Folsom Prison Blues
Folsom Prison Blues is a country song by Johnny Cash , which he recorded on July 30, 1955 with the Tennessee Two and released with the B-side So Doggone Lonesome on Sun Records under the production of Sam Phillips on December 15 of the same year. The song reached fourth place on the country charts .
history
Cash wrote the song during his time with the US Air Force in Landsberg am Lech after seeing the film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison on October 13, 1951 in the "Amerikino" in the barracks. Cash took most of the lyrics literally from the 1953 torch song Crescent City Blues by Gordon Jenkins , and was later sued for plagiarism in the early 1970s after he re-recorded the song for his live album At Folsom Prison in 1968, and made a $ 75,000 compensation payment to Jenkins.
Cash's new performance at Folsom State Prison peaked at number one on the country charts, and in 1969 the song received a Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance - Country .
text
The song combines two well-known motifs of classic folk and country music, namely trains and convicts. The nameless protagonist tells that he was imprisoned for life in Folsom State Prison in California for murdering a man in Reno just to watch him die, even though his mother always told him that he would always be a good boy and never go with him Should play weapons.
He imagines what it would be like to travel to freedom on the train that he can hear from afar. He also says that it tortures him mentally to think about the rich people drinking coffee and smoking cigars in the first class compartment. The first-person narrator hates being in jail, but he knows full well that he belongs there.
Recordings and involved musicians
The original version, which Cash recorded during the Sun days, was played with Luther Perkins on lead guitar , Marshall Grant on bass, and himself on rhythm guitar .
The second recording for his live album At Folsom Prison was just as cast, but now WS Holland was also there as drummer and Carl Perkins as second guitarist.
On the third recording for the subsequent album At San Quentin , the late Luther Perkins was replaced by Bob Wootton .
The film Walk the Line
Cash actor Joaquín Phoenix recorded the song for the biographical film Walk the Line . However, the soundtrack of the same name features a different version than the one used in the film.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The title was placed at # 4 on the CW Disc Jockey Charts and reached # 5 on the bestseller charts. The A-side So Doggone Lonesome peaked at number 6 on the CW bestseller chart and number 4 on the juke box chart. Whitburn, Joel: The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits. 1944-2006 . 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 74