I recently downloaded this song from iTunes (by Johnny Cash). It’s one of those oldies I love that I never realized who sung it until I started seeing previews for the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line“. I’m actually interested to see this. The man himself has always been a bit of a music legend and an enigmatic dark character. Who better then to play him then the incredibly dark, enigmatic, and just plain damn sexy Joaquin Phoenix?

I also downloaded his cover of Hurt, originally by Trent Reznor and NIN (Nine Inch Nails). It’s amazing. I love both versions, but they’re so different. Trent’s original is intense and sad, viciously bitter. Cash’s rendition is slower, yet all the more powerful and full of regret, and consignment to what lies ahead of us all: death.

Which brings me to the quasi-point of the post. How lyrics can sometimes capture a sentiment, portray an image, so perfectly, so intensely. Song lyrics can range from the bizarre to the inane. But every now and then a line or two in a song hits me in the way it drives home how I feel about something. Here’s a few I’ve thought of recently: (apologies for the lyrics links, it seems there are no sites that offer lyrics that don’t also have tons of ads and popups)

NIN/Johnny Cash - Hurt:

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end

you could have it all
my empire of dirt

It hits one of those issues that grabs us all from time to time. Death. The inevitability of things passing on, even everyone we’ve known. You can do whatever you want with all the things I’ve owned in my life when I’m gone, the material things will go as well and crumble to dirt. It’s the memories and experiences that really matter. Check out the link for the rest of the lyrics which are great (if not exactly uplifting).

Madonna - Human Nature:

You’re the one with the problem
Why don’t you just deal with it

Yeah, yeah. Give me crap for saying Madonna’s got great lyrics. Sure, someone else wrote them. But I like this song. Whenever I get fed up with conservative fundamentalists, I remember that it’s really them who have the problem. The ones who are constantly worried about other people’s behavior.

Tori Amos - Sorta Fairytale:

i knew that he was
looking for some indian blood and
find a little in you find a little
in me we may be
on this road but
we’re just
impostors
in this country

Tori I saved for last. She is a quirky person and her lyrics sometimes confound me, but her lyrics are sheer poetry. She put this album together as a sort of lyrical narrative of a fictional character’s trip across America. This line strikes a chord every time I hear it. We try so hard to think of America as the great democracy and we tend to gloss over the slavery, the Japanese concentration camps, the forced Indian migrations. In our modern society, we have amazing technologies. And there is much to be proud of here in America. But even centuries later, we have less of a grasp on how to live a sustainable life in balance with the Earth and nature than the people whose land we stole. We may be on the great open American road, but until we find that balance, we will always be impostors in this country.