[CHAPTER 9] — JOHN THE REVELATOR

The music of Willie Johnson

John the Revelator is a song that I first encountered on a tribute album that introduced me to Willie Johnson's music. Tom Waits sang the version on that album. To be sure, it is an interesting take on the song with a haunting arrangement involving discordant bell sounds and a stomp beat accompaniment to Waits’ heavy vibrato gravel-tone voice. Like many of Johnson’s songs, this one has become somewhat of a standard for blues musicians, with many recording a version of the song.

Something that I found quite perplexing was that, although these artists talk about doing a cover of Johnson’s song, the song they play has a very different melody, and apart from the one line”who’s that writin’, John the Revelator,” it’s basically a completely different set of lyrics. From what I have been able to piece together, it seems all these blues artists are covering a song by another man named Son House. Son House has an interesting story, a deeply spiritual man in the Christian tradition, much like Johnson. He has a famous recording of John the Revelator from the early 1960s, where he performed solo acapella with only his hand clap accompanying him. Son House’s version of this song has a bluesy melody, and I think for that reason, many of the later artists would pick up his take on the song, including Waits and the version that appeared in the Sons of Anarchy television show.

Johnson’s version is one of a handful of his repertoire that does not involve slide work. For these songs, Johnson just strums his guitar on one chord for the whole song with a simple one-string melody that follows what is sung. I have only found a couple of cover versions that are true to Johnson’s lyrics and melody. Of note is a live recording sung by Nick Cave, the Australian rock star. Cave’s version of the song is incredibly haunting, which should not come as a surprise for anyone remotely familiar with his aesthetic sensibilities. Like much of Cave’s own music, John the Revelator is based on biblical material and takes its name from what is, to many people, the most haunting part of the Bible, the book of Revelation.

Even if you have never opened a Bible in your life, you are probably familiar with a few references that come from Revelation: the mark of the beast, 666, Armageddon, the Lake of Fire. If I were to talk about the “apocalypse” or describe something as being “apocalyptic”, I expect you would think I am talking about some disastrous event that is the end of the world as we know it. In reality, the reason you would think that is because of the last book in the Christian Bible, which was written in Greek, with the title “apokalypsis”, which translates into English as “Revelation”. For many people, Revelation is a scary book.

I grew up in a Christian household, and we were part of a few different churches when I was a child, but during my preteen years, I was in an environment that had a particular take on the book of Revelation. Without going into all the details, it would be fair to say that I now consider much of what I remember being exposed to concerning Revelation questionable. Whilst I certainly hope that no one had the intention of instilling terror into a young-ish child, I struggled with fear of being “left behind”. In reality, it went beyond fear; I had intense experiences where I was sure I had been left behind. It has only been in recent years that I have learnt that I was not alone in living with fear and anxiety surrounding what I had been taught about the “rapture”. Having made peace with that, I have come to appreciate some precious aspects of the Christian faith that come to us by way of the book of Revelation.

What I have had to learn, and perhaps this is good advice for anyone engaging with the book of Revelation, is that the book presents itself as a revelation of Jesus Christ, whose first words are “Do not be afraid”. The first recipients of this writing were a persecuted religious group under the tyrannical rule of an evil empire, and what they were receiving was intended to bring them hope. These matters are important because many people have been exposed to wild speculations, conspiracy theories, and predictions of doom that did not eventuate, and all of these take the focus off Jesus and make the book about something else.

He redeemeth, and bought us with his blood

In Johnson’s version of the song, there is a line that is taken from the book of Revelation; Jesus is said to have “bought us with his blood”. This idea comes up multiple times in Revelation, most notably in the heavenly song sung about Jesus: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”¹ Again, if you have never opened a Bible, I suspect you will have had enough exposure to the Christian religion to connect this language of blood to Jesus’ death on a Roman cross.

Cave’s version of the song changes one word on this line; he renders it “bought us with our blood”. I do not know why he would have done this, but it is something that I have not been able to shake. I wonder if it was intended to make some point and I struggle to imagine that is was an accident; that may bother me but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that what really concerns me is the way that Jesus’ death is often spoken of as a payment within my own Christian circles.

To be sure, the death of Jesus was in someway a payment of sorts. At least that is how it is spoken of theologically within the Bible. Interestingly, it seems that whenever the language akin to payment is used, it is always a certain kind of payment. Jesus himself spoke of giving his life as a ransom for many. This language of ransom is picked up multiple times in the New Testament. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks to the Christians as people who were “bought at a price”, much the same way as Revelation speaks of Jesus purchasing people for God.

It appears that from relatively early days through to the present, people have been prone to (mis)take the message of the Cross as a payment that Jesus makes to God. Gregory of Nazianzus was a prominent church leader in the fourth century, located in modern day Türkiye. When it comes to speaking of the events at the Cross, Gregory asks the important question: “To whom was that blood offered that was shed for us, and why was it shed?” For Gregory, it is clear that humanity was in bondage to the “Evil One”, and whilst Jesus gave his life as a ransom, it must not be considered a payment to tyranny. Likewise, Gregory asks how anyone could conceive of the ransom as being a payment to God the Father, as it was not God who was oppressing humanity, and why would the Father want the blood of the Son, as he did not even want the blood of Isaac when Abraham offered his son. Gregory believed that it was clear that the Father accepted the offering of the Son but in no way demanded his blood; rather, through the Incarnation, that is the Word becoming flesh in Jesus, God was saving humanity, overcoming the Evil One and reconciling the world to himself.²

For those of us that identify as Christians, Revelation reminds us that on the Cross, Jesus did not pay off God, he purchased us for God; a price was paid but it is important to remember it was a certain kind of payment, a payment that sets you free from bondage. Another thing that Revelation reminds us is that Trouble Will Soon Be Over.

1. Revelation 5:9 New International Version

2. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 45: The Second Oration on Easter.