Midwestern Medicine

Johnny Cash: Radical Poet

Johnny Cash wrote nothing short of radical poetry. His lyrics frame political and economic issues in human terms that articulate an ethos of compassion that, in my humble view, has yet to be matched. Here I’m including the lyrics of two of my favorite Johnny Cash songs.

The first song is called “Don’t Go Near the Water,” and I think its lyrics are more important today than ever before. The song illustrates a sense of ecological responsibility to future generations that seems to have been lost or forgotten in the present socio-political climate, and it further suggests that widespread pollution is hijacking the simple pleasures of life.  It’s something I think the folks in Congress should be forced to listen to at least once.

“Don’t Go Near the Water”

From the fountains and the mountains comes the water running cool and clear and blue,

And it flows down from the hills and it goes down to the towns and passes through.

When it gets down the cities then the waters turns into a dirty gray,

It’s poisoned and polluted by the people as it goes along its way.

Don’t go near the water children,

See the fish all dead upon the shore?

Don’t go near the water,

The water isn’t water anymore.

(In spoken voice)

I took my boy fishin’ at my old favorite fishin’ hole.

I’d caught many fish out of that deep, clear water from the time I was a boy like him.

After we had fished a few minutes, he said, “You get a bite yet, daddy?”

I said, “I think I got a nibble, son.”

“Me too,” he said. Then he said, “Daddy, if we catch a fish can we eat him?”

I said, “Well there was a time, son, but this water’s bad now and it might not be safe to eat the fish, but there WAS a time.”

(Resume singing)

There was a time the air was clean and you could see forever ‘cross the plains,

The wind was sweet as honey and noone had ever heard of acid rain.

We’re torturing the Earth and pourin’ every kind of evil in the sea,

We’ve violated nature and our children have to pay the penalty.

Don’t go near the water children,

See the fish all dead upon the shore?

Don’t go near the water,

The water isn’t water anymore.

Don’t go near the water children,

See the fish all dead upon the shore?

Don’t go near the water ‘cause the water isn’t water anymore.

“The Man in Black” is the perhaps the most inspiring song I have ever had the privilage of listening to. The piece is so important to me because it serves as a constant reminder of what it means to stand up and at least try to change something no matter how impossible it may seem at the time (or even how impossible it may actually be at the time). This song for me is Cash’s personal manifestation of a notion of commitment expressed by the French existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre when he wrote “First I ought to commit myself and then act my commitment, according to the time-honoured formula that ‘one need not hope in order to undertake one’s work.’”

“The Man in Black”

Well you wonder why I always dress in black?

Why you never see bright colors on my back?

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone?

Well there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and beaten down,

Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town.

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,

But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who have never read,

Or listened to the words that Jesus said,

About the road to happiness through love and charity,

Why you’d think He’s talkin’ straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,

In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,

But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,

Up front there ought to be a man in black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,

For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold.

I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been,

Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

(Louder)

And I wear it for the thousands who have died,

Believing that the Lord was on their side.

I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,

Believin’ that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that will never be right, I know,

And things need changin’ everywhere you go,

But ‘til we start to make a move to make a few things right,

You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Well, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,

And tell the world that everything’s okay,

But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

‘Til things are brighter, I’m the man in black.