MUSIC MONDAY “Sink the Bismark” is a march song by American country music singer Johnny Horton and songwriter Tillman Franks, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the Germanbattleship Bismarck in May 1941, during World War II. Horton released this song through Columbia Records in 1960, when it reached #3 on the charts

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Sink the Bismark

Article Talk
This article is about the song by Johnny Horton. For the film, see Sink the Bismarck! For other uses, see Sink the Bismarck (disambiguation).

“Sink the Bismark” (later “Sink the Bismarck“) is a march song by American country music singer Johnny Horton and songwriter Tillman Franks, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the Germanbattleship Bismarck in May 1941, during World War II. Horton released this song through Columbia Records in 1960, when it reached #3 on the charts. As originally released, the record label used the common misspelling “Bismark”; this error was corrected for later releases of the song. It was inspired by the 1960 British war movie Sink the Bismarck! and was in fact (with the producer John Brabourne‘s approval) commissioned from Johnny Horton by 20th Century Fox who were worried about the subject’s relative obscurity in the United States. For some reason the size comparisons of guns and shells are switched. While the song was used in U.S. theater trailers for the film, it was not used in the film itself.

“Sink the Bismark (Sink the Bismarck)”

The photo on the “45” Columbia record jacket is from the movie, but depicts the model of HMS Prince of Wales made for the movie. The models made for this movie are closely modeled after their real-life counterparts.
Single by Johnny Horton
B-side “The Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me”
Released 1960
Genre Country, Novelty
Length 3:12
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Johnny Horton and Tilman Franks
Producer(s) Don Law[1]
Johnny Horton singles chronology
“Sal’s Got a Sugar Lip”
(1959)		 “Sink the Bismark (Sink the Bismarck)”
(1960)		 “Johnny Freedom”
(1960)

Chart performanceEdit

Chart (1960) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot C&W Sides[2] 6
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[3] 3
Canadian CHUM Chart [4] 1

Blues Brothers recordingEdit

The song was later recorded by The Blues Brothersfor a scene in the movie, The Blues Brothers, but was cut out.[5]

Cover versionsEdit

  • In the UK the song was a hit for Don Lang also in 1960, where it peaked at #43.[6]

Bernie Taupin wrote in the first chapter of his autobiography:

Johnny Horton was the first artist who had cut through the pabulum churned out on the BBC. Songs like “North to Alaska,” “The Battle of New Orleans,” and “Sink the Bismarck” were narratives that stood out among the bland pop dreck that made up the majority of the typical playlists. The life changer, though, was Marty Robbins’s bittersweet cowboy ballad “El Paso.” This was the blue touch paper and led to his 1959 album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, which became the first album I ever owned. It remains to this day the single most influential record of my early years before The Band’s Music from Big Pink encouraged me to follow my instincts in 1968. When it came to the crunch, I knew I wanted to write stories.

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THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

Article Talk
For other uses, see Battle of New Orleans (disambiguation).

“The Battle of New Orleans” is a song written by Jimmy Driftwood. The song describes the Battle of New Orleans from the perspective of an American soldier; the song tells the tale of the battle with a light tone and provides a rather comical version of what actually happened at the battle. It has been recorded by many artists, but the singer most often associated with this song is Johnny Horton. His version scored number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 (see 1959 in music). Billboard ranked it as the No. 1 song for 1959, it was very popular with teenagers in the late 1950s/early 1960s in an era mostly dominated by rock and roll music.

“The Battle of New Orleans”
Single by Johnny Horton
B-side “All for the Love of a Girl”
Released April 6, 1959
Recorded 1959
Genre
Length 2:33
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Jimmy Driftwood
Producer(s) Don Law
Johnny Horton singles chronology
“When It’s Springtime in Alaska (It’s Forty Below)”
(1959)		 “The Battle of New Orleans”
(1959)		 “Johnny Reb”
(1959)

Horton’s version began with the quoting of the first 12 notes of the song “Dixie,” by Daniel Emmett. It ends with the sound of an officer leading a count off in marching, as the song fades out.

