people actually believed he’d done time!
Yes, and they also thought the scar on the side of his cheek was a bullet wound. Actually, I believe it was just the mark left by a wart he’d had removed!
 
The film of the San Quentin show is incredibly powerful, with those cuts to the faces of the prisoners. Did that make an impression on you?
Not until I saw it some years later, but you’re right. You watch the film and when he sings that line in the song San Quentin and the crowd cheers …..I’ve always felt that one word from Johnny at that moment and there could have been a riot. The guard looks a little worried!

Apart from his charisma, what other memories do you have of The Johnny Cash Show?
The thing that sticks in my mind is the Come Along and Ride This Train section. I’d never seen anything like this on a TV variety show up to that point. You had the likes of the Des O’Connor and Andy Williams shows, but here was Johnny picking different themes like the American Indian, or the coal miners. He’d talk about the subject, there would be some old footage and two or three songs, and he’d open and close the segment with the Come Along And Ride This Train song.
 
Does Cash also deserve credit for drawing attention to the roots of American country music, at a time it was little understood, by featuring the likes of the Carter Family on his road shows and in his TV show?
I think once he teamed up with June Carter and eventually married her, it was always his intention to make it a family affair and bring the Carters to the forefront. He had Anita, Helen and Maybelle on the programme and this brought the Carter Family’s music to a wider audience. Maybelle’s guitar playing was hugely influential. You can hear it in the playing of Chet Atkins, for instance. But I must say that, as a singer, my preference was for Anita. She had the sweetest voice, by a long way. She’s very underrated. She recorded with Waylon Jennings, and her voice was outstanding on her duet with Johnny on the song Another Man Done Gone.
 
I suppose you could say Johnny Cash laid the bedrock for the Americana movement?
Yes, and he was one of the first country artists to do concept albums, such as Ride This Train, and Bitter Tears. That goes back to what I said about his TV shows. It was never just about the music. Some of those albums were like history lessons. I happen to believe everyone should listen to Bitter Tears.
 
Religious music also meant a lot to him. It was one of the reasons he quit Sun for Columbia, so he could record spiritual material. Does he have a following in the gospel field?
I’m not sure he did until he linked up with Billy Graham. Personally, I prefer his later gospel stuff like A Believer Sings The Truth and Believe In Him. However, I do love the early gospel music he did. I’ve always been a fan of Elvis’s gospel recordings, too.
 
Do you find Cash fans come at his music from different angles – some attracted by his Sun rockabilly connection, others via country or folk rock, and other, maybe younger followers, because they saw him at Glastonbury in 1994?
Yes, I talk to a lot of fans, and it always surprises me when you meet some who say they only like the Sun period, or others that they only like the work he did with Rick Rubin. There is this real split with a lot of his fans.
 
Is there a Cash album which you felt was unfairly judged at the time of release which is worthy of a revisit?
That’s an interesting question because, in The Man in Black magazine at the moment, we are running a series on old reviews of his albums. Overall, a lot of his Mercury material was underrated. But one album that I felt was unfairly hammered at the time was the Columbia album, Silver. He got a lot of criticism because it was produced by Brian Ahern, who had worked with Emmylou Harris, and he used a lot of modern recording techniques and electronic wizardry. It got panned because it didn’t sound like the Johnny Cash that everyone was used to, whereas I feel you can’t stay in one place. You have to move on.
 
Is there any Cash album that you feel has always been an overlooked gem?
If I had to pick one album that seems to have been overlooked it would be I Would Like To See You Again. Released in 1978 its major selling point was the inclusion of two songs featuring Waylon Jennings, There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang and I Wish I Was Crazy Again. Other great songs included That’s The Way It Is, Hurt So Bad and the humourous After Taxes. It is an album I play quite a lot.
 
And what are your all-time favourite Cash songs or albums?
My favourite individual song is Man In Black. The lyrics were written in 1971, but they are still relevant today, and they say everything about the man. My favourite from the Sun era is Big River, a very descriptive song, conjuring up images of the mighty Mississippi. And my favourite album is Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, the second album of his I owned after At San Quentin.
 
