The Old Account

We.., Senate bill 3930 has passed, making it more and more possible for someone like me to be locked up and not given access to a lawyer or my family or pretty much anything other than a hood and some hypothermia. Of course I'm being melodramatic, but not nearly as much as you would think. I've written no fewer than 14 letters this morning about just how pissed I am about this. We're basically allowing ourselves carte blanche when locked in a room with a terror suspect, and no fear of being prosecuted for a war crime. This isn't to be taken lightly. I mean, think about how many people we've already admitted to wrongly accusing of being a terror suspect, compounded by however many might be locked up in Guantanamo as I'm writing this. and think about how, whatever we're allowed to dso, the C.I.A. is going to go much further than that. Do we want to do this to the rest of the world? Didn't we have a moral high ground once? It felt like it, but in retrospect it probably had more to do with secret torture sites and black ops than being better than our enemies that torture. We are medieval dungeon masters. We are Soviet Russia. Welcome to this shit. I think what pisses me off the most is that so many of the supporters of this bill rely so heavy on touting themselves as decent Christians. Are you fucking kidding me? I'm sorry, but allowing this is not Christian, and if Janet Jackson's half-tit bothered you more than this, then something is seriously wrong with your set of ethics. Seriously, I could go on about this all day (I kinda of already have), but I don't want to do that, because it's friday and while I only have a fraction of a plan on what I'm doing tonight, I'm still not in the mood to stew over this. I promised myself a long time ago that I wasn't goint to become the sort of person who complains about politics and the suffering in the world all the time. After all, if the people missing limbs from our mines can have a good time, I guess I can to. God knows my conscience deserves it. So that's all I'm gonna say about that for now.
I found out the other day that they're re-re-re-releasing Johnny Cash's San Quentin show, which kinda pisses me off because I've already paid for it twice (is there a way to trade in old copues of reissues? this is bullshit!), but i'm also pretty psyched because it is, after all, one of the greatest live recordings of all time. It really is a wonder to behold, and while I was going to post a bunch of the more popular songs and the like (I should probably just go ahead and post the whole album so those dicks at Columbia realize how annoying it is), I settled on two songs, both of which are largely religious.
Obviously, I'm not a religious guy. I've got my own little system of faith, but it's not something I'd be vain enough to call a religion. That said though, if I was a religious guy, I'd want to be religious like Johnny Cash. He was a badass, and he did shit his own way, and while he had his issues with drugs and alcohol and god knows what else, he never got all preachy like a seemingly large number of born-agains do. He was proud of his religion, and humble before his god. His god, mind you, not the person telling him about his god. There's a difference. In any case, Johnny Cash grew up on these songs, and learned them again when he was wooing June from the Carter Family. Listening to these songs, you can tell he sees religion as a source of joy, a source of sorrow, and pain, and forgiveness. He saw religion a way of life, but not all of it, and I think that's a lesson a lot of people need to learn and right quick.
The first song here is one of the saddest songs I know, and every time I hear it I can't help but just shut up and sit still for a minute to appreciate it. The Carter family in the back, singing like they know it, it's enough to get me to think for a second that there might just be something at the end of it all.
The second song is one of those songs I had to check and make sure I haven't posted it already, because like so many of my favorite songs (and there are hundreds), I always just assumed that I couldn't wait and posted this as soon as I started this. It turns out I didn't, and happy for that, because I need something to bring y'all up after that last song. This is a song about where we lie on god's tally of sins. But that doesn't really matter. Because this is the end of the night playing in front of a giant prison, and everyone gathering on the stage. There's Carl Perkins and the Carter singers, and the man himself, who takes the first verse.
It's no secret that Johnny Cash has his trials with June's family, but here they appear in the chorus behind him, loving and providing harmony. and then June, one of their own, steps up, and you can hear the Carters buck up a little bit. They put some excitement into it. But it's not until Carl Perkins (whose own contributions to music could never be overstated) steps up and just brings the whole fucking place down around him. I like to think of these prisoners who've been getting the time of their lives all night just leaping for joy during this part of the song. Their accounts can be wiped! Nothing is out of the question. and the Carters, they sound for the first time that they're truly having fun. They sound...loose even, like they know that while they've led pious, straight lives, they know that sometimes you just have to lose yourself in the moment and enjoy yourself. The effect that this song has on me is profound, and I don't think I've ever heard it without finding myself exhausted at the end of it. 2:16 and I'm exhausted. If that isn't a ringing endorsement, than I don't know what one is.

(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley - Johny Cash & The June, Helen Anita, & Maybelle Carter
The Old Account Was Settled long Ago - Johnny Cash, the Carters, & Carl Perkins

Buy the old version of San Quentin here.