Soundgarden - "Rusty Cage" (the song remains the same)

Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell passed last month, which I have to think will mark the end of Soundgarden, and possibly leaving only Pearl Jam as the lone survivor of the grunge movement of the early 90s.   I first learned of Soundgarden from my friend Drew, who in 90 or 91 lent me a copy of "Louder Than Love".  I don't think I have any Soundgarden CDs in my collection now, but I used to have the "Singles" soundtrack and I guess that counts.

Although Nirvana is probably the first among equals for the Seattle sound, it's hard to convey the impact of Soundgarden in the 90s.  Let's put it like this: when it came time for Johnny Cash's comeback LP, 1996's "Unchained", Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" was one of the songs Cash covered.  Surely Rick Rubin had a big hand in the song selection, but it's hard to think of a higher honor than having Johnny Cash cover your song.

"Rusty Cage" was the third single from Soundgarden's 1991 LP "Badmotorfinger" and while it's hardly their most popular song, it's the one Johnny Cash chose and so it's the one I choose to mark the death of Chris Cornell.

Soundgarden: "Rusty Cage"
Johnny Cash: "Rusty Cage"

Merle Haggard - "Mama Tried" (forgotten song)

Country music icon Merle Haggard died today.  He's probably best known for "Okie from Muskogee", but my favorite would probably be  "Mama Tried", the title track from his 1968 LP (honorable mention to 1983's "Pancho and Lefty").  I have to confess that I first heard it via the Grateful Dead.

It is universally acknowledged that all good country songs involve "prison", and this song is true to form.  The Library of Congress obviously agrees, and so "Mama Tried" was recently placed on the National Recording Registry for its "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation's aural legacy."

Merle Haggard - "Mama Tried" (on the Johnny Cash Show?)

Grateful Dead - "Mama Tried"

Johnny Cash - "Mama Tried"

Bob Marley and the Wailers - "Redemption Song" (the song remains the same)

In the mid- to late-80s it was de riguer for every high school bedroom or college dorm room to have a Bob Marley and The Wailers poster (the image used on the LP "Legend"); you couldn't be alternative without it. So I'll consider the background on Marley as read since there's nothing I can add to it.

"Redemption Song" is the last song on 1980's "Uprising", the final studio LP from Bob Marley and The Wailers. With the possible exception of "No Woman No Cry", "Redemption Song" is probably my favorite BMATW song. The 7" version of "Redemption Song" had both the acoustic version (from "Uprising") as well as "band version" with The Wailers.

There are dozens of covers of "Redemption Song"; I won't even try to list them all. When Joe Strummer covered it on his 2003 LP "Streetcore", there was only one way to improve on it: a duet with Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash, from the 2003 posthumously released box set "Unearthed". Once again, you have to hand it to Rick Rubin for putting this together (see also: my review of "God's Gonna Cut You Down"). Honestly, does it get any better than Joe Stummer & Johnny Cash covering a Bob Marley song?

Bob Marley (acoustic solo): YouTube. This is closest to the version you're used to.

Bob Marley and The Wailers: YouTube.

Joe Strummer: YouTube.

Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer: YouTube.

(This is an obvious companion to my review for "Streetcore", but I felt it deserved its own entry.)

Johnny Cash - "God's Gonna Cut You Down" (the song remains the same)

Both Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin had Hall of Fame careers even if they had never hooked up for Cash's American Recordings series. But they did, and the result was nothing short of amazing...

On the surface, Cash & Rubin would seem to be an unlikely pairing: Cash is a born-again Christian from Arkansas and Tennessee who is best known for singing gospel, folk and country; and Rubin is a Jew from Long Island who is best known for producing hip hop and metal bands and founding the seminal record label Def Jam Recordings (with Russell Simmons in 1984).

On further inspection, it is a perfect match: Sun Records was the Def Jam / Def American of its time and Cash certainly lived (invented?) the rock and roll lifestyle. Furthermore, Rubin is renowned for his powerful, stripped-down, spare production style that gets the most out of the artist; and Cash's career had been foundering, in part because the major labels were overproducing his records and trying to make him into something he was not. Cash and Rubin released their first record in 1994, American Recordings, and that was the beginning of a critically and commercially successful string of LPs each of which consisted of originals, re-recording of Cash's early songs, covers and standards.

Released as a single from 2006's posthumously released "American V: A Hundred Highways", "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is Cash's version of the traditional song generally credited as "Run On". The song has been recorded by many different artists and although it is a homily about abandoning sinful ways, it is generally presented as an up-tempo and joyful song -- a New Testament reading, if you will.

Not so with Cash and Rubin -- you could say they give an Old Testament presentation: dark, booming and vengeful. Changing the title from "Run On" captures the shift of emphasis -- "God's Gonna Cut You Down" was always in the lyrics, but it never seemed to be the main point of the song. Now it is, and the song sounds like the wrath of God.

