From a Joaquin Pheonix fan site.
Sam Phillips: "I'm sorry, I can't market gospel no more."
John: "So nothing?"
Sam Phillips: "I don't record material that doesn't sell, Mr. Cash, and gospel...like that... doesn't sell..."
John: "Is it the gospel or the way I sing it?"
Sam Phillips: "Both."
John: "What's wrong with the way I sing?"
Sam Phillips: "I don't believe you."
John: "You want to say I don't believe in God?"
Marshall: "Come on, J.R., let's go!"
John: "No. I don't understand, I mean, we come down here, we play for a minute, and he tells me I don't believe in God."
Sam Phillips: "You know exactly what I'm telling you. We've already heard that song, a hundred times. Just like that, just like how you sang that."
John: "You didn't let us bring it home."
Sam Phillips: "Bring it home? Alright let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck, and you were lying there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing one song. Huh? One song people would remember before you're dirt, one song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on earth. One song that would sum you up. You're telling me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio, all day. About your peace within, and how it's real and how you're gonna shout it. Or ... would you sing something different, something real, something you felt. Because I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear, that's the kind of song that truly saves people. It got nothing to do with believing in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believing in yourself."
John: "Well, I wrote a few songs in the Air Force. Have you got something against the Air Force, Mr. Phillips?"
Sam Phillips: "No..."
John: "I do."
For those who have seen it, the above discussion is between Johnny Cash and someone who works for a record company in Walk the Line. The movie was hardly a happy-go-lucky film, but of everything in the movie this felt the most honest (besides the believing in yourself politically correct trash that wouldn't have even been uttered in those days). I have begun to really enjoy Johnny Cash's lyrics even in his songs that I don't enjoy as much musically because they feel brutally honest.
Being that I have grown up in the church culture I am so used to the appearances. People learn to use Christian words because it identifies who they are. People learn to talk victoriously because Christians shouldn't feel defeated. People learn that the perceived sin is worse than the real sin. I don't want to say that perceptions aren't important, because they are. What I want to say is that there are specific situations when appearances matter (like when doing something makes you look like a hypocrite) and many when they don't.
I hate using Christian words and phrases and I hate hearing them because they are a mental flag that whatever is being said has no substance. I know I have heard the phrase "praise the Lord" used in many situations where I questioned whether the speaker really understood what the phrase is supposed to mean. I have been in services where people who normally speak regular American English start speaking and praying in Olde English I presume because it sounds holier.
Cash probably hits the other extreme, but because of his cold honesty his message hits home to me a lot quicker than traveling evangelists ever do. I just wish that more Christians understood that. Twould encourage thine heart greatly.
8 comments:
Agreed!
That conversation in the movie really struck a chord with me too!
I used to only listen to christian music, but the CCM market has left a bad taste in my mouth. I prefer the honesty of those outside that market and how they relate to God than those inside who have to meet their quota of JPM's. (Jesus' per minute)
Johnny Cash is frequently played when I take roadtrips. It's good driving through the farms of kansas music.
BTW, I don't find the "believe in yourself" comment a politcally correct statement in the context of the quote.
Sam is telling Cash that he is a poser because he dosen't even believe in what he is singing. He wants honesty in the lyric and if we believe that Cash means it then the audience will buy into it.
I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
In Alice in Wonderland Alice is chided one time that she should say what she means. She retorts that she did mean what she said, only to be instructed that the two are not the same thing.
I did not interpret "believe in yourself" to mean "sing what you believe" because they aren't the same thing. That probably is what Sam Phillips meant, though.
I should have been said (to clarify my interpretation from the standard PC mumbo jumbo):
"you got to believe it yourself."
Well, same thing. I think that a more literally accurate statement wouldn't have flowed quite as well. I just tried to write one and it didn't have the punch that the original did.
Of course, it was still not literally accurate.
I always found Cash's lyrics so believable too. It's like he lived his songs
Love ist a burning thing
and it doth make a firery ring
bounded by a wildeth desire
I fell in to thy ring of fire
I fell into thy burning ring of fire
I didst go down,down,down
and thine flames went higher.
And it doth burn,burn,burn
thy ring of fire
thy ring of fire.
That is hilarious.
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