What did you make of Johnny’s films?
I think The Pride of Jessie Hallam was the best of them, a very good movie with a strong message behind it. And having Kirk Douglas as a co-star in A Gunfight was a help. It probably brought more out of Johnny as an actor than working opposite, say, Kris Kristofferson in the TV remake of Stagecoach. That had really been done on the back of the commercial success of the Highwayman album. Having the four stars, Johnny, Kris and Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in the one film was too much of a distraction from the storyline.
 
Your book I’ve Been Everywhere received personal affirmation from Johnny. What made you decide to write it?
I love reading the sort of information that tells you where an artist was on a particular day, where a song was recorded, that sort of thing.  The Cash recording sessions had already been done by his discographer John L Smith, but I knew the careers of the Beatles and Elvis Presley had been covered on a day-to-day basis. I thought Johnny deserved it as well. I’d been writing a lot of similar stuff for the The Man in Black, and I thought it would be sensible to bring it all together in book form. To gather all the information I approached everybody, including old fan clubs. Lou Robin, Johnny’s manager, was a massive help with things like tour dates.  I even managed to track down details of photo shoots he’d done for album covers. The book was first published in 2001, and when I updated it as an e-book in 2005 it had almost 1,000 additional entries. I’d love to find a book publisher for a further revision, but it would be an expensive project because it needs to be heavily illustrated. It got nominated for the ‘2002 Association for Recorded Sound Collection Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research’ first time around.
 
The golden age of the fan club was the 1970s. The Man in Black started in 1994, so you were a little late to the party

Well, there had been an earlier fan club publication Strictly Cash which I think ran into the mid-80s, but my influence was Trevor Cajiao’s superb Presley magazine Elvis The Man and His Music, the first one that examined him in terms of his music rather than what a great jumpsuit he was wearing. When I first started it, I’d get letters saying “Can you cover Cash impersonators?” or “Can you publish this poem I’ve written about Johnny?” and I just didn’t want to go down that road. So I do interviews with people who worked with Johnny, or family members. A recent issue had one with his daughter Rosanne Cash. I once did an interview with ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement which ran over twelve pages. I’ll take a song like The Battle of New Orleans and examine not just the recording, but also the background behind the lyric, often from the point of view of American history, which is so relevant to a man like Johnny. The age of of the fan club is over, thanks to the internet. It’s about more serious, in depth, magazines now. 

Fanzine Special Offer

I am offering a complete set of the Fanzine (all 93 issues) in PDF format for a very special price. Please email peter.lewry@ntlworld.com for more details. This offer is only open for a few days so don't miss out.

BUCKINGHAM NICKS

Next month will be forty-five years since the release of Rumours, my all time favourite album, and to celebrate I will be writing an article on the album and what it means to me. Rather than cover how Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks became members of Fleetwood Mac and changed the direction the band took I am covering their career and only album release in this article.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks first met at Menio-Atherton High School in Atherton, California where she was a senior in high school and he, being a year younger, was a junior. It was at an after-school gathering in 1966 that they found themselves singing and harmonizing together although there are conflicting reports on what the song was. Most accounts say it was a Beach Boys song although Nicks, in a later interview, claims it was the Mamas and Papas classic hit California Dreamin'.

It would be another two years before they sang together again. Buckingham was playing bass with some high school friends in a band called Fritz and invited Nicks to join them as their singer.

Nicks recalled this in interview, "... he called me and asked me if I wanted to be in a rock & roll band. I had been playing guitar and singing pretty much folk-oriented stuff. So I joined the band, and within a couple of weeks we were opening for really big shows. All of a sudden I was in rock & roll."

Bands that Fritz were the opening act for included Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix.

Fritz gave both Buckingham and Nicks, who weren't given the chance to perform their own material in the band, the opportunity to gain some experience of performing in front of an audience and, as was often the case, large crowds who had come to hear the main acts. The bands manager at the time was David Forrester who worked tirelessly to secure them a record deal despite their music being far removed from current trends.

Fritz disbanded in 1971 and Buckingham and Nicks, who had become romantically linked, planned to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the hope of being discovered and signed up.

