Tune That Name: B

Oh, God save the human cannonball …

“Belshazzar,” Johnny Cash
“Ben’s Song,” Sarah McLachlan
“Bennie and the Jets,” Elton John
“Dr. Bernice,” Cracker
“Oh Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess?” Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
“Black Betty,” Ram Jam
“Where the Hell Is Bill?” Camper Van Beethoven
“Billie Jean,” Neil Finn
“Billie’s Blues,” Billie Holiday
“Billy’s Bones,” Dropkick Murphys
“Billy’s Bones,” The Pogues
“Ode to Billy Joe,” Gigi Dover
“Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” Bruce Springsteen
“Blake Says,” Amanda Palmer
“One (Blake’s Got a New Face),” Vampire Weekend
“Bobby Jean,” Bruce Springsteen
“Me and Bobby McGee,” Allison Crowe
“Me and Bobby McGee,” Janis Joplin
“Song to Bobby,” Cat Power
“Brenda,” Vigilantes of Love
“Bryn,” Vampire Weekend
“Bud Morris,” Ballydowse
“Buzz Fledderjohn,” Tom Waits

This list includes songs in which both Bruce Springsteen and Amanda Palmer channel Lou Reed — Palmer probably succeeds more. And with the Dropkick Murphys, the Pogues, and Ballydowse, it’s a pretty good list for punk shanties.

“Belshazzar,” Johnny Cash says, was the first song he played for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. It’s a jaunty little Southern Gospel song, until you listen to the lyrics, which walk that fine line where the prophetic meets the apocalyptic. “Your kingdom cannot stand,” Daniel tells the emperor and the oppressor. Theologically, that’s not the stuff of white Southern Gospel, but of Black Gospel. It’s more “Let My People Go” than it is “I’ll Fly Away.”

The term “liberation theology” scares a lot of people because they don’t know what it means. When you meet somebody like that, play Johnny Cash’s “Belshazzar” for them, that’ll explain it.

(The term “liberation theology” also scares a lot of people because they do know what it means. When you meet somebody like that, play “Belshazzar” for them and scare ’em a little more.)