Wanderer

We watched the Jonny Cash bio Walk The Line the other night.  What a brilliant film.  I don’t know much about Cash but the movie was very engaging.

Bono wrote a song for Cash called The Wanderer and it’s on the Zooropa album, performed by Cash himself.  You should search it out.  It is a stunning song, one of my favourites.  Here are the lyrics:

I went out walking through the streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones
Saw the skin and bones
Of a city without a soul
I went out walking under an atomic sky
Where the ground wont turn
And the rain it burns
Like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I went with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

I went drifting through the capitals of tin
Where men cant walk
Or freely talk
And sons turn their fathers in
I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they dont want God in it

I went out riding
Down that ol eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name

I went with nothing
But the thought youd be there too
Looking for you

I went out there
In search of experience
To taste and to touch
And to feel as much
As a man can
Before he repents

I went out searching, lookin for one good man
A spirit who would not bend or break
Who would sit at his fathers right hand
I went out walking with a Bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now jesus, dont you wait up
Jesus, Ill be home soon
Yeah I went out for the papers
Told her Id be back by noon

Yeah I left with nothing
But the thought youd be there too
Looking for you…
Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you…
I went wandering

It seems from the film that this song sums up Cash and his life.  deep, dark but ultimately hopeful.