Nicks had been attending San Jose State University while in Fritz and Buckingham joined her with both managing to work on their studying while still pursuing their love of music. By 1972 they were writing songs and putting them down on tape on a four-track machine that Buckingham stored at his fathers coffee roasting plant. It was at this point they both decided to drop out of college and head for Los Angeles.

In LA, Nicks worked at various jobs to keep the money coming in. These included a waitress, hostess and cleaning lady for Keith Olsen, a record producer. This gave Buckingham the time to concentrate on his guitar skills and songwriting.

They met with Keith Olsen and the two owners of White Whale Records, Ted Feigin and Lee Lasseff, played them a selection of their music and all three were impressed with what they were hearing.

Lasseff secured a distribution deal with Polydor Records which Nicks recalled. "We had some great demos. We shopped around. Over a period of time we got a deal with Polydor and made our first album, Buckingham Nicks."

It could have been a different story had the record deal not happened. Nicks talked about quitting, "I had been thinking of quitting it all and going back to school because I was sick of being miserable and I hate being poor."

The album was recorded at Sound City Studios in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles with Keith Olsen as producer/engineer and Richard Dashut the assistant engineer. Along with Lindsey Buckingham (vocals, guitar, bass and percussion) and Stevie Nicks (vocals) the other musicians playing on the album were Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Jerry Scheff and Mark Tulin (bass), Peggy Sandvic (keyboards), Monty Stark (synthesizer), Jim Keltner, Ronnie Tutt and Hoppy Hodges (drums) and Jorge Calderon (percussion).

Recalling his working relationship with not just Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks but also Keith Olsen, Waddy Wachtel recalled on his website, "So Keith and I started working together. This was in like '68, '69 probably. And that's - from then on - that's when things started happening. That's where Keith Olsen one day came and said 'I'm bringing this couple down from North Carolina, named Stevie and Lindsey. And I want you to play on their record. "

The album opens with the first of four Stevie Nicks compositions Crying In The Night. Her other contributions are Crystal, Long Distance Winner and Races Are Run. Lindsey Buckingham provided four tracks, Stephanie, Without A Leg To Stand On, Don't Let Me Down Again, Lola (My Love) and co-wrote a fifth with Nicks, the 7 minute album closer Frozen Love. One other track, the short instrumental Django, was written back in 1954 and is a jazz standard written by John Lewis as a tribute to jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Lindsey plays just the introduction on the album.

A few tracks would be recorded again later on Fleetwood Mac albums. Crystal was on the breakthrough White Album while Don't Let Me Down Again was featured on tour and a 1975 live recording was included on the Fleetwood Mac Live album in 1980. Listening to the instrumental Stephanie you can hear similar guitar to the Rumours track Never Going Back Again. 

Released in September 1973 Buckingham Nicks failed to create the success hoped for, failed to chart at the time and was soon deleted. However, it seems it did chart later reaching number 28 on the 'Billboard Midline Album Charts', which were created in 1982, for older and mid-price albums - (author note: I was unable to confirm this)

Two singles were also released in 1973, Don't Let Me Down Again/Without A Leg To Stand On and Crying In The Night/Stephanie, neither achieved any chart success.

Part of the albums failure can be directed at Polydor Records whose promotional staff ignored the album. It did create interest in the Birmingham, Alabama and surrounding areas where they had a reasonably large fan-following but nothing further afield.

The cover image was taken by photographer/art director Jimmy Wachtel (Waddy's older brother) whose photos have appeared on albums by Joe Walsh, Dave Mason, Warren Zevon and many more. Stevie Nicks had bought a new white blouse for the shoot, costing $111, a considerable amount back in 1973, but she is not wearing it on the album cover as both Wachtel and Buckingham coerced her to remove it for the photos. She was very unhappy as she recalled in a later interview, "I was crying when we took that picture. And Lindsey was mad at me. he said, 'You know, you're just being a child. This is art.' And I'm going, 'This is not art. This is me taking a nude photograph with you, and I don't dig it." She went on to say, "I thought, 'Who are you? Don't you know me?' I couldn't breathe. But I did it because I felt like a rat in a trap."

Several images from the shoot have appeared recently with and without the blouse...