In Billboard magazine’s rankings of the top songs in the first 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, “The Battle of New Orleans” was ranked as the 28th song overall[2] and the number-one country music song to appear on the chart.[3]

Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[4]

HistoryEdit

The melody is based on a well-known American fiddle tune “The 8th of January,” which was the date of the Battle of New Orleans. Jimmy Driftwood, a school principal in Arkansas with a passion for history, set an account of the battle to this music in an attempt to get students interested in learning history.[5] It seemed to work, and Driftwood became well known in the region for his historical songs. He was “discovered” in the late 1950s by Don Warden, and eventually was given a recording contract by RCA, for whom he recorded 12 songs in 1958, including “The Battle of New Orleans.”[6]“The Battle of New Orleans” is often played during North American sporting events.

Chart performanceEdit

Other versionsEdit

Covers and remakesEdit

Johnny Horton’s 1959 version is the best-known recording of the song, which omits the mild expletives and many of the historical references of the original. Horton also recorded an alternative version for release in British Commonwealth countries, avoiding the unfavorable lyrics concerning the British: the word “British” was replaced with “Rebels,” along with a few other differences.

Many other artists have recorded this song. Notable versions include the following:

ParodiesEdit

“The Battle of Kookamonga”Edit

“The Battle of Kookamonga”
Single by Homer and Jethro
from the album Homer and Jethro at the Country Club
B-side “Waterloo”
Released 1959
Genre Country, Parody
Length 2:38
Label RCA Victor
Songwriter(s) Jimmy Driftwood, J. J. Reynolds

Country music parodists Homer and Jethro parodied “The Battle of New Orleans” with their song “The Battle of Kookamonga”. The single was released in 1959 and featured production work by Chet Atkins. In this version, the scene shifts from a battleground to a campground, with the combat being changed to the Boy Scouts chasing after the Girl Scouts.

Other parodiesEdit

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Johnny Cash’s Daughter Rosanne Shares Throwback Photo of Late Singer with King Charles: ‘Too Good’

“I expect a lot of captions, but none I haven’t thought of already,” Rosanne Cash tweeted alongside the throwback image of dad Johnny Cash and King Charles

By

Jen Juneau
Published on September 20, 2022 10:02 AM
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Johnny Cash King Charles
King Charles and Johnny Cash. PHOTO: ROSANNE CASH/TWITTER

Rosanne Cash is sharing a never-before-seen photo of dad Johnny Cash and King Charles III.

On Monday, Rosanne, 67, posted the decades-old image of Charles, now 73, and Johnny, who died in 2003 at age 71, sharing a moment asthey stood together, looking off-camera.

“I’ve been debating all day whether or not to post this photo, but it’s just too good to keep under wraps,” wrote Rosanne, who posted the photo amid Queen Elizabeth‘s funeral.

“I expect a lot of captions, but none I haven’t thought of already. But go right ahead,” she added.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

<a href="https://people.com/tag/queen-elizabeth/" data-inlink="true">Queen Elizabeth</a> II Funeral - King Charles
King Charles III. BBC AMERICA

RELATED GALLERY: Guess the Celebrity from the Throwback Photo

King Charles recently became monarch upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, who died at age 96 on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Billy Graham and Johnny Cash

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Billy Graham and Johnny Cash: An Unlikely Friendship

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Steve-O

Image: SLADE Paul / Getty Images

By Tony Carnes

Billy Graham and Johnny Cash were the best of friends, mutual confessors, and fishing buddies. Their wives, Ruth Bell and June Carter, were prayer partners. The two men could sit for hours in the same room without saying a word—Billy working on a book and Johnny on his songs. Once in a while, Johnny would interrupt and try out a song on Billy or ask a question about the Bible. At mealtimes, the families would gather to pray, sing, and eat. Usually the subject moved quickly to family and friends, problems and challenges. Johnny always had a list of friends he wanted Billy to call, while Billy would ask Johnny for advice and prayer for his loved ones.
***
Billy and Johnny had a superficial connection based on their roots in the hardscrabble rural South. They grew up around Baptist churches and barns. Barbecue, cornbread, and pork and beans would set their mouths watering.

On a deeper level, though, their backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. “Johnny came from the wild side, while Billy had never been through that phase. Billy walked the straight and narrow,” observes [Steve] Turner.

Even after his return to faith in 1967, Johnny’s life was pretty bumpy with what he called his “goof-ups.” And when he slipped back into amphetamine usage, he could get out of control. Johnny also felt let down by some of the ministries that he had latched on to for help. Turner says Johnny felt that “some failed him, some exploited him.”
***
So it was Billy’s faithfulness and integrity that Johnny gravi­tated toward. Billy was constant through the years, both in his personal relationship with Johnny and in his theology. Billy didn’t seem to go off on theological tangents at the drop of a dime. “Billy was a beacon to Cash who didn’t change,” says Turner. “Billy remained a stable character.”

