Two takes on death

I just spent an evening listening to a new Johnny Cash record, “American V: A hundred highways”, well and truly his swan song, since we sadly no longer have him with us. But I guess God must be mighty happy having him singing by the throne...

Well, listening to all those songs about caskets going down into the grave and children left weeping for their dead, I couldn´t help comparing it to Bob Dylan´s first record, from when he was just 21 years old. Also filled with songs about death and dying, yet radically different. It´s actually possible to sing an album´s worth of songs about death whilst being utterly confident about one´s immortality. That´s the Bob variant by the way, and it´s an absolutely brilliant display of youthful arrogance. Johnny is a bit different, naturally. He comes at you doing what he´s always done, singing about life and living as he sees it, correction, lives it. When asked about his new companion, he´ll simply say, “Oh him, don´t worry about him, that´s just Death. Can´t seem to get rid of him, but then again, what can he do to anyone?”

Indeed.