Johnny Cash and reincarnation

Sorry for the weird thread title and if it was misleading i apologize. This maybe a bit of a stretch here but I think the lyrics in the following Johnny Cash song Highwayman may have some of Johnny's thoughts on reincarnation written in it. Maybe not though, just a thought. It's an interesting song either way, especially the last verse

I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around

I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again..

Any Thoughts?

I think alot of songs have meaning in them like this one,it might be documented somewhere that he believed in reincarnationbut if not it;'s an interesting look into his mind and what he throught of the otehr side so to speak

Just a point of interest for you.

That song was a compilation sung with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, but it was written by Jimmy Webb.

Obviously the song is about reincarnation, but the idea didn't come from any member of the Highwaymen Group.

EDIT: Link for reference.
allmusic.com...:fpftxql5ldke~T3



[edit on 24/7/2007 by anxietydisorder]

anxiety disorder, i never knew that. thanks for clearing that up for me.

i was aware that willie nelson was in the song but none of the others you mentioned.

i was also unaware that johnny cash didnt write the song.

thanks for the information

Your welcome for the info, and I'll tell you what I get out of it:

This is one of my favorite songs of all time, and the ideas presented in the song feel like what I've gone through for millennium. It makes me feel warm and sad at the same time when I listen to the words.
I really thank for posting it.

I hope you sit back tonight with a set of headphones, close your eyes and block out the world. Turn it up and listen to the words.

What the hell, listen to it twice.

I've never listened to it like that, just in the car or chillin' at home on my computer. I do listen to music every night before bed though. with my eyes closed, laying in my bed.

i'll add it to my "bed time playlist"

chEErs

I have another song I want you to listen to, they seem to go together.
It starts out very slow, but it builds really well as it goes along.
I'll post the lyrics, but I want you to get a copy to listen to.

Cathedral

Six o' clock
In the morning, I feel pretty good
So I dropped into the luxury of the Lords
Fighting dragons and crossing swords
With the people against the hordes
Who came to conquer.

Seven o'clock
In the morning, here it comes
I taste the warning and I am so amazed
I'm here today, seeing things so clear this way
In the car and on my way
To Stonehenge.

I'm flying in Winchester cathedral
Sunlight pouring through the break of day.
Stumbled through the door and into the chamber;
There's a lady setting flowers on a table covered lace
And a cleaner in the distance finds a cobweb on a face
And a feeling deep inside of me tells me
This can't be the place

I'm flying in Winchester cathedral.
All religion has to have its day
Expressions on the face of the Saviour
Made me say
I can't stay.

Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here!
Too many people have lied in the name of Christ
For anyone to heed the call.
So many people have died in the name of Christ
That I can't believe it all.

And now I'm standing on the grave of a soldier that died in 1799
And the day he died it was a birthday
And I noticed it was mine.
And my head didn't know just who I was
And I went spinning back in time.
And I am high upon the altar
High upon the altar, high.

I'm flying in Winchester cathedral,
It's hard enough to drink the wine.
The air inside just hangs in delusion,
But given time,
I'll be fine.

All credit goes to:
Crosby, Stills, Nash - Vocals
Graham Nash - Piano
Joe Vitale - Drums, Timpani, Percussion
George Perry - Bass
Mike Lewis, David Crosby, Graham Nash & Joel Bernstein - String Arrangements
www.sing365.com...]Source



If you have the chance to listen to this song it has a powerful message.

well i happen to be a fan of crosby stills and nash so you wont have to badger me to get me to listen to this song!

i'm sure my step dad has it on a CD downstairs, i'm going to give it a listen

thanks for the recommendation man

Please let me know what you think of Cathedral after you hear it a couple times.

Songs like this had a huge influence on my life, and I put them in the same category as Hotel California and Stairway To Heaven.

But don't think I'm totally old school, I also like Cleaning Out My Closet by Eminem, and I'm not opposed to Happiness In Slavery by Nine Inch Nails.
It's all music, and I play Bach and Chopin as much as Insane Clown Posse.


I may be old, but here's some advice.
If you find no other pleasure in life, at least enjoy the music.

Totally agree the words of this song ring of reincarnation...Johnny Cash will always be with us in his songs even the ones he didn't write. I love his version of Hurt written by Nine Inch Nails.

Here are the boys singing the song...enjoy all...

Whatever Nine Inch Nails did with the song, I don't think they did it justice, and the video made me sick.

"Hurt" was Johnny Cash's swan song, and what a nice way to end his life.

"The Highwayman," meanwhile, found a warm reception among country superstars. Glen Campbell made it the title track of a 1979 LP, and it was a big hit in 1985, logically enough, for the Highwaymen, the country supergroup with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. "I play an acoustic picking style on the piano which I sort of learned to do years ago," observed Webb in SongTalk. "Which is why 'Highwayman' sounds like a guitar song, I think. What really sugggested the song is a very vivid dream I had in London. And it was the only one I ever had like that. And in essnece, it's the first verse of the song. It was a wild pursuit of me by guys with...It was just terrying and I woke up and I had sweat pouring off of me. I had a piano in my suite and I went right to the piano."

Continued Jimmy, "The last three verses are kind of suggested by the first. I just put another layer on and then another layer on and worked on the original idea. It is not meant to be a personal account of channeling or anything like that. It has, for me, a lot of symbolism. It's about the kind of people who built this country up. The first verse is the rogue, the outlaw nation, the highwayman nation. The second verse is the seafaring nation; the trading and the growth of a nation, and its subsequent generations adding to that. And then the dam builder is a generation of construction and science and technology. And then the last verse is a spacefarer; he's gonna fly a starship. And so, it's an American allegory. It's Everyman, in a way...You know, I like that song so much that on the inner sleeve of my album, El Mirage, is a photo of Hoover Dam. That picture just terrifies me for some reason. It's so solemn, it's so...magnificent. It has such power, that image. The mass of that dam. And the truth is that guys were trapped in it."

Source

Here is Jimmy Webbs take on how and why he wrote the song.

[edit on 24/7/07 by Rhain]

awesome rhain thanks a lot for your input!

seems to be that jimmy believes we are all one in the same/ all part of the same conscious group and linked together spiritually.

or maybe this is just what I believe and what it sounds like to me

Originally posted by Rhain


Here are the boys singing the song...enjoy all...

hey thanks, i've never seen that before!

I just discovered this song myself, came here and had to type it in the search box. Thanks for all the info. Music really captures moments, then lets them go.