The Juke Joint

I just finished watching Singapore Idol and was oddly motivated to seek out this MTV that I saw a while back and left a lasting impression on me.

In this one, Johnny Cash does his take of a Nine Inch Nails song written by Trent Reznor and makes it his own. It starts off with him picking on a black acoustic guitar, his signature baritone noticeably subdued, frail even, but lacking none of the nuance. In all his wizened, wrinkled glory and dressed in black (he was, the Man in Black afterall), he sings a song that pretty much sums up his life juxtaposed against clips and images of his younger days. The lyrics are simple yet poetic and surreal, especially if you’ve read his life story of drug abuse, religious issues, family and love. Ominous monotone piano tolls like a bell throughout, pushed on by pounding acoustic guitars getting louder and louder as he delves deeper into his past and culminating in an abrupt deafening silence.

I’d love to see what he would have had to say if he were to judge American Idol.




But then again, I don’t think he would have made it past the first round.