To promote the album they toured the southern states during 1974/1975 and two concerts from Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, both in Alabama, have been heavily bootlegged over the years. Along with most of the tracks from the album they also performed several songs that would later appear on albums by Fleetwood Mac including, Monday Morning, Rhiannon, I Don't Want To Know and Blue Letter.

Their career as a duo and their concerts were to be short lived as they would soon find themselves part of a band whose career would see them achieving the kind of success they had longed for and deserved.

Buckingham Nicks is long-overdue for official release on CD despite several times being mentioned by Lindsey Buckingham as a possibility. In 2006 he mentioned he was interested in seeing the album on CD and in an NME interview in 2011 he reiterated his wishes to see it receive an official release. The following year he talked again about the possibility of it being released in 2013. He stated, "Stevie and I have been hanging out a little lately, and we've been talking about that. I think that's something that would happen this year as well. I hate to even say it, I think the 40th anniversary of that is next year. So we've been talking about it off and on for a long time, but Stevie seems really into the idea. So yes, I would say yes."

Unfortunately the 40th anniversary came and went without any sign of a reissue. Of course, 2023 would be the 50th so maybe we will finally have the album on CD, hopefully with bonus tracks and extensive liner notes.

The album has been bootlegged several times with the most popular being the South Korean release Buckingham Nicks: Deluxe Edition which featured twelve tracks recorded around the same time as the album.

A couple of tracks have escaped on various releases over the years. Long Distance Winner appeared on Stevie Nicks Enchanted box set while Stephanie was featured on Words And Music (A Retrospective), a promotional-only CD from Lindsey Buckingham.

Just after the albums release Mick Fleetwood happened to be looking around for a studio in which to record their next album. At Sound City, Keith Olsen played Frozen Love through the studio speakers and Fleetwood was instantly taken with the guitar playing. He wasn't actually looking for a replacement for Bob Welch who was leaving the band but fate would step in.

Olsen introduced Fleetwood to the guitar player who had impressed him so much. Lindsey Buckingham was at the studio that day recording some new material when he was asked if he wanted to join the band. He immediately said yes as long as his partner and musical collaborator Stevie Nicks was included. Originally the band were only looking for a guitarist to replace Bob Welch but following lunch at El Carmen, a Mexican restaurant, both Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks became the latest members of Fleetwood Mac.

This brings my look at the careers of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, pre-Fleetwood Mac, to a close and in a future blog I will be taking a look back at the album Rumours and why it is my all-time favourite album.

GENE TIERNEY - HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY

Gene Eliza Tierney was born on 19 November 1920 in Brooklyn, New York City and raised in Westport, Connecticut. Her father, Howard Sherwood Tierney, was an insurance broker and her mother, Belle Lavinia, was a former teacher. During her childhood she often lived with her grandparents in Connecticut, attended some of the finest schools on the East Coast and spent time in Switzerland at finishing school. She returned to America a couple of years later to complete her education.

Her first acting role was in 1938 when she appeared in What A Life! on Broadway which saw her carrying a bucket of water across the stage. One critic, writing in the entertainment paper Variety, wrote, "Miss Tierney is, without a doubt, the most beautiful water carrier I have ever seen!" It was hard to disagree with his comments as she was admired for her beautiful green eyes, luminous skin and high cheekbones... every inch a Hollywood Starlet.

Further roles on Broadway during the final years of the 1930s included Primrose Path, Mrs O'Brian Entertains and Ring Two which found her tackling meatier roles and receiving critical acclaim from the New York critics. Richard Watts, one such critic, said, "I see no reason why Miss Tierney should not have a long and interesting theatrical career, that is if the cinema does not kidnap her away." Fortunately for the cinema-going public it was exactly what happened.

In 1940 Tierney was appearing on stage as Patricia Stanley in the hit show The Male Animal and came to the attention of legendary producer and studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck. Impressed with this stunning young actress he signed her to a contract with 20th Century Fox. Her movie career began in 1940 with her role as Barbara Hall in Hudson's Bay and the same year she would also appear in The Return Of Frank James.

