# Johnny Cash singing about reincarnation?



## shackleton (Aug 18, 2007)

[video=youtube;EHz65a80tuQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHz65a80tuQ&mode[/video]

They all die one way or another and state that they still live 

Here are the lyrics,
I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
*But I am still alive.*

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
*But I am living still.*

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
*But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around*

I fly a starship across the Universe divide
*And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again..*


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## Ivan (Aug 18, 2007)

I've often wondered what Cash was thinking when he recorded this song. Maybe it was a group thing. 

BTW, who wrote the song?


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## Ivan (Aug 18, 2007)

The song, _The Highwaymen _, was written by Jimmy Webb, who also wrote _By the Time I Get to Phoenix_ and _Up, Up and Away_. Born in Oklahoma, he is the son of a Baptist preacher.

From what I can gather the song is about reincarnation.


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## Contra_Mundum (Aug 18, 2007)

Cash was a complicated person. He claimed to have been born again. And like many "artists", he seemed to think he was exempted from the rules most people follow. He had to experience the feelings, the sins, so he might write about them authentically.

I think he had a synthetic spirituality. He was "basically" Christian in his religious outlook. He probably thought "this is truth for me." But people who think there is "truth" in other faiths will give place to what "sounds good" to them from the other faiths. Whoever does not feel obliged to follow "rules" won't feel much beholden to a "systematic theology," a coherent, integrated theology of the Scriptures, that in the end excludes all alien religious thought as FALSE. So in the end, I only hope the core of his faith was not so fragmented that it could not survive his soul-transit. Not "did he have a hold firm enough on Christ?" but "did Christ have hold of him?"

So, yes, I think this is a song about reincarnation, a non-Christian, even anti-Christian element of some eastern religions. And it may be a "good song" done well, as only a master bard could do it, a craftsman. Is he telling a tale of something HE _in part_ believes? Or is he simply telling a tale (somewhat hopelessly) that describes a world that has no trancendence? I think, if there is any "truth" in the song, it is the latter--to put it in my own words, NO ESCAPE from the endless repetition, I'll be back to *live *over and over because I keep *dying *"again and again and again and...."

Contrast that with our faith that teaches:
"For it is appointed unto man *once *to die, and after this, the Judgment."


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## Ivan (Aug 18, 2007)

Contra_Mundum said:


> Cash was a complicated person.



That is an understatement! As I recall he was an ordained minister. I'm afraid to investigate from which church. I'm afraid I already know, if memory serves. I believe he had some pentecostal tendencies too.



> I think he had a synthetic spirituality.



Very much so. A tad new age, pentecostalism, arminian. Quite a mixed bag, I suspect.



> And it may be a "good song" done well, as only a master bard could do it, a craftsman. Is he telling a tale of something HE _in part_ believes? Or is he simply telling a tale (somewhat hopelessly) that describes a world that has no trancendence?



I never liked the song. I don't believe in reincarnation (no surprise there) and I am one who has the tendency to base my judgment on a song by its words and not the "feelings" that may be evoked from a song. 

Many people believe that the words don't matter. I beg to differ. 

However, I still like Johnny Cash.


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## turmeric (Aug 18, 2007)

Wanna get the creeps? Johny Cash DID write this one.

*Redemption*

From the hands it came down 
From the side it came down 
From the feet it came down 
And ran to the ground 
Between heaven and hell 
A teardrop fell In the deep crimson dew 
The tree of life grew

And the blood gave life 
To the branches of the tree 
And the blood was the price 
That set the captives free 
And the numbers that came 
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree 
And were redeemed by the blood

From the tree streamed a light 
That started the fight 'Round the tree grew a vine 
On whose fruit I could dine 
My old friend Lucifer came 
Fought to keep me in chains 
But I saw through the tricks 
Of six-sixty-six

And the blood gave life 
To the branches of the tree 
And the blood was the price 
That set the captives free 
And the numbers that came 
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree 
And were redeemed by the blood

From his hands it came down 
From his side it came down 
From his feet it came down 
And ran to the ground 
And a small inner voice Said "You do have a choice." 
The vine engrafted me 
And I clung to the tree


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## Ivan (Aug 18, 2007)

Very graphic and emotional! I'm surprised Mel Gibson didn't use it for his movie. Maybe he did, as far as I know. 

Well, Meg, no one is saying Cash was a Calvinist.


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## turmeric (Aug 18, 2007)

Ivan said:


> I'm surprised Mel Gibson didn't use it for his movie. Maybe he did, as far as I know.
> .


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## shackleton (Aug 18, 2007)

I remember a song he sang about, when Sunday came he would rather be drunk or high than go to church.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I'd been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking.
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way.

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 a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

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 canyon
Like the 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 a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.


Album Lyrics: The Essential Johnny Cash [2002]


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## Jerusalem Blade (Aug 19, 2007)

He led an erratic life with many backslidings, and some songs may well have been written (& sung and published) during these periods of darkness and confusion. I hope I will see him in glory.

Another mysterious figure is Bob Dylan. One cannot tell (I cannot anyway) what's with him. He was/is greatly loved by many of his generation. I still pray for him.


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## javajedi (Aug 19, 2007)

shackleton said:


> I remember a song he sang about, when Sunday came he would rather be drunk or high than go to church.
> 
> Well, I woke up Sunday morning
> With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
> ...



Kris Kristofferson wrote "Sunday Morning Coming Down" (late 60's/early 70's) and it propelled his career.
I do not think its about a guy who would rather be drunk than in church. To me (we all have opinions) it conveys a deep loneliness and regret. I think its a very moving song.


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## javajedi (Aug 19, 2007)

Yea, Johnny Cash had an interesting life. I too hope to see him in heaven.

This is one of the last songs he wrote - very interesting. You need to hear him sing it.

When The Man Comes Around

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder: One of the four beasts saying: "Come and see." And I saw. And behold, a white horse. 
There's a man goin' 'round takin' names. An' he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won't be treated all the same. There'll be a golden ladder reaching down. When the man comes around. 

The hairs on your arm will stand up. At the terror in each sip and in each sup. For you partake of that last offered cup, Or disappear into the potter's ground. When the man comes around. 

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers. One hundred million angels singin'. Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum. Voices callin', voices cryin'. Some are born an' some are dyin'. It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come. 

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree. The virgins are all trimming their wicks. The whirlwind is in the thorn tree. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 

Till Armageddon, no Shalam, no Shalom. Then the father hen will call his chickens home. The wise men will bow down before the throne. And at his feet they'll cast their golden crown. When the man comes around. 

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still. Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still. Listen to the words long written down, When the man comes around. 

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers. One hundred million angels singin'. Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettle drum. Voices callin', voices cryin'. Some are born an' some are dyin'. It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come. 

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree. The virgins are all trimming their wicks. The whirlwind is in the thorn tree. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 

In measured hundredweight and penny pound. When the man comes around. 

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts, And I looked and behold: a pale horse. And his name, that sat on him, was Death. And Hell followed with him.


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## No Longer A Libertine (Aug 19, 2007)

Maybe he was in his drug use stage, like Elvis I think Johnny was in the end a believer but one that made very poor and costly decisions for much of their lives.


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