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Monday, September 5, 2011

THE MAN COMES AROUND (video)


I heard this song for the first time when I watched "The Hunted" (Tommy Lee Jones' movie). It is in the end credits of the film. And the song kept on playing in my mind long after the film has ended and I went to sleep.

The next morning I checked in the internet to know what Johnny Cash's album in which this song is contained. Then I called a local CD store. Fortunately, they have this album.

Hurriedly, I drove to the store to pick up the CD.

Since then, this song is becoming one of my favorite from Johnny Cash's songs.


Below is the background story of the song "The Man Comes Around" which I copied and pasted from wiki.

(Joseph Pratana)

"The Man Comes Around" is the title track from Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around, released in 2002. It is one of the last songs Cash wrote in his life.

Of the album's fifteen tracks, only three were written by Cash, with "The Man Comes Around" the sole song specifically penned for it. Both sung and spoken, the song makes numerous Biblical references, especially from the Book of Revelation. The titular "Man" inferentially refers to Jesus Christ and the Second Coming.


Symbols and references in the lyrics

The phrase "There's a man going around taking names" which begins the song is not merely a Biblical reference, it also refers to the song of that name popularized by folk singer Lead Belly.

A spoken portion from Revelation 6:1-2 in the King James Version introduces the song. This portion of Scripture describes the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, each heralded by one of the "four beasts" first mentioned in Revelation 4:6-9. The musical portion then begins with Cash reciting that a man will one day come to pass judgment. The chorus indicates that these events will be accompanied by trumpets, pipers, and "one hundred million angels singing". The voice of the Lord in Revelation is often likened to the sound of a loud trumpet. (Revelation 1:10; 4:1; and 8:13) Revelation 5:11 states that John saw that there are millions of angels in Heaven.

The line "There'll be a golden ladder reaching down." references to Jacob's dream of a ladder or stairwell (Jacob's ladder) from earth to heaven and God's subsequent blessing of Jacob in Genesis 28:12.
"Or disappear into the potter's ground" is a reference to the field that was purchased with the money Judas Iscariot received for betraying Jesus as recorded in Matthew 27:3-10. The field was purchased by the chief priests "as a burial place for strangers" (New American Standard).

"It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come" is a reference to the book of Revelation. God refers to himself as "the Alpha and the Omega" in Revelation (1:8; 21:6; 22:13). Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, hence God is, "the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

The lines "Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still. Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still." is another reference to the book of Revelation (22:11).

The chorus also repeats the point that "the whirlwind is in the thorn tree". This reference is explained in Cash's 1997 autobiography with Patrick Carr, "Cash" (HarperCollins). He writes that Queen Elizabeth II (whose coronation Cash witnessed while he was serving as a US Airman) appeared to him in a dream and said "Johnny Cash, you're a thorn bush in a whirlwind". Cash later found the same reference in the Book of Job, and was inspired to write thirty-three verses of what would become "The Man Comes Around".

In the line, "Till Armageddon, no Shalam, no Shalom," Armageddon refers to the climactic battle between good and evil in Revelation 16:16. Shalom means "peace" in Hebrew. Shalam might reference Salaam, meaning "peace" in Arabic, or could refer to "Shalam" the equivalent word in Aramaic language spoken by Judean contemporaries of Jesus (and as Syriac language by Iraqi Assyrian Christians today). Or possibly it could reference the Hebrew verb Shālam meaning "to be in a covenant of peace."

"The father hen will call his chickens home" is a reference to a lament Jesus spoke regarding Jerusalem as recorded in Luke 13:34.

One line says "The virgins are all trimming their wicks." This refers to a parable told by Jesus in Matthew 25:7. The women who were "trimming their wicks" were ready for Jesus' return.

The line "It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks" is from Acts 9:5. The apostle Paul also refers to the time when he was knocked to the ground by a voice from heaven in Acts 26:14. It reads, "And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." The Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech here reads, "You are finding it painful to kick against the ox-goad." Saul had been hunting and killing Christians and was now being called to reform by Jesus.

Cash then returns to spoken form, ending the song with a quotation from Revelation 6:6, 8 (just a few verses after the verses he quoted at the beginning of the song):
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts...
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him
The pale horse is the fourth horse.

Music

The arrangement of the song is sparse; two guitars, left hand piano, and an electric organ.

History

An alternate "early take" of the song appears on the Unearthed box set (2003) and The Legend of Johnny Cash (2005).
The song was listed as the 296th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.

Use in other media

This song was used during the opening credits of the film Dawn of the Dead as well as the closing credits for the films The Hunted and Linewatch, and the 2008 HBO mini-series Generation Kill. It is also featured in the film My Best Friend's Girl.

The song has been used in Gordon Ramsay's television series Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

In 2008, the song was featured prominently in the final scenes of the season one finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It also featured in the closing scenes of the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. It was also played in the Criminal Minds's episode Elephant's Memory.

In 2009, the song was used on the final episode of BBC's Being Human in the warm up to what is supposed to be a battle between Mitchell and Herrick.

In 2010, the song was featured in the episode "The Comeback Kid" on the series Chase.

In 2010 the song was featured in the teaser of the video game Operation Flashpoint: Red River



The Lyric

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder,
One of the four beasts saying, Come and see
And I saw, and behold a white horse.

There's a man going around taking names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There will be a golden ladder reaching down
When the man comes around

The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup?
Or disappear into the potter's ground
When the man comes around?

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Voices calling and voices crying
Some are born and some are dying
It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks

'Til Armageddon, no shalam, no shalom
Then the father hen will call his chickens home
The wise man will bow down before the throne
And at his feet, they'll cast the golden crowns
When the man comes around

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still
Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still
Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still
Listen to the words long written down
When the man comes around

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Voices calling and voices crying
Some are born and some are dying
It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks

In measured hundredweight and penny pound
When the man comes around

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts, 
And I looked and behold, a pale horse:
And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Comes_Around_(song)
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Johnny_Cash:When_The_Man_Comes_Around
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l79qc108jz1qza24u.jpg
http://perlbal.hi-pi.com/blog-images/267564/mn/1253636835/The-man-comes-around-American-Recordings-IV-Johnny-Cash.jpg
http://www.sweetslyrics.com/images/img_gal/7328_johnnycash1_h.jpg

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