The next few years were very busy for Tierney with films including The Shangai Gesture, Sundown, John Ford's comedy Tobacco Road, Belle Star all released in 1941 and the following year she turned to comedy again in Rings On Her Fingers. 

Around this time she was approached to recreate her role as Patricia Stanley in the film version of The Male Animal. Unfortunately she was under contract to make Tobacco Road and the part went to Joan Leslie.

Demand for her acting talents, and no doubt stunning looks, meant she was offered more roles and 1942 saw her in China Girl, Thunder Birds and, the next year, top billing in the Ernst Lubitsch comedy Heaven Can Wait alongside Don Ameche and Charles Coburn. She received her first award for the film, The Photoplay Award for 'Best Performances of the Month'. However, the following year would see her playing her most famous role. 

Critics agree that her portrayal of murder victim Laura Hunt in Otto Preminger's film noir Laura was an outstanding performance. Starring alongside Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson it told the story of police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) who falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.

The film received five Academy Award nominations, winning the 'Best Black & White Cinematography' category, was selected in 1999 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and named one of the best ten mystery films of all time by the American Film Institute. A second Photoplay Award came her way for 'Best Performances of the Month (January)'.

Laura wasn't the only film in which she starred with Dana Andrews. They also worked together on Tobacco Road, Belle Star, The Iron Curtain and Where The Sidewalk Ends.

The mystery/romance Dragonwyck, released in 1946, saw her appearing alongside Vincent Price again having already worked together on Laura, Hudson's Bay and Leave Her To Heaven.

Her portrayal of Ellen Brent in Leave Her To Heaven (1945) earned her an Oscar nomination in the 'Best Actress' category which, despite not winning, just confirmed, if any confirmation was necessary, her position in Hollywood society.

More praise came her way in 1946 with her role as Isabel Bradley in the wartime romance film The Razor's Edge, based on a book by W. Somerset Maughaw and the next year as Lucy Muir in the acclaimed romance The Ghost And Mrs Muir.

The 1940s had been good years for Tierney and the 1950s would find her just as busy. Among her film credits during the decade were Night And The City (1950), The Mating Season (1951), Close To My Heart (1951), Plymouth Adventure (1952), Personal Affair (1953) and The Left Hand Of God (1955), which would be her last role for seven years.

She returned to the silver screen in 1962 in Advise & Consent but demand for her waned and The Pleasure Seekers (1964) was her last feature film although she did make a TV appearance in 1980 in the mini-series Scruples.

While Gene Tierney was a successful actress, loved on the silver screen and across the world her personal life was not such a happy story.

She struggled for years with depression and, following consultations with psychiatrists, was admitted to a number of facilities. Following shock treatment, meant to alleviate depression, she fled one facility and became very outspoken about the therapy which, she claimed, had severely damaged parts of her memory. Talking about her depression she said, "No one suggested psychiatric help. No one saw it then as a clue to the mental breakdown still ahead of me, or the kind of trick the mind plays on the body."

She worked as a salesgirl in a dress shop before being recognised by a customer and this resulted in newspaper headlines. In 1959 she was offered a role in Holiday For Lovers but the stress was too much and after a few days of production she dropped out of the film. As we have already seen she did make a comeback in 1962 in Advise & Consent. Explaining why she hadn't been working she commented, "My departure from Hollywood was described as a walk-out. No one understood I was cracking up."

Tierney was married twice. Her first husband, Oleg Cassini, was a fashion designer and they had two children, Antionette Daria and Christina. They married in 1941 and separated in 1946 during which time she was linked romantically with John F. Kennedy and Kirk Douglas. A reconciliation with Cassini only lasted a few years and they were divorced in 1952. She met oil baron William Howard Lee in 1958 and they married in 1960 and lived a fairly quiet life in Texas and Miami until his death in 1981.

While pregnant with Daria, in June 1943, Tierney contracted Rubella, possibly from a fan who had the illness. She was born prematurely, weighing just over three pounds, and the illness caused congenital damage. Daria was deaf, partially blind and mentally disabled. She spent a lot of her life in institutions and passed away in 2010 aged 66. Howard Hughes apparently paid all the medical expenses ensuring she had the best care possible, something Tierney never forgot.

