Fifty Years ago Johnny Cash did Folsom Prison...

Back in the mid-1950’s Sun Studios was home to, what we previously dubbed, The Nativity Scene of Rock and Roll. Elvis Presley was “born” here. Jerry Lee Lewis too. Carl Perkins made his bones here, and so did Johnny Cash. Of the four, there’s no question who became the true breakout. Carl Perkins was influential in more subtle ways, and of course, Jerry Lee Lewis (“the killer”) inspired countless other piano-rockers, but Elvis was the biggest star Sam Phillips ever produced.

Johnny Cash was a pretty amazing silver-medalist, however.

Cash was, put simply, one of the greatest storytellers in American history. He may not have penned a best selling novel or made a name for himself as a columnist or filmmaker, but as a musical artist, none have been better able to use the art of song to tell tales of sorrow and joy, romance and heartache, and certainly life and death. Elvis had the brighter star, but his light went out after just two decades of performing; Cash continued to write and record his stories all the way up to his death at age seventy-one. For five decades Johnny Cash plucked his guitar and sang his stripped-down, country songs.

But after just fifteen years of songwriting and hit-making, Cash entered the late sixties less relevant than ever.

There had been some modest hits leading up to 1967. 1963’s Ring of Fire went #1 and was his biggest hit record since I Walk the Line in 1956. After that, however, the pickings were slim. He hit #3 with The Ballad of Ira Hayes (penned by Peter La Farge) in late 64 and then opened 1965 with a follow up #3 song, Orange Blossom Special (penned by Bob Dylan). There wasn’t much to celebrate after that, however, in his personal life, the singer had spiraled into drug and alcohol addiction. He entered 1967 needing a fresh start and, more importantly, a new challenge.

Folsom Prison offered him both.

Cash of course first sang about the California penal institution in 1955, though the song was written two years earlier before he signed with Sam Phillips’ Memphis studio. After its success, Cash had wanted to followup the song with a concert at the jailhouse itself, but was denied the opportunity, first due to Phillip’s cash-strapped status and later due to Columbia Records’ (with whom he signed in the late 1950’s) insistence that such an idea was foolhardy.

It wasn’t until 1967 that Cash—desperate for something newsworthy and positive for a change—along with Bob Johnston (the new man Columbia put in charge of producing the singer’s material) decided to revisit the idea. Columbia’s hesitancy was still present but Johnston won the battle and the concert was booked for January of 1968.

You don’t need to hear ten seconds of the recordings (which total to just under an hour on the album) to know that this was going to be a special show. Johnny stepped onto the stage, leaned into the stand-up mic and uttered his famous line: “Hello I’m Johnny Cash.” to raucous applause.

Maybe it was the fact that this audience was a captive one (literally!), or that they were doing time in the infamous prison that he sang about as soon as his welcome applause simmered, or maybe it was just that they felt some brief semblance of humanity at being sung to by a storyteller who seemed interested in giving them a brief, fleeting, sliver of normalcy before they were forced to return to the drudgery of their captive state. Whatever it was, there was a genuine magic to the atmosphere and it comes through on the recordings.

Despite having an obvious hit on their hands, Columbia failed to give the album a proper marketing push. The record company was shifting their focus to Pop and more mainstream Rock and away from Country music. Nevertheless, word of mouth propelled the record to the Billboard Hot 100 a week before it topped the Country charts.

For a month, the album climbed and climbed, and only stalled in June of 68 when Robert Kennedy was murdered, promoting Columbia to pull the album’s lead single (Folsom Prison Blues, naturally), due to the infamous line “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.” The song’s live version was eventually edited to omit the line and re-released to stores and radio where it hit #1 on the Country chart and helped the album reach #1 on the same chart. In a twist of delightful irony, the album peaked at #13 on the Pop chart, again without the full weight of Columbia’s promotion (due to wanting to focus on “pop” stars).

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Music video by Johnny Cash performing Folsom Prison Blues (Live)

The legacy of the album can’t be overstated. Fifty years since its release, it continues to be a source of inspiration for every singer or band that plays an unorthodox gig (Metallica in Antarctica), or for every artist or group that returns to the spotlight thanks to a tremendous live performance (Queen at Live Aid), or for any artist or group looking to get back to their roots (Elvis’ own 1968 comeback, or even The Beatles’ 1968 White Album) or just for any singer-songwriter that, like Johnny Cash, battled through personal demons, continued plugging away and finally was rewarded with the recognition that was always due; Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is the standard.

