The U2 song that featured Johnny Cash on vocals
After a surge of major mainstream success, U2 could have kept releasing knockoff versions of The Joshua Tree for the rest of their lives if they really wanted to. Although the band could have made re-runs of songs like ‘With Or Without You’ until the day they died, Achtung Baby marked a clear shift away from their usual sound, embracing the world of electronic music and Bono staking his claim as one of the most melodramatic rock stars of the modern age. While Zooropa benefited from even more sonic experiments, the band did get help from one of country music’s finest voices.
Having written classic songs like ‘One’ on their previous record, Zooropa was about expanding the parameters of what the band could do. Outside of the radio-friendly songs like ‘Lemon’, there were no limits on how far the band could go, with The Edge even taking a lead vocal on the single ‘Numb’.
When bringing the album to a spiritual close, the band sought the talents of country legend Johnny Cash to sing on the track ‘The Wanderer’. While the song is primarily an electronic instrumental, Cash’s booming voice roars over the synthetic haze, talking about wandering his way through the world, looking for some chance at salvation.
Although the song was certainly a shock upon release, the common threads become apparent in the lyrics. Though Bono was responsible for writing the words, most of the track pulls passages from the Bible, painting Cash as a man going through the remains of civilisation to see what the human experience has to offer.
When writing the song, Bono thought that the lyrics cut to the deepest depths of the human experience, remarking in U2 on U2, “The most extraordinary line is: ‘There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.’ Love your work. That’s what it is. It is good to love what you do. I think there’s a lot to that”.
With Bono already having a reputation as one of the most pompous faces in rock and roll, hearing these lyrics come out of Cash’s mouth feels much more poignant. Having been a fixture of music history and going through his creative reinvention with Rick Rubin at the time, Cash embodies the ideals of that world-weary traveller, looking to find any sign that the Earth is not as far gone as it seems.
Despite his minimal contributions, Bono thought the track was one of the group’s finest moments together, counting the experimental song among the best tracks that the band had ever made. Even though the song could be considered an afterthought, the lyrics carry extra weight when paired with the synthetic music.
While the rest of U2 fade into the background for most of the tune, the synthetic sides of the track seem to imply that Cash’s search for salvation will not come any time soon. As much as he might love seeing the good side of humanity, chances are he will be walking for a long time before he finds what he’s looking for.
