Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer “Redemption Song”

What do DJ’s do in their free time? They DJ, of course.

Long before I worked at mvyradio, I was the guy who spent most of the Party fiddling with the stereo (which meant I was rarely the guy who took the girl home).

On the Saturday night of Newport Folk in 2008, the station hosted a House Party in Newport, featuring live music from Kate Taylor and Red Rooster and JP Jones. A really fun, loose time.

But by 2am or so, all the guests and bands and friends had gone to bed (or to other parties), and just a few of us hung on---Barbara, Nark, Jane the weekend DJ, Marianna from the office, and Joe, our President. And I sat in front of the stereo, trying to get the gang to dance (Naughty By Nature? No. Johnny Hoy? Yes.)

And when even this fighting few was worn out, I started spinning some wind-down tunes, to ease us out of a long, long day and night.

That’s when I played this cut, and I’ll always think of how Joe just nodded when the first notes hit, and he said the title, just the title, but with a weight that said way more than two words. His inflection said, “Yeah, this is the song. This is the song we need right now.”

Hear Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer “Redemption Song”


See the video Here