When Johnny fell off the wagon, he likely didn’t confide that to Billy, though June may well have shared it with Ruth. The two wives constantly prayed with each other over their husbands and children. Johnny told Turner that in 1977 he was embarrassed that Billy would talk about the biography of the apostle Paul that Johnny was writing, because he was too stoned to even write. In the 1980s, there was a tabloid uproar over claims that Johnny was having an affair and too stoned to appear at two Graham crusades. Johnny denied the drug usage and said no one could separate him and June. However, Johnny checked into a drug rehabilitation program.

Whether Billy knew all the details of Johnny’s “goof-ups,” his response to Johnny was as a loving friend, loyal through thick and thin. “Daddy stayed his friend, that’s all,” Franklin says. Johnny’s faith didn’t change, but his closeness to God did. “Johnny never had problems with his faith, but he had problems with his life,” Franklin observes. Billy continued to invite Johnny to his crusades and, after Johnny got clean from drugs, encouraged him to finally finish his book on Paul, Man in White, in 1986.

When Johnny and Billy were together, it was like two broth­ers picking cotton together—one pretty steady and the other occasionally cutting up.

Read entire Christianity Today article HERE.Or below:

Billy Graham and Johnny Cash: An Unlikely Friendship

The evangelist originally sought out the singer for the sake of his son.

TONY CARNES|

Billy Graham and Johnny Cash: An Unlikely Friendship

Image: SLADE Paul / Getty Image

Billy Graham and Johnny Cash were the best of friends, mutual confessors, and fishing buddies. Their wives, Ruth Bell and June Carter, were prayer partners. The two men could sit for hours in the same room without saying a word—Billy working on a book and Johnny on his songs. Once in a while, Johnny would interrupt and try out a song on Billy or ask a question about the Bible. At mealtimes, the families would gather to pray, sing, and eat. Usually the subject moved quickly to family and friends, problems and challenges. Johnny always had a list of friends he wanted Billy to call, while Billy would ask Johnny for advice and prayer for his loved ones.

Billy and Johnny’s connection originated with Billy’s desire to connect with his son Franklin and the boy’s teenage peers. Franklin says that even as a little boy, “I loved Johnny Cash’s music.” He recalls that in 1969, Billy called the governor of Ten­nessee to ask for help in setting up an appointment with Johnny. Billy was observing his son slip into smoking, drinking, drugs, and girls. Franklin left one school after another, sometimes after being expelled. In his autobiography, Just as I Am, Billy explained that Franklin believed he was successfully hiding these things from his dad—“or so he thought,” Billy wrote.

Both father and son later agreed that Billy had approached Johnny with the goal of connecting with Franklin. “My favorite song was ‘Ring of Fire,’” says Franklin. “Father wanted to con­nect to me by connecting to Johnny Cash.” The elder Graham framed the matter in more global terms while visiting the sing­er’s home near Nashville.

Johnny told Country Music magazine that he was curious about why Billy had come to see him. Johnny had only recently gotten off drugs, started attending church, and married June. “We had a big meal and we sat around and talked a long time. I kept waiting for him to say what he came to see me about.” Billy said he just wanted to talk about music, a conversational topic Billy’s friends might have found surprising coming from the evangelist.

Then Billy obliquely mentioned his real concern: “He said the kids were not going to church, that they were losing interest in religion, and he said he thought that the music had a lot to do with it, because there was nothing in the church house that they heard that they liked,” Johnny recalled. Billy admitted that the music in church sounded old. His own crusades mainly used older hymns. “The latest thing the kids can hear in the church is ‘Bringing in the Sheaves’ and ‘How Great Thou Art,’” the evan­gelist told the singer.

By this time Billy seemed to have shrewdly read Johnny as a man who liked a challenge and maintained his own spiritual direction by having his friends gather around to move him in the right direction through rough spots. Johnny recalled how Billy pricked his interest: “He kind of challenged me to chal­lenge others, to try to use what talent we have to write something inspiring.” According to Steve Turner, a Christian journalist who began collaboration with Johnny on an autobiography just before the singer’s death in 2003, Johnny was taken by this pastor who was as charismatic as Johnny, yet was humble and quietly confident in God.

