May 5, 2008...2:38 pm
Empire of Dirt: Johnny Cash, Still Preaching
I won’t have much time to post this week because of finals, so I figured I get this out while I have a spare moment.
For those of you that don’t know, I’m a fan of Johnny Cash. And more than likely, so are you. Few men have a more enigmatic feel about them than that late Johnny Cash. A man that can sing “Folsom Prison Blues” like he meant it, and yet also release a record of him reading the entire New Testament (both of which I own) almost defies the imagination. But this man was real. And so is his message…even beyond the grave.
The video below is a music video of the Johnny Cash song “Hurt”, as well as some commentary on Johnny Cash written by Dr. Russell Moore from an article he wrote in the December 2005 issue of Touchstone Magazine.
“Johnny Cash is dead, and there will never be another. But all around us there are empires of dirt, and billions of self-styled emperors marching toward judgment.
Perhaps if Christian churches modeled themselves more after Johnny Cash, and less after perky Christian celebrities such as Kathy Lee Gifford, we might find ourselves resonating more with the MTV generation. Maybe if we stopped trying to be “cool,” and stopped hiring youth ministers who are little more than goateed game-show hosts, we might find a way to connect with a generation that understands pain and death more than we think.
Perhaps if we paid more attention to the dark side of life, a dark side addressed in divine revelation, we might find ourselves appealing to men and women in black. We might connect with men and women who know what it’s like to feel like fugitives from justice, even if they’ve never been to jail. We might offer them an authentic warning about what will happen when the Man comes around.
And, as we do this, we just might hear somewhere up in the cloud of witnesses a voice that once cried in the wilderness: “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” (…read the rest of Dr. Moore’s article here)
10 Comments
May 5, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Cash was such a rare breed. Hurt is a haunting song, pariticularly when coupled witht ehvideo and cash’s life story. thanks for this post. I wrote a post called “Cash Got Grace” on my blog not long ago here is the link if you want to check it out and let me know what you think:
http://anuncommongrace.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/cash-got-grace
In Christ Alone,
Darian
May 5, 2008 at 7:05 pm
FYI: Hurt is actually a Nine Inch Nails song, written by Trent Reznor.
I don’t know anything about the guy. I can only name 2-3 songs by him and was so surprised when I met people in college who knew all about him. I feel so deprived… I need to marry into a family with some J Cash fans so I get exposed to it.
May 5, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Yes I knew that. Which makes it all the more amzing that Cash’s interpretation of it is the one that seems to have struck a cord with the larger culture.
May 5, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Glad someone caught the Nine Inch Nails part. Gotta give credit where it’s due.
When Cash covered that song, I didn’t know what to think about it. But, like you, I ended up diggin’ it. Also good from that same album: The Man Comes Around. A crazy song about judgment, showing Cash’s willingness to accept the hard truths about the end in such phrases as, “There’s a man goin’ round, takin’ names. He decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same.”
Hizzank…we may have reached common ground on music…finally.
May 6, 2008 at 12:44 am
Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen…
I think you underestimates what it means for Johnny Cash to “cover” a song. It’s like Tiger Woods using your golf clubs to win the Masters - nobody cares who clubs they are - everyone just sits and marvels at how Tiger can make ‘em hit so good…
May 6, 2008 at 10:29 am
I Love your way of putting that!! Exactely.
May 6, 2008 at 11:26 am
The only problem being that if the clubs weren’t in Tiger’s hand, the ball wouldn’t go anywhere.
Whoa…that sounds semi-existential.
May 6, 2008 at 1:03 pm
The point is, my semi-existential friend, that if Tiger didn’t use your clubs, then he’d use somebody else’s. The fact that he decides to use yours, while interesting, has no actual bearing on their ultimate performance. Thus, NIN should be content to sit in the shadows of the Man in Black…and do it with a smile on their face.
May 12, 2008 at 7:50 pm
The part at the end where he hammers the piano and interposes Christ’s Crucifixion says everything…..
I think you hit the nail on the head, the man was transparent, who he was…was who was. He didn’t hide behind a veil of righteousness. This was man who was brutally honest, and that is one of the freedoms that comes from the Gospel.
May 12, 2008 at 7:53 pm
FYI when Trent Reznor from NIN heard Cash’s version he made some remark to the effect that he said, “This Cash’s song now, he did better than I could”.
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