Gonna Cut You Down
When the film "Walk the Line" came out, I wrote a post about how strange it was for me to see the media's "re-creation" of the man's legacy. Turns out all those testimonies alongside Billy Graham in packed stadiums never actually happened. (Joel of Chez Joel picked up on that phenomenon as well.)
So it was so sincerely gratifying to again find out I'm not the only one. A new Johnny Cash video (caution: this link will launch iTunes) popped up on iTunes last week, and I (well, my musical alter ego, Shatterglass) just had to post my two cents to counter the quartet of five-star reviews. I was prepared for a brutal flaming, but lo and behold: a number of reviewers started to weigh in on my side of the balance.
Don't misunderstand: this is a ten-star recording. But c'mon...the offense of "Walk the Line" is multiplied here exponentially. Who should appear in a posthumous video? Turns out, even leftist celeb in Hollywood. Reverend Billy Who? I don't know about you, but when I think Johnny Cash, I think Chris Rock, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Dennis Hopper, and, of course, Justin Timberlake.
The irony, of course, is that the song, "God's Gonna Cut You Down," has everything to do with the fact that there are no celebrities in the eyes of God. Sadly, we non-celebs don't even get the guity pleasure of seeing them cut down; the makeup is minimal, though, so seeing one carefully calculated non-glamourous frame is your own gift from the celeb-gods, like when Madonna was caught up in the message of the first Live Aid and didn't bother to dye her hair for her performance.
I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and claim I always was a huge Johnny Cash fan (before it was cool), but no lie: I miss the man more and more every day.
So it was so sincerely gratifying to again find out I'm not the only one. A new Johnny Cash video (caution: this link will launch iTunes) popped up on iTunes last week, and I (well, my musical alter ego, Shatterglass) just had to post my two cents to counter the quartet of five-star reviews. I was prepared for a brutal flaming, but lo and behold: a number of reviewers started to weigh in on my side of the balance.
Don't misunderstand: this is a ten-star recording. But c'mon...the offense of "Walk the Line" is multiplied here exponentially. Who should appear in a posthumous video? Turns out, even leftist celeb in Hollywood. Reverend Billy Who? I don't know about you, but when I think Johnny Cash, I think Chris Rock, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Dennis Hopper, and, of course, Justin Timberlake.
The irony, of course, is that the song, "God's Gonna Cut You Down," has everything to do with the fact that there are no celebrities in the eyes of God. Sadly, we non-celebs don't even get the guity pleasure of seeing them cut down; the makeup is minimal, though, so seeing one carefully calculated non-glamourous frame is your own gift from the celeb-gods, like when Madonna was caught up in the message of the first Live Aid and didn't bother to dye her hair for her performance.
I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and claim I always was a huge Johnny Cash fan (before it was cool), but no lie: I miss the man more and more every day.
Labels: Johnny Cash
1 Comments:
Ah, so *you're* Shatterglass. :-) I didn't watch the video, but upon seeing the picture accompanying it I thought, "What the hell is that bimbo Natalie Maines doing in the video?" Then I read your review and I realized it was a bunch of celebrities "honoring" Johnny Cash by lip-synching to one of this songs. And Justin Timberlake? Gimme a break!
I rented "Walk the Line" from Netflix and we (my Mom, my sister and I) watched it on Thanksgiving. It was a good movie, but I too was disappointed that they almost completely ignored the important part that faith played in Cash's life. The only places it's even mentioned are when he wants to sing gospel at first and later when he's shown going to church with June after he gets off drugs.
My Mom expected to see the famous story of Cash getting lost in the cave and wondered why it wasn't in the movie.
When I rated the movie on Netflix, I deducted a star because of the fact that the movie ignores his faith.
Post a Comment
<< Home