Fifty years (and a few months) later, At Folsom Prison is still the standard, and remains a showcase for a great American storyteller.

COMMENTS

Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

7 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Salome G

1 year ago

Fun fact: This is my favorite album of all times.

Natasha Yves

Reply to Salome G

I second that! Every single track is amazing and the album itself can easily pass the “endless repeat” test. Just put it in, set the repeat feature to album, and throw away the remote!

Rob Duggat

2 years ago

Wow, 50 years ago and still going strong! Elvis has one of the biggest fan followings to this day. In an era where redoing the status quo seems to be common place it is not surprising to me that quality music of a former generation would still be so prevalent. Sam Phillips brought us some amazing inspirations to several genres!

Snarky-Guru

I enjoyed Johnny Cash’s role in The Devil Comes Back to Georgia. He could fiddle like no other and make it seem cool to boot.

Sharq

I was not even born during his era but I have listened to some of his songs; his style was so unique and captivating. Johnny Cash was truly a great artist.

Arabella

This is news to me too. I’m surprised he was able to get clearance for such a performance. Also odd that it didn’t upset his fans.

JJFletcher

I just watched a prison documentary about Folsom and they mentioned it. I had no idea he performed there, that is really cool. I’m going to have to listen to the recordings.

Cookie	Description
_pxvid	This cookie is used for detection of the browser and distinguishing whether it is a real user or malicious bot.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	This cookie is used to keep track of which cookies the user have approved for this site.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-preferences	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Preferences".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-uncategorized	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Uncategorized".
CraftSessionId	This cookie name is associated with the Craft web content management system, where is functions as an anonymous session identifier.
csrftoken	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
DSID	To note specific user identity. Contains hashed/encrypted unique ID.
JSESSIONID	Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
b30msc
btc
CMST
cref
d
gpl
i
icts
ig_did
mdata
na_rn
na_sc_e
na_sr
na_srp
session_depth
visitor-id

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
__stid	The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_60765351_1	Google uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
demdex	This cookie is set under the domain demdex.net and is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
DigiTrust.v1.identity	Registers data on visitors’ website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization.
dmvk	This cookie is set by DailyMotion who display videos, it registers statistical data of visitors' behaviour on the website.
gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
GPS	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
is_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
sc_is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
v1st	This is set by DailyMotion to display videos.

Cookie	Description
__asc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__auc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__qca	This cookie is associated with Quantcast and is used for collecting anonymized data to analyze log data from different websites to create reports that enables the website owners and advertisers provide ads for the appropriate audience segments.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_kuid_	The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising.
_px2	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxff_tm	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxhd	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
ab	This cookie is generally provided by agkn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
ayl_visitor	This cookie registers data on the visitor. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance.
bafp	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bafp_t	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_pl	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rf_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rt_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_t_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_td_2d31c94105a0aa6d1ceaea0c86c6b656	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bito	This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookies are generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bsc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement
CMID	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
dc_id	This cookie is used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.
did	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
didts	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
eud	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
euds	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
evo5_popin_instance	Prevents an interaction from reoccurring for visitors not accepting 3rd party cookies.
id	This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to build a profile of the website visitor's interests and show relevant ads on other sites.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
io.narrative.guid.v2	This cookie is generally provided by io.narrative.io and is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
matchliveramp	This cookie is provided by w55c.net and is used for advertising purposes.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
mxpim	This cookie is generally provided by mxptint.net for advertising purposes.
na_tc	This is a Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
nnls	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxrc	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxvid	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
rlas3	The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Cookie	Description
__jid	Cookies set on the website by the third-party commenting platform Disqus.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
disqus_unique	These cookies are set by Disqus so that users can comment on website/platform.
G_ENABLED_IDPS	The cookie is used by Google and is used for Google Single Sign On.
mid	The cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
na_id	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
ov	This is a generic functional cookie that provides enhanced functionality and personalisation.
ts	This cookie is generally provided by PayPal and supports payment services in the website.
vuid	These cookies are used by the Vimeo video player on websites.

Fifty Years ago Johnny Cash did Folsom Prison…

Music video by Johnny Cash performing Folsom Prison Blues (Live)

You might also like

FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

Recommended for you