My 25 Favorite Johnny Cash Songs: The Big Light (#18)

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Tired of those early rockabilly-era Johnny Cash songs, you say? Wanna hear a different era of Cash, you say? Gotcha covered with today's selection. #18: The Big Light A little bit of backstory before you recoil in horror at the thought of Johnny Cash covering an Elvis Costello song. Back in the late 60s and early 70s Cash had a network variety show on ABC. He had purely country regulars, such as the Statler Brothers, Homer & Jethro, and June Carter (who, coincidentally, got her professional recording start on a Homer & Jethro song in 1949). His guests, however, were a musical cornucopia of talent. CCR was on his show, for instance, along with Joe Tex, the Cowsills, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, performing on the same show as Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins, Tammy Wynette, and Doug Kershaw. Dylan was on the show (Cash was a big Dylan fan), as was Linda Ronstadt, and one of the final appearances of Louis Armstrong. Cash had the same philosophy as Duke Ellington: there's only two kinds of music in this world, good and bad. And if it was good, Cash would showcase it. That caused him to cover a lot of songs from a wide variety of musicians. Think about him doing a Nine Inch Nails song, for instance, or Bruce Springsteen songs, or Tom Petty, or Bob Seger, or...well, you get the idea. And there's another thing in this mix: Elvis Costello is a huge country music fan. His album Almost Blue is so influential in introducing a punk generation to country music that it could be considered his generation's Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. He has done duets with Loretta Lynn, Charlie Louvin, and Ricky Skaggs, among others. According to the video linked below, Costello gave Cash "The Big Light" before releasing it on his own King of America album. Honestly, this has Cash's fingerprints all over it to the point where you'd swear Cash wrote it...or Costello wrote it for Cash. This is a beautifully and hilariously detailed look at a hangover. (And yes, I had a nasty one when I was in the Navy, so I know that they aren't a laughing matter while you're experiencing it!) The chorus of waking up to the sun with the throbbing head -- "the big light came through my window and it opened up my eyelids, and it snapped 'em up like roller blinds" -- is splendid. This is one of Costello's best songs, and I love his version to death. Cash put enough of his own stamp on the song without going too far to make this a great Johnny Cash song as well. The Big Light Written by Elvis Costello From Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town, 1987 Here's the Austin City Limits version, featuring Cash's step-daughter Carlene Carter (daughter of June Carter and Carl Smith) and the other Carter Sisters: