http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go
CLICK A FEW TIMES ON THE LINK ABOVE
This is a wonderful and poignant signing off from the ‘Man in Black’. He had many great songs from ‘ A boy named Sue’, ‘A thing called love’ to ‘I’ll walk the line’, ‘personal Jesus’ and lastly ‘Hurt’. This video covers his good and bad times. Yet like the wise man Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes (Chapter 12) he sees the futility of a life lived for self. ‘Vanity of vanities for all is vanity.’ Listen to the memorable lines
‘Everyone goes away in the end’
‘and you could have it all
my empire of dirt.’
‘if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way’
I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar's chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
That is really an amazing song by Johnny Cash. It was originally by 'Nine Inch Nails'who did more bizarre version. I must check up Eccles 12 as you suggest.
ReplyDeleteKeep bloggin
I sent a text message today to a few of my friends simply saying “Jesus is good”. One person asked “What has Jesus done for you to make you praise Him”? My reply was “Saved me and is my daddy”. Do we need any other reason to say He is good?
ReplyDeleteI wanted to tell you before but didn’t get around to it… the blogs are good and enlightening but verging on the heavy side for me. No, honestly they are too heavy. The Hatching Chicks was better and less “heavy”
I listened to Mr Cash and thought he was a troubled man and yes got the meaning of the song ok. For me to sit and write comments would be like me dragging up stuff from my past which I don’t want to even think of, never mind write about. I am a plain speaker and NOT very eloquent when it comes to either writing or speaking, as I tell it how I see it and in as few words as possible. I’m not used to pussy footing around those who don’t like to be told the score i.e. The Bible tells us to do this that and the other and if you don’t do it You are wrong…end of story. I look at my Christian walk as just that…simply because God warned me not to run – it’s all about me moving forwards, making a few mistakes along the road, getting a gentle telling off now and again and learning from those mistakes before moving on again. I got out of my comfort zone when I decided to walk through the doors of the Church I now go to 3 or 4 years ago and accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Because of my previous experience, albeit short in the scheme of things, I knew there was no point in pussy footing about around the periphery and that I MUST be prepared to COMMIT to no less than 100%. I’m not being judgemental or critical of others but when I say that I learned not to look at females in a lustful way by simply not looking at all, I meant it. In the Bible I am told not to look at females that way etc etc etc …you know what it says. But I don’t expect to be told “Don’t be too hard on yourself”. I want to be told “you’re perfectly correct it says in the Bible… etc. Maybe I’m rambling but I just want to do what’s right by God and He wants me to be at one with Him not off doing my own thing. People need to be told that too with the help of prayer.
I appreciate what you are doing re the blogs but for me it’s getting into ground that I don’t need to go as it’s too complicated. Now I know how one of my home group members feels when we start chatting about this and that in the meetings when she hasn’t a baldie what we’re on about and she just switches off completely.
Don’t get me wrong, I think your blog is great for the right audience but I’m not in that audience (totally) too tired most of the time to read long passages and figure out what is being said and even more so what I would say in comment … certainly not re book reviews and long deep conversations in a blog.
C.
Great song from Johnny Cash.Makes one reflect on one's life.I hope he died in the faith.
ReplyDelete'Hurt' has always seemed to me a holy song. It doesn't offer praise for grace, but begs that grace be real. As originally performed by Nine Inch Nails, it is at the chronological end of a very painful and grotesque, self-destructive album. More than just a song about heroin addiction, it represents hope that it's not too late for the subject of the album to rebuild from the destruction he has wrought in his foolishness and power-mongering. In the final line of the song, his prayers are answered: a blaze of life surges and echoes through to the end.
ReplyDeleteThe Johnny Cash version is different. It is at the chronological end of his own life. You can hear him resign to his fate to die; you watch him looking back on his life and relinquishing it all as "meaningless." He quivers as he struggles to find meaning in it all; he has so much to regret. The final chord of the song is changed, however; he doesn't rise from the ashes to persevere, he is still a weak and sinful human being, fading away into the uncertainty of death filled with guilt; forgiveness and redemption are yet hard to accept.
I must say that this must certainly be the most important song he ever made.
I would have posted as Anonymous, but I've been reading far too much about 4chan; it would feel too obscene given the subject at hand.
God bless you and keep you.
Thanks Sum for your excellent comments.Sorry for responding so late.
ReplyDelete