Johnny had found a friend, confidant, and inspiration—a down-home boy like himself, but one who plowed his rows straight. “Well, first thing that happened,” Johnny described, “the night after [Billy] left, I wrote ‘What Is Truth?’ Just him coming to the house inspired me to write that, if you want to call it inspira­tion.” Johnny then talked to June about producing a film in Israel about Jesus. The singer also appeared at a crusade in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1970, the first of his 30 crusade appearances.

The evangelist was intrigued by Johnny’s honesty about his trou­bles and his faith, and how that honesty connected with the non-churchgoing crowd. Billy invited Johnny to his May 24, 1970, crusade in Knoxville, Tennessee, causing some concern among Billy’s staff. “There was an uproar in Dad’s organization,” Franklin recalls. “It was like he had invited Elvis Presley!”

Billy told people that Johnny was the type of person he wanted to reach. Franklin describes his dad’s thinking as a way to minister to Johnny while also reaching new people. “Daddy saw the type of people Johnny would bring. And Johnny and June themselves came knowing they would hear the gospel.” Graham’s music director, Cliff Barrows, said that he knew Johnny was adding a new dimension to the crusades: “All the guys that drove pickups and were in the ‘rough and ready’ crowd would come. We could always count on a larger percentage of uncon­verted folks to come who needed the Lord.”

At the Knoxville crusade, Billy and Johnny teamed up to meet the Jesus Revolution of the early 1970s. Billy preached on the Jesus who could revolutionize someone’s life, while Johnny testified to Jesus’ power to bring him off drugs, which he said “ain’t worth it.” Johnny was entering a new phase of spiritual depth. Before, Jesus was his lifesaver—now he started to see Jesus as someone who could mature him. He characterized this change as a move from careerism to ministry. “I’ve lived all my life for the devil up until now,” the singer told church audiences, “and from here on I’m going to live it for the Lord.” Although Johnny partnered with a number of ministries and was pastored by Jimmy Lee of Nash­ville, his personal relationship with Billy continued to grow.

In a bit of Nashville legend, Billy did a cameo role reciting a Bible verse in one of Johnny’s songs, “The Preacher Said, ‘Jesus Said.’” Johnny was inspired by Billy and his wife to film the life of Christ in Israel. The Gospel Road was bought by the Billy Gra­ham Evangelistic Association in 1972 and was used with great evangelistic success.

In 1972, Billy Graham and Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ put on their evangelistic Jesus Revolution extravaganza, Explo ’72, in Dallas, Texas. With 150,000 in attendance, Billy addressed what he called “a religious Woodstock” with Johnny and Johnny’s friend Kris Kristofferson as key performers. Johnny sang “I’ve Seen Men Like Trees Walking,” “A Thing Called Love,” and “Supper Time.” Billy and Johnny also continued to grow closer, though Johnny was still sporadically living out a painful legacy of depravity and despair. The golden-haired evangelist and the man in black seemed such an unlikely pair of friends.

Constant Companion

Billy and Johnny had a superficial connection based on their roots in the hardscrabble rural South. They grew up around Baptist churches and barns. Barbecue, cornbread, and pork and beans would set their mouths watering.

On a deeper level, though, their backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. “Johnny came from the wild side, while Billy had never been through that phase. Billy walked the straight and narrow,” observes Turner.

Even after his return to faith in 1967, Johnny’s life was pretty bumpy with what he called his “goof-ups.” And when he slipped back into amphetamine usage, he could get out of control. Johnny also felt let down by some of the ministries that he had latched on to for help. Turner says Johnny felt that “some failed him, some exploited him.”

So it was Billy’s faithfulness and integrity that Johnny gravi­tated toward. Billy was constant through the years, both in his personal relationship with Johnny and in his theology. Billy didn’t seem to go off on theological tangents at the drop of a dime. “Billy was a beacon to Cash who didn’t change,” says Turner. “Billy remained a stable character.”

When Johnny fell off the wagon, he likely didn’t confide that to Billy, though June may well have shared it with Ruth. The two wives constantly prayed with each other over their husbands and children. Johnny told Turner that in 1977 he was embarrassed that Billy would talk about the biography of the apostle Paul that Johnny was writing, because he was too stoned to even write. In the 1980s, there was a tabloid uproar over claims that Johnny was having an affair and too stoned to appear at two Graham crusades. Johnny denied the drug usage and said no one could separate him and June. However, Johnny checked into a drug rehabilitation program.

