How To Buy Johnny Cash

COLLECTING ALBUMS by Arkansas' Man In Black is a doddle. For starters, he's never made any really bad ones. And most of the essential stuff on the four labels to which he's been signed is readily available. With many artists, early material can prove an embarrassment, a source for cheapo labels to pick up best-forgotten pubescent meanderings and formulate reissues invariably dressed in deceptive up-to-date packaging. Scott Walker and Paul Simon are among those who'll vouch to the problems arising from such an approach.