Johnny Cash introduced this song to the masses when he included a haunting version of it on his 2000 album American III: Solitary Man — likely at the behest of producer Rick Rubin. This YouTube clip culled from a show last year in Copenhagen finds the song’s author, Will Oldham (aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) alone on stage with his acoustic guitar, slowly shaking his head and singing the bitter lyric as if he were alone in his bedroom. The song is both an acknowledgment of utter despair and a plea for salvation, sung with the conviction of man who has surely confronted life’s darkest corners.
This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2008.