Whether Billy knew all the details of Johnny’s “goof-ups,” his response to Johnny was as a loving friend, loyal through thick and thin. “Daddy stayed his friend, that’s all,” Franklin says. Johnny’s faith didn’t change, but his closeness to God did. “Johnny never had problems with his faith, but he had problems with his life,” Franklin observes. Billy continued to invite Johnny to his crusades and, after Johnny got clean from drugs, encouraged him to finally finish his book on Paul, Man in White, in 1986.

When Johnny and Billy were together, it was like two broth­ers picking cotton together—one pretty steady and the other occasionally cutting up. Franklin says it was this Southern sen­sibility that drew their relationship together once a foundation in Christ was set. “Johnny never lost his love of country, and neither had my father. The food they liked, the tastes they had,” says Franklin. Johnny liked to bring the Grahams to his fishing cabin at Port Richey on the Pithlachascotee River and to his old-style Jamaican house on Montego Bay. In the spring of 1976, after Johnny had reportedly brewed coffee so strong you could barely drink it, Billy and Johnny headed out to fish. They picked up shrimp, mullet, and squid for bait at Des Little’s Fish Camp and spent the day casting lines, Scriptures, and songs.

These trips were a little primitive for the women. Ruth was always a little relieved to get back to the hotel in Jamaica after time at Johnny’s ramshackle place with creepy crawlies and loose boards. But wherever they were, the Grahams and Cashes were like family.

In their later years, the couples talked to each other every week, sometimes every day. Billy was something of a hypochon­driac and would get on the phone to update Johnny on all the ail­ments that he had or might have. Johnny would meet ailment for ailment until they would laugh together and pray for each other. When Ruth fell deathly sick one time, June spent six hours pray­ing over her bedside. Johnny’s phone calls to Billy were often peppered with questions about the Bible, some so difficult that the evangelist just counseled Johnny to ask God when he got to heaven.

Billy wrote Johnny a note after their first Christmas together in 1974 that summarizes the many aspects of their rela­tionship: “When we left, Ruth and I had tears in our eyes. … We have come to love you all as few people we have ever known. The fun we had, the delicious food we ate, the stimulating conversa­tion, lying in the moonlight at night, the prayer meetings, the music we heard, etc. There has been running over and over in my mind ‘Matthew 24 is knocking at the door.’ I have a feeling this could be a big hit.” Their friendship in Christ certainly was.

Tony Carnes is a former senior writer for Christianity Todayand is now publisher and editor of A Journey through NYC religions.

March 16, 2019

. Justin Timberlake

Dear Justin,

Like you, I have always loved golf and like you I grew up in the Memphis area.

In 1977, two huge events made national news at the now titled “Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.” First, President Gerald Ford made a hole-in-one during Wednesday’s Celebrity Pro-Am. That event is now referred to as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” Two days later, Al Geiberger shocked the golf world with his record low round of 59 on Friday of the tournament. The 13-under-par round still stands as a PGA TOUR record. (Chip Beck and David Duval have since tied the mark.)

I had the chance to hear the roar that came from the crowd that day that President Ford hit the hole in one (on hole #5 at Colonial Country Club in Cordova, TN). Just a few holes later I saw Danny Thomas walking around saying with slurred speech, :”This is the ball, this is the ball” while he held up a golf ball. I thought he was going to fall on me as he passed by.

Then just two days later I saw the last 5 holes of Al Geiberger’s 59. He was walking around with this silly grin on his face because almost every putt was going in.

You and I have something in common and it is the song GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN. You were in the video and my post about that video entitled, People in the Johnny Cash video “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” is the most popular post I have done in recent years. It ranked #1 for all of 2015 and I have over 1,000,000 hits on my http://www.thedailyhatch.org blog site. The ironic thing is that I never knew what a big deal Johnny Cash was until he had died. I grew up in Memphis with his nephew Paul Garrett and we even went to the same school and church. Paul’s mother was Johnny Cash’s sister Margaret Louise Garrett.

