This song is played during the closing scene of Generation Kill.I love the song - I love the combination of the sparseness and percussive rhythm of the guitar strumming, with the really beautiful melody of Cash's voice. The song, and the images of the Marines watching (or not watching) their montage of footage of the war was absolutely perfect to wrap-up the story - this scene was so powerful to me it made me want to go back and re-watch the entire series.
There seem to be all sorts of Biblical/mythical allusions going on (including a number of references to Revelations), and it sounds like some of the lines are a mix of the Bible and Cash's own personal spiritual experiences - I found this on Wikipedia:
"The whirlwind is in the thorn tree" reference is explained in Cash's 1997 autobiography with Patrick Carr ... he writes that Queen Elizabeth II (whose coronation Cash witnessed while he was serving as a US Airman) appeared to him in a dream and said "Johnny Cash, you're a thorn bush in a whirlwind." Cash later found the same reference in the Book of Job, and was inspired to write thirty-three verses of what would become "The Man Comes Around."133. What are David Simon and Ed Burns's next projects? These guys are freaking brilliant.
134. The effect of Cash's song made me think of my senior year class "Music and the Moving Image." What was that professor's name and has he continued to study soundtracks/MTV/etc.?
135. Who is the beneficiary of Cash's estate for purposes of royalties from his music? "Walk the Line" had all that stuff about family struggles -- are his children now watching over the rights to his music?
