Bloom does not shy away from strong opinions, so many readers either love or hate him. Looking past the bluster, he is erudite and his prefaces to the poets and poems are usually interesting and often enlightening. He asserts that this book was a labor-of-love; his stated goal was to produce the anthology he has "always wanted to possess." Given this goal, it is hard to quibble with much of his selection, though much of it will already exist in your library if you are a serious reader of Poetry. If you are not, this book will serve as an excellent introduction to pre-Modern Poetry written in English.

Why Pre-Modern? Because Bloom limits himself to poets born before 1900. This seems like a silly restriction on a book that purports to be the "Best Poems of the English Language". The list of poets this excludes is extensive, but excludes Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Bishop, Theodore Roethke, Philip Larkin, Derek Walcott. Unfortunately, Dr. Bloom does not explain his choice to end with Hart Crane, but does add that if he didn't the book would include poets from Canada, the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. As it is, all poets are English or American - or Americans who wished they were English. This restriction also results in the book containing no black poets and only 11 women (with mainly short selections).

Bloom is steadfast in his rejection of "extrapoetic" reasons for including a poem: "Literary history is irrelevant... as are all considerations of political correctness or incorrectness. The best poems published by women before 1923 are here, chosen entirely on the basis of their aesthetic value." This may partially explain his choice of 1900, it helps avoid these considerations. It also avoids the editorial choices necessary to keep the book from becoming 2000 pages.

He also maintains that, "The best poetry in English, until this very day, is by Chaucer and Shakespeare..." Arguable, but illustrative of what to expect from this book: a selection of great, but traditional, English language Poetry.

So, the poems are [mostly] great and I enjoy Dr. Bloom's commentary, but do find fault with the arbitrary exclusion of many great poems produced in the 20th century, including works by minorities and poets from other English-speaking countries.

Don't get me wrong, I love Johnny Cash and like this set a great deal, but will admit its flaws.

I would say that this set is pretty much for Cash collectors and not for a casual interest. I recommend it highly for the former, hardly for the latter. It captures a stage in a performer's life that rarely gets attention - the twilight years - and for that alone it is valuable, but the 4 standard American CD's do this as well.

First, the good points:
1) Tremendous liner notes.
2) There are perhaps 20 songs that you have to wonder how they were excluded from the regular releases. These include: Just The Other Side, Singer of Songs, Pocohontas, Hard Times, Caretaker

Then, the bad:
1) The 5th disk is superfluous and serves only to raise the cost.
2) Alternate versions are inferior versions - almost always. There is a reason the released version was used; see Bird On A Wire.
3) Some tracks are just bad and were better left in the can: He Stopped Loving Her, Walk Alone, Salty Dog
4) For some songs, better versions already exist in Cash's catalog: Flesh and Blood, L&N (on Silver)
5) The 4th disk is really for a limited audience; mostly moldy old gospel songs. Maybe 4 of these grab my attention, the others just morph into one another.
6) Some songs we just don't need another version of: Long Black Veil, T for Texas.
7) The cardboard sleeves suck! You can't get the disks out of the sleeves without fingerprints and friction.

The bottom line is that this would have made a great 2 CD set, but for a Cash collector some of the less good material is also interesting. The 4th (Hymns) disk should have been issued separately for anyone with that interest; the 5th shouldn't be there at all. If you listen carefully, you can hear the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

The band is tight and contributes plenty interesting moments. I've always admired Hag for stepping outside the confines of traditional country arrangements (adding horns for example) and having the wisdom of assembling great players and letting them play.

Bookmarked by perfect, melancholy songs, "Footlights" and "Roses In the Winter", my favorites also have to include "Driftwood", for its great flat picking, and "Heaven Was A Drink of Wine", for its witty pathos.

This album showcases Hag at his best and it just doesn't get any better. It belongs in everyone's CD cabinet.

I don't even think the concept was worthwhile. He would have been better advised to work a couple of these moldy-oldies into albums of original material.

I *am* a die-hard Lennon fan, but would rather this project had been left in the can.

Note: there are other songs from this session available - "Angel Baby" is one - they are no better.

*Hell & High Water - were they aware that they were borrowing the melody of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" ? Choruses sound out-of-place, but otherwise the song is OK
*Mystery Woman - more Pop than most ABB songs, but one of the better tunes on the disc
From The Madness Of the West - very derivative of "Jessica", but lacking a real spark, almost sounds like an ABB imitation
*I Got A Right To Wrong - has the ABB sound, the best song on this CD
Angeline - flat arrangement, more worthy of Lynyrd Skynyrd, weak lyrics, good drumming
Famous Last Words - awful background chorus, very bad song
Brothers of the Road - the ABB do The Charlie Daniels Band? Fiddles?
*Leavin' - pretty good, the sound is here starts to sound like their '90s work
Straight From The Heart - awful pop song, sounds like bad Doobie Brothers
*The Judgment - different, not bad, hard country-rock
Never Knew How Much - stoopid background choruses, not enough (any?) band, vapid sax solo, could be improved by a better arrangement

* indicates the songs I consider decent, though none are great

I agree with the assessment that Arista was looking for another Doobie Brothers. It's odd what expectations can do; I would like these songs better on a Marshall Tucker Band or Outlaws disc, but the ABB were capable of so much more. Almost the whole CD sounds like an ABB imitation, the solos are derivative of older - and better - songs, the lyrics are rehashes, the arrangements are often too pop sounding. Some cuts have the characteristic ABB drum sound, guitar scale bridges and vocal growling, but it sounds perfunctory. Being a longtime ABB fanatic, I want to totally hate this CD, but it is listenable - just not inspired. Approaching this as a Country-Rock disc and not a typical ABB disc allows objectivity, but hearing merely OK material from a great band is a let down. I can't say that I'll play it much.