Stu Carnall, an early tour manager for Johnny Cash, recalled, “Johnny’s an individualist, and he’s a loner….We’d be on the road for weeks at a time, staying at motels and hotels along the way. While the other members of the troupe would sleep in, Johnny would disappear for a few hours. When he returned, if anyone asked where he’d been, he’d answer straight faced, ‘to church.'”

There were two sides to Johnny Cash and he expressed that best when he said, “There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I’m the biggest sinner of them all.”

Have you ever taken the time to read the words of the song?

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John go do My will!”

 Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand

Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s down in the dark will be brought to the light
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
___
Johnny Cash sang this song of Judgment because he knew the Bible says in  Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.” The first part of this verse is about the judgment sinners must face if not pardoned, but the second part is about Christ who paid our sin debt!!! Did you know that Romans 6:23 is part of what we call the Roman Road to Christ. Here is how it goes:
  • Because of our sin, we are separated from God.
    For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23)
  • The Penalty for our sin is death.
    For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
  • The penalty for our sin was paid by Jesus Christ!
    But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
  • If we repent of our sin, then confess and trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will be saved from our sins!
    For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Romans 10:13)
    …if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9,10)

The answer to find meaning in life is found in putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible is true from cover to cover and can be trusted.

Thanks for your time.

Everette Hatcher, everettehatcher@gmail.com, http://www.thedailyhatch.org, cell ph 501-920-5733, Box 23416, LittleRock, AR 72221

PS:If one repents and puts trust in Christ alone for eternal life then he or she will be forgiven. Francis Schaeffer noted, “If Satan tempts you to worry over it, rebuff him by saying I AM FORGIVEN ON THE BASIS OF THE WORK OF CHRIST AS HE DIED ON THE CROSS!!!”

Johnny Cash – God’s Gonna Cut You Down

MAY 15, 2007

Johnny Cash’s version of the traditional God’s Gonna Cut You Down, from the album “American V: A Hundred Highways”, was released as a music video on November 9 2006, just over three years after Cash died. Producer Rick Rubin opens the music video, saying, “You know, Johnny always wore black. He wore black because he identified with the poor and the downtrodden…”. What follows is a collection of black and white clips of well known pop artists wearing black, each interacting with the song in their own way. Some use religious imagery. Howard sits in his limo reading from Ezekiel 34, a Biblical passage warning about impending judgment for false shepherd. Bono leaning on a graffiti-filled wall between angel’s wings and a halo, pointing to the words, “Sinners Make The Best Saints. J.C. R.I.P.” A number of artists wear or hold crosses.

Faces in Johnny Cash God's Gonna Cut You Down music video

Artists appear in this order: Rick Rubin, Iggy Pop, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Kris Kristofferson, Patti Smith, Terence Howard, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Q-Tip, Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Chris Rock, Justin Timberlake, Kate Moss, Sir Peter Blake (Sgt Peppers Artist), Sheryl Crow, Denis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Tommy Lee, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks), Mick Jones, Sharon Stone, Bono, Shelby Lynne, Anthony Kiedis, Travis Barker, Lisa Marie Presley, Kid Rock, Jay Z, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, Corinne Bailey Rae, Johnny Depp, Graham Nash, Brian Wilson, Rick Rubin and Owen Wilson. The video finishes with Rick Rubin traveling to a seaside cliff with friend Owen Wilson to throw a bouquet of flowers up in the air.

  • American singer and civil rights activist Odetta recorded a traditional version of the song. Musician Sean Michel covered the song during his audition on Season 6 of American Idol. Matchbox Twenty also used the song before playing “How Far We’ve Come” on their “Exile in America” tour.

  • The New Jersey rock band The Gaslight Anthem have also covered the song.[citation needed] Canadian rock band Three Days Grace has used the song in the opening of their live shows, as well as the rock band Staind . Bobbie Gentry recorded a version as “Sermon” on her album The Delta Sweete. Guitarist Bill Leverty recorded a version for his third solo project Deep South, a tribute album of traditional songs. Tom Jones recorded an up-tempo version which appears on his 2010 album Praise & Blame. Pow woW recorded a version with the Golden Gate Quartet for their 1992 album Regagner les Plaines and performed a live version with the quartet in 2008. A cover of the song by Blues Saraceno was used for the Season 8 trailer of the TV series Dexter. Pedro Costarecorded a neo-blues version for the Discovery channel TV show Weed Country (2013). Virginia based folk rock band Carbon Leaf covered the song many times during their live shows.