Tierney was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960 and honored with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986 at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. Eighteen of her films passed the $100 million gross mark with Leave Her To Heaven becoming her biggest box office hit. On average a Gene Tierney movie grossed $117.20 million. Although she never won an Oscar thirteen of her films received at least one nomination in any category with four winning at least one in any category.

Gene Tierney had started smoking the first time she saw herself on-screen commenting that, "I sounded like an angry Minnie Mouse." She thought smoking would help lower her voice but it came at a great cost. She passed away on 6 November 1991 of emphysema and was buried at the Glenwood cemetery in Houston. She was two days away from her 71st birthday.

The last words should be from Darryl F. Zanuck who said, "She was unquestionably the most beautiful woman in movie history."

I have to agree.

ELVIS - BACK IN NASHVILLE

For Elvis Presley the start of 1971 saw him accepting an award which must have meant so much to him. He was named one of the 'Ten Outstanding Men' by the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) and accepted his award at a special banquet held in Memphis. The award recognised young men who had made great achievements in their particular field and over the years recipients had included John F. Kennedy, Orson Welles and Howard Hughes, so he was in good company. During his acceptance speech Elvis said, "I learned very early in life that, 'Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend, without a song', So I keep singing a song."

The previous two years had seen his career take a dramatic turn with sessions in Memphis in 1969 and Nashville in 1970 producing hit singles, including In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, Don't Cry Daddy, Patch It Up, I've Lost You along with a run of successful albums, From Elvis In Memphis, Back In Memphis, Elvis Country and That's The Way It Is.

RCA Records were keen to stick with the apparent 'winning' formula of recording as many tracks as possible over a short period of time resulting in enough product for the following year.

And so it was that Elvis returned to RCA Studio B in Nashville for another series of sessions to fulfill his contract with RCA for a new Christmas album, a gospel album and a pop album along with songs for single release.

With the critical acclaim of the material recorded in June 1970 producer Felton Jarvis hired the same musicians, the cream of the current Nashville studio scene including Chip Young (guitar), Norbert Putnam (bass), Jerry Carrigan (drums), David Briggs (keyboards) and Charlie McCoy (harmonica and organ). James Burton, lead guitarist from Elvis' live band was also present.

Jarvis had been told that in no uncertain terms the Christmas album was a priority followed by the gospel album. In an effort to create a festive mood he installed a Christmas Tree with presents in the studio!

Elvis and the band convened at 6pm on 15 March for the first of several days planned recordings. Elvis was looking to create a different sound, more folk than country, and with this in mind a different group of backing singers were employed. Gone were The Jordanaires and The Imperials and in their place were the seven-piece vocal group The Nashville Edition featuring Dolores Edgin, June Page, Hurshel Wiginton, Joe Babcock, Mary Holladay, Ginger Holladay and Millie Kirkham, most of whom had worked with Elvis previously.

Elvis had arrived at the studio with a bad cold but despite this they managed to record four tracks, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Amazing Grace, Early Morning Rain and (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me. All four fitted the folk idea that Elvis was keen on pursuing. First Time Ever was tried as a duet with Ginger Holladay but was later rejected. By the end of the session it was obvious Elvis wouldn't be able to continue so the remaining sessions were cancelled/postponed.

With studio time booked for the next few days Felton took the opportunity to record an album with James Burton. Released later in the year on A&M Records The Guitar Sounds Of James Burton included several Elvis related tracks, Mystery Train, Polk Salad Annie, Fools Rush In and Hound Dog.

Sessions resumed on 15 May and would run every night until the 22 May. Further sessions were held between the 8th and 11th June to finish the gospel album and re-record a number of tracks. In the weeks following, a number of overdub sessions were held to add additional backing vocals and strings.

During the May sessions, and after most of the Christmas tracks were in the can, Elvis wanted to return to more folk material and recorded several songs including a jam on the Bob Dylan song Don't Think Twice It's Alright, which ran for over 9 minutes. It was unclear if the idea of a folk album was still a serious consideration or just a passing thought. The mixed vocal group that had worked so well on the tracks recorded in March were replaced on this session by The Imperials, a style more suited to the religious material required.

