The Catholicity of Johnny Cash

The Catholicity of Johnny Cash

Here these days one cannot escape Christian music. It’s everywhere. I’m talking about the sweetly syrupy sappy lyrics that focus on “me and Jesus” and remind us that once saved you’re free, the struggle’s over, the rapture’s at hand, and thank God I’m no longer enslaved to tradition, religion, ritual – especially the long dark arm of Catholicism.
I’m sure I am doing many Christian artists an injustice, but so much of the music has no connection to daily life whatsoever. Listening to some of the songs, one imagines a separate ethereal world where charity and love prevail while the rest of sinful humanity is just waiting to be left behind in a world completely devoid of grace or glory.
In 2003 at the death of Johnny Cash, there was much ado about his musical career. Later I saw the film Walk The Line in early 2006 and that summer our family traveled to Tennessee and North Carolina. In the process I immersed myself in the music of Johnny Cash. I was no stranger to Cash for both my grandfather and dad usually had radios set to the local country station, so there was a certain romanticism associated with the songs. In the process I sought to listen to every recording Johnny Cash ever made. I prefer classical music, Gregorian chant, and Rock and Roll, yet there is something to a lot of the traditional country music and their ballads.
The reason I feel compelled to write this article is due to the effect of listening to his music. I dare say Johnny Cash was a Catholic – even if a lower case catholic. Allow me to explain. One of my favorite songs, found on his album Personal File released posthumously, is “No earthly good.” The song begins:

“Don’t brag about standing or you’ll surely fall …
you’re shining your light, and shine it you should,
but you’re so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good.

If you’re holding heaven, then spread it around.
There’s hungry hands reaching up here from the ground.
Move over and share the high ground where you stood…
so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good.

The gospel ain’t gospel until it is spread
but how can you share it where you got your head?
There’s hands that reach out for a hand if you would…”

What an indictment against some Christians’ ministry which is solely focused upon getting people saved so they can keep a running tally of the number of salvations as they eagerly await the rapture and the destruction of the world.
Another song with a similar theme worth mentioning is “A Half a Mile a Day.” It is written from the perspective of a man who visits a church one evening where several members are witnessing to their salvation. One man reports,

“I’m going to heaven as fast as I can go
like an arrow from a bow.”
Another says,
“I’m sailing into heaven…on a sea of blue,”
Yet another announces,
“I’m flying into the portals of heaven on silver wings!
Sailing over all the troubles and trials down below straight on in.”

Obviously Johnny did not subscribe to this point of view because the last person to stand is a little old lady who claims that she’s making it to heaven about a half a mile a day. The woman admits the difficulties, her stumbling, the way to heaven is not rapid transit. Instead she says

“I believe that if I’ll heed the things he had to say
even I might get to heaven at a half a mile a day.”

No talk of rapture here. She’s too busy living the kingdom. She continues,

“Lord, when I let you lead, I don’t make any speed
because I have to stop and touch the ones who need so much
and then sometimes others pull me off of your narrow way,
and by my mistakes I barely make a half a mile a day.”

Powerful imagery of a Christian concerned for justice and peace.

A poignant scene from Walk the Line involved Johnny’s recording agent and the officials from the record company. The men are concerned that Johnny’s audience – which was, according to the men, predominantly good Christians – would be scandalized by his recording of an album from Folsom Prison. Johnny replied, “Well, then, maybe they’re not really Christian.” Whether or not he actually said it, I do not know, but it would seem to represent his feelings and beliefs for the lost and forsaken of this world.
His signature song Man in Black embodies his credo.

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down.
Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town…
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
but is there because he’s the victim of the times….

“Well were doing mighty fine, I do suppose
in our streak of lighting cars and fancy clothes,
but just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
up front there ought to be a man in black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old.
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold.
I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could’ve been
each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And I wear it for the thousands who have died believing that the Lord was on their side.
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
believing that we all were on their side….”

In “Life is Like a Mountain Railway” he sings,

“Life is like a mountain railway
with an engineer that’s brave.
We must make the run successful
from the cradle to the grave;
heed the curves and watch the tunnels,
never falter, never fail.
Keep your hand upon the throttle
and your hand upon the rail.”