  • Chart positions[edit]

    Moby version: “Run On”[edit]

    Chart (1999) Peak
    position
    UK Singles Chart 33

    Johnny Cash version[edit]

    Chart (2006) Peak
    position
    UK Singles Chart 77

  • American Idol contestant ministers in Chile

    by Tristan Taylor, posted Wednesday, August 18, 2010 (5 years ago)
  • SANTIAGO, Chile (BP)–Sean Michel smiled through his distinctive, foot-long beard as he slid the guitar strap over his shoulder and greeted the crowd at El Huevo nightclub with what little Spanish he knows. The former American Idol contestant and his band then erupted into the sounds of Mississippi Delta blues-rock.But unlike other musicians who played that night, the Sean Michel band sang about every person’s need for God and the salvation that comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.”We came down [to Chile] to open doors that other ministries couldn’t,” said Jay Newman, Michel’s manager. “To get in places that only a rock band could — to create a vision for new church-planting movements among the underground, disenfranchised subcultures of Chile.”The Sean Michel band recently traveled through central Chile playing more than 15 shows in bars, churches, schools and parks. The group consists of Southern Baptists Sean Michel, lead singer; Alvin Rapien, lead guitarist; Seth Atchley, bass guitarist; and Tyler Groves, drummer.”Although we’re a blues rock ‘n’ roll band, we’re an extension of the church,” Michel said. “We’re kind of like ‘musicianaries,’ if you will.”MISSIONS-MINDED MUSICIANSThe band formed after Michel and Newman met as students at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. While there, the two began recording and selling Michel’s music as a way to raise money for mission trips to Africa and Asia.”We were just trying to raise money for a mission trip, but we’d also seen God speaking to people through the music,” Michel said. “So we were like, ‘Well, maybe we need to do something with this,’ and we became a music ministry. But it’s always been rooted in missions and … in the Great Commission.”Michel graduated from Ouachita in 2001, Newman in 2004. In 2007, Newman talked Michel into auditioning for American Idol. The exposure Michel received through the television show gained a wider audience for their ministry.”The whole American Idol thing was so weird,” Michel said. “We just kind of went on a whim. But the Lord used it in a big way.”During his tryout, Michel belted out a soulful rendition of Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” The video of the audition went viral on the Internet.Soon he was doing radio interviews in which he identified himself as a Christian and directed listeners to the band’s Gospel-laden MySpace page. On their next mission trip to Asia, Michel and Newman found that being recognizable gave them access to venues they couldn’t have entered before.The band is now an official extension of First Southern Baptist Church of Bryant, Ark., where the musicians have long been active members serving in the music and youth ministries. Every mission trip they have taken has involved working with International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries.”We’re Southern Baptist,” Michel said. “That’s who we roll with.”TOUR DE FAITH”With short-term mission trips, you can plan, but you just got to be willing for your plans to change,” said Michel. When the band arrived in Chile, they were surprised to find that their schedule wasn’t nearly as full as expected. Almost no public venues had booked shows, and many rock-wary churches had declined to host the band.”The biggest barrier we had was the pastors,” said Cliff Case, an IMB missionary in Santiago, Chile, and a 1984 graduate of Ouachita Baptist. “The older pastors on two or three different occasions gave excuses for not doing it. It was a real frustration in that sense.”Disappointed by the lack of interest, the band prayed for God’s help. They met Jose Campos — or Pépe, as the band came to know him. Campos works with music and youth for the Ministry of the Down and Out, an independent Christian ministry that seeks to reach the often-overlooked demographics of Santiago.Campos was able to use his connections to book shows for the band in venues they wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”Had we met Pépe (Campos) two or three weeks before the group came, there’s no telling how many shows we might have done,” said Case, who met Newman at Ouachita when Case and his wife, Cinthy, were missionaries-in-residence there.Campos booked the show at El Huevo, possibly Chile’s most popular club. Playing there has given the band musical credibility among Chilean rockers. And, one Chilean church reported that a youth accepted Christ after hearing Newman talk before a show. The band already is contemplating a return tour next year.OPENING NEW DOORSSharing the Gospel through their songs is only the beginning for the Sean Michel band. Their vision is to be a catalyst to help churches — and missionaries — connect with the lost people of their communities.

    “God is not saving the world through rock bands,” Michel said. “He’s saving the world through the church. And it will always be through the local body.”

