Love the Man in Black
I don't understand why these three CDs didn't have the Life Cd included in the set. But I love all of Johnny's music. Haven't heard a bad one yet and I hav A LOT of Johnny, June, the Highwaymen and I'm currently building on my Rosanne collection. She's the one who inhereted "the gift".

Not your average compilation
I must disagree with the reviewer who asserts that the themed discs fail to cohere. I'm not sure if the reviewer is aware of this or not, but these discs weren't just slapped together by the record label - Cash hand-picked these himself. It's not a best-of collection in the strictest sense. It's Johnny Cash's personal favorites on three of the dominant themes of his oeuvre. In that sense, the song selection is extremely interesting. We may never know why every specific song was included here, but suffice it to say they each carry a special significance for Cash.

As for the recording quality, I found this collection to be quite acceptable. One reviewer complains that the tracks are mono records with little remastering. Remastering is most helpful when cleaning up old and damaged recordings. To create a stereo mix out of monaural source material is, to me at least, akin to the hideous colorization of black and white films. The recording sounds of the day are part of the music's charm.

My one criticism concerns the "essays" included. They consist of one liner note page each. They feel like an afterthought with nothing very substantial. I was hoping for some interesting commentary on Cash's work, but that was in short supply.

I have personally enjoyed this collection very much. All the more so because it is a collection that Cash wanted to represent himself. It may not flow as nicely as some of the other collections and there may not be exceedingly obvious connections between songs, but it has Cash's personal touch and in that respect, it's amongst my favorite Cash collections.

Highly recommended to those familiar and those new to the man in black.

Great themed release
Just like the title says. Themed discs , 1 for songs of love , 1 for songs of God , and 1 for songs of murder. Great to listen to individually , but for real fun I put the 3 discs on shuffle.....Makes for some interesting song to song sequences!

Want to know Cash? Buy this!
I am a long time fan of Mr. Cash and this covers a lot of ground. A great mix of songs from throughout his impressive history. He was a gifted, half crazy, great American artist and this shows it all. If you are new to Cash this is a great one to start with and it's also a great collection for long time fans like me.

Amazon Must Not Like This Box Set Very Much
Both of the spotlight reviews say that the music in this collection are not so hot. Who listens to country music from the '50s for Stereo? Yeah, so this may not be the best collection of Johnny Cash music, but it comes with fake tattoos. Who doesn't want fake Johnny Cash tattoos? Oh man, they're awesome. You gotta see them. I've got this cool one with a gun on my left bi-cept as I write this. I wish I could show you a picture cus I look really cool. To wrap up- if you are only interested in Johnny Cash's excellent music, you might want to look elsewhere, but if you are in it for the total Johnny Cash experience, you gotta get this set. Don't buy it used unless you can verify you will still get the tats. I wish the new Motley Crux collection came with tats.