The Theology of Johnny Cash: Part 8, A Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree

This will be the last post in this series on the theology of Johnny Cash. And we conclude with what Cash considered to be his greatest song. His legacy song. A song he wrote just before his death.

"The Man Comes Around."

"The Man Comes Around" was the standout song in the final album--American IV--Cash recorded with Rick Rubin just before Cash's death. Cash was so weak he almost couldn't finish the album. For some songs Rubin had Cash sing a single line and then stop to rest and catch his breath. Later Rubin spliced the lines together, building the song piece by piece.

Most of American IV are covers, songs like "Hurt" and "Personal Jesus," along with older Cash songs like "Give My Love to Rose." But Cash brought to the recording sessions one last original song, a song he had been feverishly working on for months and months. "The Man Comes Around" is Johnny Cash's last great song.

The central lyric of the song came from an odd dream. Cash had a dream after having recorded the song "The Wanderer" with U2 for their album Zooropa. "The Wanderer" is an apocalyptic song inspired by the book of Ecclesiastes. (An early title of the song was "The Preacher" taken from  Qohelet, the Preacher/Teacher of Ecclesiastes.) Apparently, the apocalyptic imagery of "The Wanderer" had gotten into Cash's dreams. In this particular dream Cash finds himself speaking to, of all people, the Queen of England. In the dream the Queen laughs, looks at Cash and says, "Johnny Cash, you're just like a thorn tree in a whirlwind." Robert Hilburn, from his Cash biography, about how the image expanded into the song:

The image stuck with Cash, though he had no idea where it was from until, he claimed, he came across a reference in the Old Testament. Soon after, he began thinking of using the line in a story--a poem perhaps--and he continued to seek out accompanying images in scriptures. He eventually changed his plan from a story to a song...

Though the lyrics didn't mention Jesus's name or the words "judgment day," it was about Jesus's second coming and the final judgment, the fundamental tenet of his faith. In the series of verses, Cash cited other images from the Bible, including the "whirlwind in the thorn tree" and "the virgins are all trimming their wicks." [The song] was more overtly spiritual than U2's "The Wanderer," but just as majestic and bold.

Interestingly, the song "The Man Comes Around" also strikes a universal note. As recounted by Hilburn, Cash came to his son asking for some help with the lyrics:

John Carter remembers his father asking him one day as he was working on the song: "So, the word for 'shalom' is Hebrew for peace. What is the word in Arabic?"

John Carter told him "shalam."

"He wanted the song to be universal," his son says.

As I've mentioned, Johnny Cash read the bible just about every day. Even during the years of heavy drug use. And you can see this reflected in the lyrics of "The Man Comes Around." It is a song that could only have been written by a person steeped in biblical imagery:

Spoken:
"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"

Sung:
There's a man goin' 'round takin' names.
And he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won't be treated all the same.
There'll be a golden ladder reachin' down.
When the man comes around.

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

Chorus:
Hear the trumpets hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.
Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettledrum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'.
Some are born and some are dyin'.
It's Alpha 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 man will bow down before the throne.
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns.
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.

Chorus:
Hear the trumpets hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.
Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettledrum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'.
Some are born and some are dyin'.
It's Alpha 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 trees.
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
In measured hundredweight and penny pound.
When the man comes around.

Spoken:
"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." 

A listening note. There are two versions of this song. The original version that Cash sent to Rubin is a country take on the song. The version Rubin released on American IV has more of a rock flavor. You can listen to both and see which one you prefer.

There is a part of me that would like to just end this series with the lyrics of this song. The song is theology, through and through. I don't need to insert any.

But the apocalyptic imagery of judgment is so strong in the song that I'll end with some final reflections.

I think religious liberals have really liked most of this series with its themes of "the Man in Black" solidarity with sinners along with the downtrodden. Those are themes religious liberals enjoy.

But Johnny Cash is hard to classify. Cash is not so easily placed in the liberal or the conservative box. Up against the song "The Man in Black" you have this song "The Man Comes Around," a song religious conservatives and fundamentalists would resonate with more than liberals and progressives. Liberals and progressives generally don't like the image of the Last Judgment.

So there are these two theological themes in Johnny Cash that are difficult to reconcile.

On the one hand you have the tolerance and solidarity of "the Man in Black" for the sinners of the world. Even the very worst sinners. The Man in Black was a man who loved and entrained murderers and rapists in prisons across the country. This is the man of At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin.

But on the other hand you have the words of judgement from "The Man Comes Around."

How to fit the two pieces together?

I don't think you do fit them together. At least not neatly and cleanly.

Personally, if I had to, I'd reconcile the pieces by pointing to the prophets and the Psalms, where the language of judgment is reserved for those exploiting and harming the anawim, the vulnerable ones. That's how I'd make the pieces fit if you forced me to do so. But I'm hesitant to do that here so quickly and easily.

Because what I think most interesting about the song "The Man Comes Around" is how, as I mentioned above, it is so steeped in the biblical imagination. And the biblical imagination, I'd argue, is always going to explode the boxes of conservative and liberal theology. The biblical imagination, like the God it is trying to describe, is like that whirlwind in a thorn tree. The biblical imagination cannot be codified or systematized. The biblical imagination is going to be wild and untamed.

And because the theology of Johnny Cash was so shaped by the Scriptures, due to Cash's daily and lifelong reading of the bible, I think it's fitting to note here at the end that Johnny Cash's theology, being a biblical theology, will also be difficult to pin down and put into a box.

And that, I think, is what makes the theology of Johnny Cash so complex and intriguing, all the currents and crosscurrents.

The mix of fidelity and unfaithfulness in trying and failing to "walk the line." The dance of light and darkness in the moral juxtapositions of gospel music and murder ballads. And, finally, the man in black standing in solidarity with sinners and the man coming around in apocalyptic judgment.

It is a compelling and potent mix. A wild and unsystematic theology.

Like the man himself, a whirlwind in a thorn tree.

It is the theology of Johnny Cash.