Monday, March 3, 2025
Time: 6:10 AM
Song: Highway Patrolman
Artist: Johnny Cash
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while working out.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1GalAzXQW0EB8YhqPHnzFS?si=6ada0cfba8344d16
Near the end of his life, Johnny Cash gained a last modicum
of popularity with his cover of the Nine-Inch Nails song “Hurt.” The Man in
Black turned Trent Reznor’s grim tale of drug abuse into a heartbreaking eulogy
for popular music’s senior voice.
This success made it easy to forget that Cash spent much of
last half of his career pushing his limits by covering other artist’s songs. The
American Recordings, a series of five albums beginning in 1994, were comprised of
popular songs from popular artists all set to Johnny’s deep voice.
We’ll this one is from way before that. Bruce Springsteen
released “Highway Patrolman” in 1982 on the “Nebraska” album, and Johnny
included his cover on his 1983 album “Johnny 99.” The title track was also a Springsteen
song.
I’m a pretty big Springsteen fan, but “Highway Patrolman”
was never a song that I listened to all that much. That being said, I think
this is another case of Johnny taking a song and making it his own. It’s a
better song with Cash on the lead, and it sounds very much like something he
would have written in the 1960s.
Of course, Springsteen always had success with other people
covering his tunes.
Most people don’t even realize that “Blinded By The Light”
is his because Manfred Mann took it and turned it into something completely
different. And, then there is also Patti Smith taking “Because the Night” to
new heights.
I wrote the other day on when covers go wrong, or at the
very least fall short, but I do believe there is an opportunity in covers. A
chance to turn the song into something else, and to expand the horizon’s set by
the original artist.
No comments:
Post a Comment