    The band wants to see churches take ministry beyond the church doors.

    “If you’re going to want to legitimately reach lost people, you’re going to have to get out,” Michel said. “Go out into the dark places. Those are the places we need to be to reach out.”

    The band’s ministry in Chile opened new doors for IMB missionaries to reach the young, musical subculture of Chilean society.

    “They laid the groundwork for more opportunities,” Case said. “Now we have a network of who to talk to and how to get organized. We can focus on how to use the work they’re doing so we can win people to the Lord and plant some churches.”

    Tristan Taylor is an International Mission Board writer living in the Americas.

  • Featured artist is Joseph Beuys

    At the 1:20:41 point until the end of the talk is about Joseph Beuys

    [ARTS 315] Contemporary Liturgies: Performance Art and Embodied Belief – Jon Anderson

    At the 6:45 mark in the below video Jon Anderson talks about Joseph Beuys.

    [ARTS 315] Bodies of Knowledge: Performance Art and Social Space – Jon Anderson

    Published on Apr 5, 2012

    Contemporary Art Trends [ARTS 315], Jon Anderson

    Bodies of Knowledge: Performance Art and Social Space

    November 11, 2011

    _______________

    The Wound and The Coyote: Joseph Beuys’ Spiritual Vision

    – 19/07/2010Posted in: Artists, Ethics, Theology

    If you come in a space with a big flame of fire you will get burnt, and you cannot say: ‘This is the symbol of a flame’, because you will die of the heat of this flame.  So is Christ not a symbol for something.  It is the substance in itself.  It means life.  It means power, the power of life… Without this substance of Christ the earth would already have died.[1]

    Joseph Beuys believed that Western society, and particularly Germany, had become spiritually bankrupt.  During WWII, Beuys flew in the German Luftwaffe and his plane was shot down.  As the legend goes, a tribe of tartars found him and managed to keep him alive by wrapping him in animal fat and felt until German soldiers eventually brought him to a hospital.  After WWII, Beuys watched his country and Europe fall into dark times.  He believed that Western society was wounded.

    The wound is a potent and pervasive theme in Beuys’ work.  His environment Show Your Wound (1974) spoke of death and the possibility of regeneration, and exhorted Germans to “show your wound.”  In his famous I Like America and America Likes Me (photo above, 1974), the wound motif reappears.  The performance begins at Beuys’ home in Germany where he is wrapped in felt, placed on a stretcher and driven by ambulance to the airport.  When he arrives in New York, he is met by another ambulance that takes him to a gallery.  Beuys then prepares a room for himself and a coyote to live together for several days.  He had only a shepherd’s staff and a blanket of felt for protection.  Over the course of their cohabitation, Beuys is able to tame the wild coyote, and at one point the coyote actually lays harmlessly upon his lap.  In this remarkable piece the wound is recognized and healed.  As one commentator puts it, this encounter becomes a “reconciliation between the New World and the Old World, fraternization between different races, animal and man, nature and culture.”[2]

    Beuys’ work could be described as prophetic.  The prophet is one who, as Walter Bruggemann says, embodies an “alternative consciousness” in such a way that he “serves to criticize in dismantling the dominant consciousness”[3] and “energize persons and communities by its promise of another time and situation toward which the community of faith may move.”[4] It is clear from nearly all of his works and from his numerous statements, that Beuys’ main concern was to nurture, nourish, and evoke an alternative consciousness.  Beuys thought that the key to transforming society is found in what he calls Social Sculpture: the shaping of society through the collective creativity of its members.  Beuys believed that human freedom begins with the recognition that everyone is an artist.

    For Beuys, there is no potential for social change in a materialist world and, thus, no possibility of experiencing the freedom that Christ offers.  This is why Beuys urgently appealed to humanity to restore their connection with a spiritual reality.  So, what are our wounds, and how might art be brought into service to heal them?

    [1] Joseph Beuys,  Interview with Louwrien Wijers, Joseph Beuys Talks to Louwrien Wijers, (Holland: Kantoor Voor Cultuur Extracten, 1980), 46.

    [2] Lucrezia De Domizio Durini, The Felt Hat: Joseph Beuys A Life Told, trans. by Howard Roger Mac Lean, (Milano: Edizioni Charta, 1997).

    [3] Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001) 3.

    [4] Ibid.

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