Lykke Li shares affecting cover of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’
As part of a new Netflix soundtrack, alternative indie-pop singer .cohas applied her distinctive style to Johnny Cash’s timeless anthem, ‘Ring Of Fire’. Merging classic acoustic guitars with haunting new sounds, it’s a hypnotic take.
It’s been a while since the world heard from Lykke Li. This cover marks her first release since her 2022 single, ‘Possibility’. Known before for her single ‘I Follow Rivers’, Li’s merge of indie with electro and pop details earned her a cult following who will be overjoyed by this news. Her vocals remain as wistful and angelic as ever, drawing out the thoughtfulness in the lyricism of Cash’s country classic.
“I think the beauty of the song, what I realized too when you break it down, is that Johnny Cash’s version has tempo and all of those other things… It’s him,” Li told Variety. “It could even be a lullaby. But that goes for every great song. It’s a classic. Timeless.”
While honouring Cash’s original 1963 track, Li wanted to reinterpret the track in her own way without overthinking it too much. “I sat down at the piano and the first thing that came out of my mouth was what I recorded,” she said.
Looking at the track with fresh eyes helped her reshape it to something delicate and soft as she explained, “To be honest, the only version I’ve ever heard in my whole life is the Johnny Cash version, so I had no real history. I just went into it pretty blank… You can feel that energy on the recording, so it’s a very important process for me to keep it live and keep the tension.”
The track comes as part of a soundtrack for a new Netflix movie, Damsel. The cover will play as the credits roll, capping off a tense and dramatic film in a suitable fashion. The fantasy movie tells the story of a woman who marries into a royal family, only to find that she’s been selected to be sacrificed to a dragon, starring Millie Bobbie Brown in the leading role.
Drawing a line of reference between the film’s plot and the story of Johnny and June Cash, Li said she wanted to emphasise the “haunting quality that it is to fall in love.” Speaking about the couple she said, “[Carter Cash] was like, ‘Shit, I’m about to fall in love and it’s going to blow up and ruin my life.’ But also there’s no other way… It really is like stepping into a ring of fire.”
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