"God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash
One of the last recordings by Johnny Cash. You can hear every mile of hard-living in his voice. The power is gone, but what’s left still amazes.
“God’s Gonna Cut You Down” comes from American V: A Hundred Highways, released in 2006 and produced by Rick Rubin. It’s one of the last recordings that by bona fide country royalty Johnny Cash. You can hear every hard-lived mile of an extraordinary life in his voice. The power is gone, but what’s left can still amaze. Gravitas comes in spades. It's an unshakable presence expertly captured by a flawless production.
Johnny Cash died in 2003. He was 71 years old. The American V: A Hundred Highways album was posthumously released on July 4, 2006, by American Recordings. As the title states, it is the fifth entry in Cash's American series. It was his first No. 1 album in 37 years.
Cash performs "God's Gonna Cut You Down" with all the expert craftsmanship and talent one would expect from an entertainment giant with a resume spanning over seven decades. He inhabits the music. Each line sounds lived, each breath comes hard-earned.
The production and arrangement is appropriately sparse for a traditional American Folk song, but it's not simple. There are claps and stomps paying tribute to the song's folk roots. Jangly strings haunt the mix. But nothing crowds the vocal. Distractions are few. Space is ample. Every sound exists to frame Cash's deftly captured voice.
Also notable is a departure from the typical arrangements of the dozens of gospel recordings that have come and gone over the years. Here is an example of a more traditional arrangement as performed by The Golden Gate Quartet.
Rubin’s production is brilliant in refusing to hide age or imperfection. Rather, it draws those rough edges into razor-sharp focus and invites us to come closer. On a good hi-fi system or headphones, you can hear the creak of a chair, the draw of breath, small clicks of the guitar strings, and a dozen other artifacts of the room. It’s less a studio recording than a document of presence (these sessions were captured in Cash's living room).
Lyrically, "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is both a threat and a promise. “You can run on for a long time…” Cash doesn’t shout it. He warns it. There’s menace, but also hope. A hope that justice, however slow, still arrives. Perhaps not even in this life.
Listen for: The labored breath between lines; multi-layered guitars, harpsichord, piano, and organ that somehow manage not to overcrowd; and how the room itself feels like part of the performance.
Data
Song: God's Gonna Cut You Down
Album: America V: A Hundred Highways
Artist: Johnny Cash
Genre: Folk
Year: 2006
Length: 2:39
Composer: Johnny Cash
Producer: Johnny Cash, Rick Ruben
