Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” shows off the transformative power of music!
“This song has had a lot of different lives,” says Crow of the track that originally appeared on her Grammy-winning, triple Platinum album Sheryl Crow in 1996. “It’s led me to some strange and interesting opportunities.”
A catalyst to writing “Redemption Day,” Crow visited Bosnia with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton unbeknownst a storied history spanning more than 20 years would follow.
“I’d never been anywhere even close to a war-torn area,” Crow expresses of the trip, where she visited military bases, played for troops and met with families. But when she returned home, the news was covering the ongoing genocide in Rwanda. Sifting through feelings of confusion – “We had all these resources tied up in Bosnia, and I kept thinking about how and why do we choose where to get involved. Is it desire for control, greed for oil—what is it?”
She then sat down to write a song. At the time, her hope was actually to write about a break-up, but instead, out came a “diatribe from somewhere in my subconscious,” challenging the motivations behind war.
In 2003, one of Johnny Cash’s sons-in-law played “Redemption Day” for the Man in Black, who then wanted to talk to her. “He asked a lot of questions about different lines and what I meant,” says Crow. “He didn’t want to put his voice to the song without being able to believe it heart and soul.”
Cash recorded the song and told Crow that he felt it was the cornerstone of his next album, but his version wasn’t released until 2010’s American VI: Ain’t No Grave album. While on tour in 2014, Crow performed “Redemption Day” as a duet with Cash’s recording, projecting his image onstage—which inspired her to approach his estate with the idea of re-recording a collaboration of their voices for her new project.
Director Shaun Silva coupled footage of Cash next to scenes of a young child watching history unfold, in all of its tragedy and triumph, throughout Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” music video as a somber yet hopeful Crow carries the melody.
“As a mom of two young kids,” shares Crow, “I see that our kids watch what we do on their behalf and how we shape their future. They’re privy to everything visual, especially now, and there’s no way to shield your child from the roughness of reality. If we could see the world through a child’s eyes, we would make different decisions.”
Watch Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” music video featuring Johnny Cash below!
Incorporating Cash into the project – alongside songs with other friends from Keith Richards to Stevie Nicks to St. Vincent – is more meaningful to Crow than just the sound and memory of one of America’s greatest icons.
“With what’s happening in our nation now, and how dire things look, to have Johnny’s voice offers some hope,” she says. “Knowing how he felt about the song, I feel pretty certain that he would have some wisdom to impart about what’s happening now and who we are becoming. I hope that wherever he is, he feels proud to be a part of it—I certainly feel his presence in the song.”
Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” Lyrics
I’ve wept for those who suffer long
But how I weep for those who’ve gone
Into rooms of grief and questioned wrong
But keep on killing
It’s in the soul to feel such things
But weak to watch without speaking
Oh what mercy sadness brings
If God be willing
There is a train that’s heading straight
To Heaven’s gate, to Heaven’s gate
And on the way, child and man
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day
Fire rages in the streets
And swallows everything it meets
It’s just an image often seen
On television
Come leaders, come ye men of great
Let us hear you pontificate
Your many virtues laid to waste
And we aren’t listening
There is a train that’s heading straight
To Heaven’s gate, to Heaven’s gate
And on the way, child and man
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day
What do you have for us today
Throw us a bone but save the plate
On why you waited ’til so late
Was there no oil to excavate?
No riches in trade for the fate
Of every person who died in hate
Throw us a bone, you men of great
There is a train that’s heading straight
To Heaven’s gate, to Heaven’s gate
And on the way, child and man
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day
It’s buried in the countryside
It’s hidden in the shells of night
It’s everywhere a baby cries
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
