Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
p. I don’t really like country music. That is, I don’t really like country music as a genre — I do like some “country artists (Steve Earle - Jerusalem)”:http://www.rousette.org.uk/mt-static/blog/archives/000128.html as individuals. ‘The Man Comes Around’ is an interesting album of some original tracks and some covers, performed in Johnny’s inimitable style — and now rather ageing voice. Some tracks I love, and some I hate (nothing can make me like “We’ll meet again” — the Vera Lynn song).
p. The stand out track for me is “Hurt”. It’s a really bitter song about loss and regret and disappointment. The video suggests that Johnny sees a religious theme in it too, but you can read it either way. This is where his ageing voice comes into its own: when he sings,
bq. “I hurt myself today to see if I still feel” and “Everyone I know goes away in the end”
p. you can tell that he really knows what that means. It’s a very powerful song. “Personal Jesus” is also great. If you’d told me that Johnny Cash singing a Depeche Mode song would be good, I would probably have told you that you were mad, but it just works somehow. It’s certainly an interesting album, and one that is somewhat different to my usual listening. Sometimes a change is as good as a rest…
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I'm also not really a fan of country and have been disappointed by most of the covers and tributes of Nine Inch Nails. But when I listened to and saw the video of Cash's cover of Hurt, I was moved. The song was depressing with Trent singing it, it's even more so with Cash's older tired voice. You can watch the video in quicktime format at the director's site:
http://www.markromanek.com/video/14.html
by Ryan Eby @ 06/04/2003 6:04 pm • Permalink •
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