The earthiness of his songs are sacramental encounters with a God who is not far away or just waiting in the wings waiting to swoop down and take the “raptured elect” while the rest of us sorry suckers are left behind to suffer the chaos of tribulation.
In his popular song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” a man awakens after an all night drunk. On his walk home he sings,

“In the park I saw a daddy with a laughing little girl that he was swinging
and I stopped beside a Sunday school and listened to the songs they were singing…

then I headed down the street and somewhere far away
a lonely bell was ringing
and it echoed through the canyons of my disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk I’m wishing Lord that I was stoned
‘cause there’s something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothing short of dying that’s half as lonesome as the sound
of the sleeping city sidewalk and Sunday morning comin’ down.”

The song “What on earth will you do for heaven’s sake?” Johnny asks,

“Did you turn a frown with a smile?
Did you lift a lowly heart about to break?
Would you also give your cloak
to one who took away your coat?
What on earth will you do for heaven’s sake?

Did you feed the poor in spirit and befriend the prosecuted?
Will you show the bound that all the chains can break?
Will you be one of the meek,
did you turn the other cheek,
would you give a little more than you would take?
Did you shine your little light upon the children of the night?
What on earth will you do for heaven sake?”

There are many songs with these themes, but of particular interest to Cash seemed to be the plight of the imprisoned. In “Give My Love To Rose” a man recently released from a San Francisco prison is found lying nearly dead along the railroad tracks. The former prisoner asks the passerby to give his love to his wife Rose and his son. I find the version from his American IV: The Man Comes Around album. His voice had aged and the way he sings the song has so much more feeling than from his earlier crooner days.
Other songs such as “Another man done gone”; “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang”; “I Hung My Head”; “I Got Stripes:’ “Busted”; “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town”; “Sam Hall”; “25 Minutes To Go”; Joe Bean; and “Greystone Chapel” all deal with men in prison or men awaiting their execution.
In his American III: Solitary Man he includes the song “Mercy Seat”. The song is about a death row inmate pondering his fate on the very day of his execution. The man claims,
“Well it all began when they took me from my home
and put me on death row –
a crime for which I’m totally innocent, you know.”

The man rambles on and on as his contorted conscience begins to get the best of him.
“…in a way I’m yearning to be done
with all of this weighing of the truth,
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway I told the truth
and I’m not afraid to die.

“I hear stories from the chamber.
Christ was born into a manger
and like some ragged stranger
he died upon the cross,
might I say it seems so fitting in its way
he was a carpenter by trade,

or at least that’s what I’m told...
In heaven his throne is made of gold
The ark of his testament is stowed a throne of which I’m told
all history does unfold…

“It’s made of wood and wire
and my body is on fire
and God is never far away….

into the mercy seat I climb,
my head is shaved my head is wired
and like the moth that tries to enter the bright light,
I go shuffling out of life
just to hide in death awhile
and anyway I never lied.
And the mercy seat is waiting
and I think my head is burning…

“And the mercy seat is burning
and I think my head is glowing,
and in a way I’m hoping to be done
with all of this twisting of the truth,
an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway there was no proof,
and I’m not afraid to die.

“And the mercy seat is glowing,
and I think my head is smoking,
and in a way I’m a hoping to be done
with all these looks of disbelief,
a life for a life and a truth for a truth,
and I’ve got nothing left to lose
and I’m not afraid to die.

“And the mercy seat is smoking
and I think my head is melting,
and in a way that’s helping
to be done with all this twisting
of the truth, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth,
and anyway I told the truth but I’m afraid I told a lie.”

Regardless of where one stands on the issue of capital punishment, the song truly rouses the listener’s conscience.
The song “The Green, Green Grass of Home,” affirms the goodness of creation and the human longing for home, as told through the eyes of a condemned man within his cell.
Johnny Cash’s music is rooted in the good earth and embodies an Incarnational theology that echoes John’s gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
Cash even sang the popular tune Paradise.

“Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muehlenberg County,
down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
‘I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in asking.
Mr. Peabody’s coal train done hauled it away.”
“The coal company came with the world’s largest shovel,
stripped all the timber and tortured the land.
They dug for the coal till the land was forsaken,
wrote it all down to the progress of Man.”

Such lyrics certainly evince an attitude of reverence for the earth and natural resources, especially the tongue in cheek reference to “the progress of man” and the overt adjective of torture.
A.P. Carter’s song “Keep on the Sunny Side of Life,” encourages us that good will conquer evil. There is no need for despair or hopelessness. The paschal mystery of Christ promises life, hope, and goodness. The words continue:

“Though we meet with the darkness and strife,
the sunny side we may also view.
Let us greet with a song of hope each day,
though the moments be cloudy or fair,
let us trust that our savior always
will keep us everyone in his care.”

“Oh, the storm in its fury broke today,
crushing hopes that I cherish so dear,
storms and clouds will in time pass away
and the sun again will shine bright and clear.”

We hear a man singing about a God who loves all of his creation, as charged with his grandeur. But this is no Pollyanna approach to life, neither is it an escapist theology based upon the preaching of prosperity and a promise of rapture when the going gets tough.

Cash’s music is pious-free and Catholic friendly. Even two of his last songs, “The Man Comes Around” – which seems to be influenced by all the talk of rapture – and the traditional “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” both deserve to be listened to for within them contain ageless truths.
Johnny admits in the liner notes that the song The Man Comes Around was a difficult song and it took him a long time to write; it is about Christ’s Second Coming. In one line he asks,

“Will you partake of that last offered cup
or disappear into the potter’s ground,
when the Man comes around?”

In this I hear a Eucharistic theme – intended or not. In the Book of Revelation Jesus speaks:
“I stand at your door and knock. If you open the door I will come in and sup with him and him with me.”
In John’s Gospel Jesus says,
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst…Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (Jn 6:35, 53-55, italics mine).
Christ is with us, and throughout Johnny Cash’s career his songs challenged the status quo and called us to see the worth of every human being, even the men in prison, the men on death row, those killed on both sides of war or the tragic end of the native American Ira Hayes (one of the marines who lifted the flag at Iwo Jima).
“God’s gonna cut you down” may seem harsh to Catholic ears, but the truth is that one day we will all die and render an account to God for the gift of our life. As Saint Benedict wrote; Keep death ever before you.

“You can run on for a long time…
sooner of later God’ll cut you down.

Go tell that long-tongue liar,
go and tell that midnight rider,
the rambler, the gambler,
the back-biter,
tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down.”

Is this not the hound of heaven? It is written in Ezekiel 33 that if we fail to call the sinner to repentance we will be held accountable for his sinfulness. As the song says, “What is done in the dark will be brought to the light…” We are our brother and sister’s keepers. We must foster the common good and pursue peace through justice.
I would have liked for Johnny Cash to have sung a few traditional Catholic hymns before his death, but, alas, we will have to be content knowing that he is now singing them in heaven. Imagine Johnny singing “Whatsoever you do,” “We are the light of the World,” Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” or “I Am the Bread of Life.”

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do to unto me.”

The hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, weary, anxious, imprisoned, soldiers, war veterans, orphaned, abandoned, aged, insulted, and lonely took heart in Johnny’s songs. It was to the poor in spirit, the meek and humble, those mourning in sorrow, those hungering and thirsting for justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted that Johnny sang for. Sowing love in place of hatred, preaching pardon and peace in the face of injury and war, hope and joy in place of despair and sadness, and self-giving and faith rather than selfishness or doubt were his messages. And he took all of these themes from the gospel message.
Hence the catholicity of Johnny Cash’s music comes through in the sense of God’s sacramental presence in the world around us, the commitment to both faith and human reason, an emphasis upon the communal aspect of our baptismal call and a love for the saints – and sinners.
May we all keep on the sunny side of life, greeting each and every day with a song of hope, knowing that through the storms of life Christ is with us. And when Christ comes to raise our mortal bodies, may we awaken in the sweet by and by of the peaceful valley of paradise, meeting on that beautiful shore of the banks of Jordan our loved ones and the communion of saints with whom we have journeyed unaware.