WALLS OF FOLSOM PRISON SHOOK THANKS TO THE MAN IN BLACK
As far as country music is concerned, it never came more raw and worts and all than Johnny Cash.
Unlike so many country artists, Cash lived as rough as the songs which he played, in place of a white sports coat and a pink carnation.
He earned the title of the `man in black` because he didn`t dress like a pop star but instead chose to wear black clothing which was the perfect fit, pardon the pun, for the stage persona which he adopted when performing live, and especially, for his legendary performances in some of America`s roughest prisons.
His music was always a slapped together
mixture of old time rockabilly and his own souped up interpretation of country music, which always had a hint of texas blues about it.
He was anything but a squeaky clean boy
from Nashville, it was always his destiny to wind up playing in a band with fellow anti-country music establishment renegades Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
That band was The Highwaymen, which formed in the mid 80`s. As much as Cash made some good studio albums, the fact remains that he was always better live in concert.
You really cant go past `At Folsom Prison` from 1968. No other record, not even his great performance at San Quentin prison which resulted in a follow up live album some years later, was as good as his original jail bird recording at Folsom prison.
Cash always wrote songs with a good dose of cynicism, and the lyrics to his songs were a perfect match for a bunch of hardened prisoners who were in the slammer for a very long time and lapping up every bit of satire that Cash sung about for their two hour reprieve from prison life.
Johnny Cash started off his concert with a ditty which he obviously wrote for the special event `Folsom Prison Blues` that
was followed by the exceptionally cynical `Busted`. `The third song `Dark as the Dungeon` confirmed Cash`s intentional resolve to sing songs that his prisoner audience could
relate to and not water his lyrics down to keep in sweet with the kind of front row audience which would have given most
performers stagefright.
`25 Minutes to Go` is the most lighthearted way you could possibly satiralize capital punishment, while the depressing `Send a Picture of Mother` is a momentary break from pisstake and tells a story which I`m sure every prisoner could reminise about.
`Dirty Old Egg Suckin Dog` and `Flushed from the Bathroom of your Heart` are two little ditties which crack me up with laughter every time that I have a listen to them.
Seriously, I dont think you could get anything more hilarious on a record, forget about the 12th Man.
Johnny then sings what you would have to say is a protest song with a number called `Joe Bean`, about a man who Cash obviously believed was wrongfully imprisoned back then as a victim of false
witness. Cash`s wife June Carter, who had a lot of guts just being at Folsom Prison in the company of such riff raff and being
a woman, then joined her husband on stage for two songs that you`d probably have to rate as a tad mediocre in comparison to
the Johnny-only numbers.
Not terrible but the two duet songs
are nothing to rave home about. `The songs are `Jackson` and `Give My Love to Rose`.
The song `The Legend of John Henry`s Hammer` gets Cash back on the more convincing path of pisstake and satire, while the albums most emotive number is one which was written by prisoner Glen Shirley, well the lyrics anyway, and Cash at a moment's notice put some music to the
words handed to him on a note. `Greystone Chapel` tells the story of a hardened criminal who finds redemption, hope and spiritual enlightenment in the small chapel within the walls of Folsom Prison. There really is no other live album quite like it.
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