The sessions were a success and they laid down over thirty tracks, enough for the Christmas and gospel albums and the remaining tracks for the planned pop album and singles. However, as we will see later, most of the remaining tracks would be spread over two albums with material from other sessions. There seemed no logic behind this and it was a missed opportunity to release an album of the best non-Christmas and non-gospel tracks from the sessions.

Meanwhile RCA still needed a new album to follow the release and success of both That’s The Way It Is and Elvis Country. Scheduled for a June release any plans of it being the folk album had been dropped and they turned to left-overs from the 1970 sessions. The album was also renamed. The original title had been Festival but it changed to Love Letters From Elvis, due to the inclusion of the 1970 re-recording of Love Letters.

There were some good tracks but these were mixed with some really sub-standard recordings. As Jon Landua wrote in his review for Rolling Stone Magazine, it sounds like 'a bunch of left-overs.' After the success and critical acclaim of the two previous albums this was a real let-down and its sales figures and chart position reflected this. Even worse than some of the material was the sleeve design, especially the reverse which featured different colour envelopes with the song titles on, more than likely another of the Colonel's ideas! Why Elvis didn't insist on having more input into his album covers never ceases to amaze me.

Several songs from the 1971 sessions were released as singles. Until It's Time For You To Go, We Can Make The Morning, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, I'm Leavin', It's Only Love along with the gospel and Christmas singles, He Touched Me, Bosom Of Abraham, O Come, All Ye Faithful and Merry Christmas Baby. Unfortunately none managed to make much of an impression on the charts. 

Released on 20 October 1971, Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas was the first album released from the sessions and Elvis' second collection of festive tunes. The album featured well-known festive songs including O Come, All Ye Faithful, The First Noel and Winter Wonderland along with contemporary material, I'll Be Home On Christmas Day and It Won't Seem Like Christmas Without You. It was certainly no match to the 1957 Christmas album but did have one saving grace, a great performance of the blues classic Merry Christmas Baby, originally recorded by Charles Brown back in 1948. Originally running to over 8 minutes it was edited down for release on the album. Christmas albums seldom chart and this was no exception. However, it did go on to sell over 400,000 over the following few years.

With a title of Elvis Now fans would have expected an album of new and contemporary material but the album title couldn't have been more misleading. It featured one track from 1969, Hey Jude, two more from 1970, Sylvia and I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago, the recent single that had coupled Until It's Time For You To Go and We Can Make The Morning with just five more songs from the recent sessions. Of the five new recordings Fools Rush In, Early Morning Rain and Help Me Make It Through The Night were highlights. Released in February 1972 it just scraped into the Top 50 and, like the Christmas album, only sold 400,000 copies at the time.

The gospel album He Touched Me was released in April 1972 to capitalise on the Easter market and, despite a poor showing on the charts, would go on to sell more than a million copies in America and gave Elvis his second Grammy Award in the gospel genre, the only times he ever won. If not as strong as both His Hand In Mine or How Great Thou Art, the new gospel album did have some excellent material. Unlike Elvis Now, all the tracks were recorded during the recent sessions and included, Amazing Grace, An Evening Prayer, Reach Out To Jesus and A Thing Called Love, written by Jerry Reed and recently recorded by Johnny Cash. He Is My Everything was a new version of There Goes My Everything and two tracks were given a great uptempo gospel hand-clapping feel, I John and Bosom Of Abraham.

It would be over a year before another album of material from the sessions was released. In the meantime there were two live albums, At Madison Square Garden and Aloha From Hawaii, the concert film Elvis On Tour and the number two single Burning Love, which suffered the embarrassing fate of being the lead track on the budget album, Burning Love And Hits From The Movies. Well done again Colonel Parker!! How one of his best singles in years was allowed to end up on a budget release with movie songs was typical of how badly managed Elvis career was.

