Folsom Prison Blues
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| “Folsom Prison Blues” | |||||
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| Single by Johnny Cash | |||||
| B-side | "So Doggone Lonesome" | ||||
| Released | 15th December 1955 | ||||
| Format | 7" single | ||||
| Recorded | July 30th 1955 | ||||
| Genre | Country | ||||
| Length | 2:50 | ||||
| Label | Sun Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Johnny Cash | ||||
| Producer | Sam Phillips | ||||
| Johnny Cash singles chronology | |||||
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| “Folsom Prison Blues” | |||||
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| Song by Johnny Cash | |||||
| Album | With His Hot and Blue Guitar | ||||
| Released | 1957 | ||||
| Recorded | 1956 | ||||
| Genre | Country | ||||
| Length | 2:53 | ||||
| Label | Sun Records | ||||
| Writer | Johnny Cash | ||||
| Producer | Sam Phillips | ||||
| With His Hot and Blue Guitar track listing | |||||
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| from the album At Folsom Prison | |||||
| Length | 2:41 | ||||
| Label | Columbia Records | ||||
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"Folsom Prison Blues" is an American country music song written by Johnny Cash in the early 1950s and originally recorded with his trio in 1956 for the Sun Records label. The song combines elements from two popular folk genres, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career. It has become one of Cash's signature songs.
In the lyrics, the jailed protagonist listens to the whistle of a train outside his cell and recounts his crimes ("I shot a man in Reno/just to watch him die"), imagines the free people inside the train ("I bet they're drinking coffee and smoking big cigars") and dreams of what he would do if he were free. "I know I had it coming/I know I can't be free," sings the imprisoned man. "But those people keep a'moving/and that's what tortures me."
The song does not clarify why the protagonist is serving time in California despite having committed murder in Nevada (unless he is serving time in Folsom for another offence, and is recalling the Reno murder as he reflects on a life of crime, and his unwillingness to follow his mother's advice not to "play with guns").
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[edit] History
Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force. Cash recounted how he came up with the "Reno" line: "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind." [1]
The song borrows heavily, both lyrically and melodically, from a Gordon Jenkins composition on his 1953 Seven Dreams concept album (the Jenkins song is often referred to as Crescent City Blues[2]. Jenkins later reportedly filed an infringement lawsuit and received a settlement after Cash's 1968 live recording achieved widespread success.
Cash included the song in his repertoire for decades. The definitive live performance is considered to be the opening song of a concert recorded at Folsom Prison itself on January 13, 1968. This version was eventually released on the At Folsom Prison album the same year. That opening song is more up-tempo than the Sun studio recording, as befits a concert-opening number. However, the recording's most notable feature — the whoops from the audience at the "Reno" line — was actually added in post-production, according to Michael Streissguth. A special on the Walk the Line DVD indicates that the prisoners were careful not to cheer at any of Cash's comments about the prison itself, fearing reprisal from guards.
[edit] Legacy
[edit] Cover versions
- The The International Submarine Band recorded the song on their only EP Safe at Home in 1968.
- The song was covered by Screaming Jets on their 1992 EP Living in England.
- The band Reverend Horton Heat covered the song on their 1999 greatest hits album, Holy Roller.
- Keb Mo does a cover version of the song on a Johnny Cash tribute album. He changes the famous Reno line to "They say I shot a man down in Reno, but that was just a lie." In a later verse, instead of "I know I had it comin', I know I can't be free," he changes the lines to "I didn't hurt nobody, I should be roamin' free." In doing so, he changes the focus of the song from Cash's narrative of redemption to a more African American one of social justice.
- Country music singer Danielle Peck performs a cover of the song at virtually every live show of hers, and it has become a huge hit at her concerts. Danielle has numerously said that "Folsom Prison Blues" was the very first song she ever learned to sing, adding that her father taught her the song when she was 2½ years old (much to her mother's disapproval).
- Kentucky based cowpunk band Nine Pound Hammer covered this song on their second album, Smokin' Taters!.
- Canadian country music singer George Canyon covered the song on his 2007 album Classics.
- Everlast will cover the song on his coming album "Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford".
- Black Stone Cherry often play this song live, and it featured on their live album "Live At The Astoria".
- Anabel Santiago recorded a version in Asturian in her 2007 album "Desnuda".
[edit] In popular culture
- In the motion picture When We Were Kings, Muhammad Ali mocks the song when asked about the difference between musical genres, and he calls the song "white people's music".
- In The Simpsons episode Brother from Another Series, Krusty the Klown performs a 'prison special' at Springfield Penitentiary dressed in black. He sings the following lyrics to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues": I slugged some jerk in Tahoe/They gave me one-to-three/My high-priced lawyer sprung me on a technicality/I'm just visiting Springfield Prison/I get to sleep at home tonight.
- In sketch in the comedy series Kids in the Hall, Dave Foley says, "I once shot a man just to watch him die, then I got distracted and missed it. Oh my friends tried to describe it to me, but it just isn't the same."
- In one episode of Wings, Joe says "I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" in an attempt to intimidate someone.
- An episode of The CW series Supernatural was named after this song.
- In an episode of Veronica Mars, Veronica mocks a task where she's asked to give someone two truths and a lie about herself by saying "I'm Veronica, I'm from Neptune, I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."
- In the film Little Nicky, when the character Adrian is threatening to push Nicky's girlfriend, Valerie, in the way of an oncoming train, he cups a hand to his ear and says "I hear a train a-coming.", seemingly mimicking the opening line of the song.
- In the film Starsky & Hutch, when the duo enters the bikers bar it can be heard playing.
- An episode of Randall Munroe's popular webcomic xkcd details spontaneous rhyming improvisation off of the line "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."
- In an episode of Gilmore Girls, a community service roadside cleanup worker asks Rory what she did to deserve the punishment, to which Rory replies "I shot a man in Reno."
- The Beastie Boys sample Johnny Cash's line in the lyric "I shot a man in Brooklyn - 'Just to watch him die,'" on the track "Hello Brooklyn" on their album Paul's Boutique.
- In an episode of 21 Jump Street, Tom Hanson is in a jail cell, and asks what a fellow prisoner was there for; "Let me guess? You shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die?".
- In the I'm Not That Guy episode of How I Met Your Mother, Lily tries to explain how she can afford expensive clothes by saying: "I steal. I'm a criminal. I once shot a man just to watch him die".
- Beat Happening paraphrases the killing line in the song "Revolution Come and Gone" as "got a girl in Reno just to watch her cry."
[edit] Succession
| Preceded by "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" by Tammy Wynette |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number one single by Johnny Cash July 20-August 10, 1968 |
Succeeded by "Heaven Says Hello" by Sonny James |
| Preceded by "All the Time" by Jack Greene |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single of the year 1968 |
Succeeded by "My Life (Throw it Away If I Want To)" by Bill Anderson |
[edit] References
- Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece, Da Capo Press (2004). ISBN 0-306-81338-6.
