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02/21/2003 Archived Entry: "Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around"

FORGIVE ME FATHER: For I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

I got Johnny Cash's most recent album, American IV: The Man Comes Around, yesterday and I have to say that I'm very unhappy. Cash is 70 years old and he hasn't got too many more years to crank out the amazing stuff he's been doing since signing with American Records. American IV proves once again that the Man in Black is one of the most important singer/songwriters in American history. Each album from him these days is truly a gift.

American IV opens with The Man Comes Around, a song written by Cash which is filled with Apocalyptic imagery about the last days when the Earth sees a return of the Kingdom of God. It then moves into one of the more unlikely covers I've heard, Trent Reznor's (Nine Inch Nails) Hurt. In fact, American IV is filled with unlikely covers. Depeche Mode is one band I blame for destroying music in the 1980s yet Cash's cover of Personal Jesus is truly a masterpiece. If there's anything bad on this album it's Cash's rendition of Oh Danny Boy. He does it fine but I think a moratorium has to be placed on this song. Enough people have done it. Enough already.

Reading the liner notes and listening to the album I'm struck by how religious Cash really is (Hey, he was on an episode of Touched by an Angel, an execrable show I only watched because he was on it). He opens his personal note in the notes by thanking God for both being alive and for his wife, the superb June Carter Cash. He recounts a dream he had of visiting Buckingham Palace and having the Queen recite a line from the Book of Job. He may have been stuck in Folsom Prison but it's likely he spent a lot of time in its chapel.

I've long thought that Johnny Cash would make the perfect priest. Has he sinned? Damn right, though probably nowhere near what the public thinks – he's made it to 70 years of age after all. But who knows God better than the sinner? (ref. fallen angels Satan and Moloch) Cash has lived. He understands the darker side of humanity and yet his faith in a higher power is proof that he also believes in the beauty of humanity. I can see him minister to his flock and understand their sins only because he knows what sinning is.