You might (barely) recognize the song from Moby's 1999 LP "Play", where it was titled "Run On" and sampled a 1947 recording by Bill Landford & The Landfordaires (then titled "Run On for a Long Time"). I must have heard this song dozens of times before I even realized they were singing the lyrics "God will cut you down". This song is a typical example of Moby's gift for recontextualizing early recordings (folk, blues, etc.) in an electronica format.

Another notable version is from the Blind Boys of Alabama, from their 2001 LP "Spirit of the Century". This is a more conventional gospel arrangement, probably closer to Moby's source recording from Landford.

There are countless other recordings of this song but this should give a good sampling of the various versions. And as good as these other versions are, Cash and Rubin have pretty much closed the book on this song -- no one else is going to come close.

Johnny Cash: "God's Gonna Cut You Down"

Moby: "Run On", "Run On" (live acoustic version)

Bill Landford & The Landfordaires: "Run On for a Long Time"

Blind Boys of Alabama: "Run On"

The Band - "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (the song remains the same)

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a song about the conclusion and aftermath of the American Civil War. At first it seems ironic that it was written by Canadian Robbie Robertson of the The Band, but upon further reflection perhaps the song makes the kinds of observations that can only be written by an outsider. The genius of this song is that it captures the pathos and mythology of the lost cause and transforms it from a polarizing political statement to a universally applicable personal account of suffering, loss and resignation.

The song tells the story of the fictional Virgil Caine, who "served on the Danville Train / 'til Stoneman's calvary came / and they tore up the tracks again". After the war, Virgil is paroled to his agrarian life in Tennessee and reflects upon the war ("In the winter of '65 / We were hungry, just barely alive / By May 10th, Richmond had fell / It was a time I remember oh so well") and the loss of his brother ("Like my father before me, I will work the land / Like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand / He was just 18, proud and brave / But a Yankee laid him in his grave"). Virgil is a guileless man and makes sense of his current state in reconstruction-era Tennessee with "I don't mind chopping wood / And I don't care if the money's no good / You take what you need and you leave the rest / But they should never have taken the very best".

The song has been covered by many folk, country and southern rock artists and given the subject matter, combinations of those genres might be the only versions we will hear. Although it was first released on The Band's 1969 eponymous second LP, the most popular version might be Joan Baez's 1971 hit from her Blessed Are... LP. Interestingly enough, Baez changed the lyrics due to mis-hearing them on The Band's recording. Some of the changes have minimal effect: "'til Stoneman's Calvary came" became "'til so much calvary came", "There goes the Robert E. Lee" (a ship) became "There goes Robert E. Lee" (the general; the distinction would change the time frame of the story), "I will work the land" became "I'm a working man". But one of her changes I consider more powerful than the original: "I swear by the mud below my feet / You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat" she changed to "I swear by the blood below my feet / You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat". The result is, similar to traditional music, every cover version has some permutation of Robertson's and Baez's lyrics; even Baez's versions change over time.

The list below has most of the important versions, but it should not be considered a complete list. And despite that they are all arranged more or less the same, each versions find a different nuance to the story.

The Band: YouTube. The previous link is to the studio version, but it is hard to compete with the version from the Scorcese's movie The Last Waltz: YouTube, Kewego.

Joan Baez: YouTube, last.fm. The YouTube version is from what I assume is a contemporary TV show; it showcases her version of the lyrics nicely.

Johnny Cash: YouTube1, YouTube2. The first version is a studio recording; I'm not sure which LP but the backing vocals make me guess mid 70s. The second version is not a complete song, but was taken from a TV show. I wish there were a complete version of Cash doing the song in this style.

The Black Crowes: YouTube. I'm not really a big fan of The Black Crowes, but they do a great arrangement of this song that is reminiscent of The Last Waltz version by The Band. From their 2005 DVD.

Clay Hart: YouTube. This is probably the only Lawrence Welk Show clip you'll see covered on F-Measure.

Jerry Garcia Band: YouTube. S-l-o-w-e-d w-a-y d-o-w-n. This version claims to be from a 1975 show; you can also find a live version on their 1990 double eponymous LP. This is probably the most non-standard arrangement listed, but I quite like it.

The Highwaymen - "Highwayman" (forgotten song)

What's cooler than Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson (collectively known as "The Highwaymen") singing together? How about them singing "Highwayman", a Jimmy Webb song that is: 1) a literal account of reincarnation, 2) an objectivist paean to heroic individualism, or 3) an example of Nietzschean eternal recurrence. Take your pick, but it's a cool song.

It is a single of the 1985 debut LP "Highwayman". Cash, Jennings, Nelson & Kristofferson are four of the main figures in "Outlaw Country", which is a lot more fun than the lifeless, corporate- & RNC-approved pablum that currently passes for country.

Link: YouTube (live 1993)

Bonus Links #1, studio version: last.fm, YouTube (cheesy video alert!).

Bonus Links #2, Jimmy Webb version: last.fm, YouTube.

Bonus Link #3, Glen Campell: live 1992.  

(Thanks to Joy for the updated links: 2015-03-07)