Two Welcome Introductions to Johnny Cash--Rocker

Most pop fans won’t have trouble understanding why the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Bobby (Blue) Bland, Booker T. & the MGs, the Isley Brothers, Sam & Dave and the Yardbirds are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next week--even if they’ve never heard any records by the artists.

The singers and musicians are part of the blues, R&B; or mainstream rock traditions that define rock to the modern listener.

But some young fans may wonder just why 600 or so critics, musicians and record executives voted to include another artist in the induction ceremonies Wednesday night in New York.

That’s because Johnny Cash is known almost exclusively today as a country artist, and country artists are so ignored by pop and rock radio programmers that it is sometimes hard to realize that country played an important part in the ‘50s in the birth of rock.

Cash has maintained more allegiance over the years to country than to rock, but he started off at Sun Records in Memphis in the ‘50s, recording with and touring with many of the artists who helped shape rock and, more specifically, its rockabilly strain.

The other key members of the Sun team--Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins--have already been inducted in the Hall of Fame, and Cash’s place, too, is well deserved.

Besides his own hard-edged, ‘50s rock or rockabilly recordings, from “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Big River” to “Get Rhythm” and “Home of the Blues,” Cash also demonstrated an independence and artistic ambition in his subsequent Columbia recordings that influenced a wide range of rock artists, including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

Cash was one of the first country or rock artists to popularize concept albums and deal aggressively with social commentary.

Though Cash, who’ll be 60 next month, has released dozens of albums over the years, only a few are available so far in CD. Two compilations, however, are excellent introductions.

“The Sun Years” on Rhino brings together the best of his Sun singles, including all four songs cited above as well as “Guess Things Happen That Way,” which has just been redone by Emmylou Harris in her upcoming live album, and “Ballad of a Teen-Age Queen.”

“Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and San Quentin” on Columbia brings together Cash’s two best-selling live albums from the late ‘60s on one disc.