Originally planned with the title Fool, to cash in on the success of the recent single, the next album used the well-used title Elvis and was another thrown together collection with no direction. Along with both sides of the new single there was a live recording of It's Impossible and from the 1971 sessions, Love Me, Love The Life I Lead, Padre, (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me and an edited version of Dylan's Don't Think Twice , It's All Right, edited down to just under 3 minutes.  Desperate for material to include, RCA also added the three tracks featuring Elvis alone at the piano. I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen, It's Still Here and I Will Be True. Whether they were ever intended for release previously, and there is no question that they are worthwhile songs and deserved a release,  their inclusion here just shows the lack of interest and thought in Elvis releases. Once again a live image adorned the cover, something that had become the norm and in no way represented the material included. The results... poor sales and a low-chart placing once again.

It is a shame that most of the non-gospel/Christmas material was thrown away on Elvis Now and Fool. The idea of a folk album was definitely a step in the right direction for Elvis and would have made a better follow-up to Elvis Country than the 'throw-away' Love Letters album.

Many of the tracks were songs that Elvis would sing at home with his friends including Fools Rush In and I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen. These tracks, along with those by Dylan, Kristofferson, Lightfoot and McColl all deserved a better fate.

In the years following Elvis' death in 1977 many alternate and unreleased tracks have appeared on albums and box sets including Walk A Mile In My Shoes - The Essential 70s Masters, Platinum - A Life In Music and A Hundred Years From Now.

With the advent of the Follow That Dream label the archives would be plundered for almost every piece of recorded sound available from the session tapes. Before the start of the 'Classic Album' series there were releases like I Sing All Kinds and Easter Special which included many outtakes from the 1971 Nashville sessions. When the original albums were reissued as 2-CD sets on the FTD label they included even more alternate and unreleased material.

The latest release to feature material from 1971 is Back In Nashville, the follow up to the critically acclaimed From Elvis In Nashville set from 2020. Once again it is a 4-CD set presented in a slip-case with a booklet. The tracks have been mixed and remastered from the original sessions tapes by Matt Ross-Spang.

CDs 1 & 2 of the set feature the pop, country and folk songs along with the gospel and Christmas tracks. The other two CDs bring together a selection of outtakes/alternate versions. There are many highlights... Fools Rush In, Until It's Time For You To Go, I'm Leavin', Early Morning Rain, Merry Christmas Baby and the unedited version of Don't Think Twice It's All Right. The three tracks with just Elvis at the piano are also great and when listening it is a shame he didn't record an album featuring him alone at the piano.

Like the previous release, From Elvis In Nashville, there are a handful of unreleased tracks, He Touched Me, An Evening Prayer, I'll Be Home On Christmas Day (remake) and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face although many are incomplete takes. A 15-second fragment of Are You Lonesome Tonight? is listed as unissued but was actually included, albeit not listed, on the FTD classic album release of Elvis Now.

One of the selling points of last years Elvis In Nashville set was the decision, on the masters, to show Elvis and the musicians how they actually sounded in the studio, minus the additional overdubs added later. Unfortunately on Back In Nashville they have also removed the backing vocalists who were present in the studio with Elvis when the masters were recorded. I feel it was wrong to remove them as Elvis wanted backing singers present during the recordings and so they should not have been removed. I cannot understand the reasoning behind this.

Throughout the seventies Elvis' recorded output suffered from over-production that did him no favours but at least on this release, despite my comments above, it is good to hear the songs minus the overdubbed strings.

Once again the packaging is excellent. Presented in an 8x8 slipcase with the four CDs housed in an eight-panel wallet with images of relevant tape boxes. The 28-page booklet includes liner notes by Ernst Mikael Jorgensen and David Cantwell, comprehensive track listings detailing recording dates, chart positions and a wealth of photos, album covers, record company ads and memorabilia.

Although Elvis would work with many of the musicians again, 1971 was the last time he recorded in Nashville. Future sessions would be held at Stax Studios in Memphis, the RCA Studios in Los Angeles and, when his touring schedule became so time-consuming and his refusal to go into the studio, RCA recorded his final two albums in the Jungle Room at his Graceland home in Memphis.

Despite my comments about the way the material is presented on this new release it hasn't spoilt my enjoyment of the tracks and it is a worthwhile and great follow-up to From Elvis In Nashville.

With thanks to David Cox (LD Communications)