Page 34 - REVIVAL Magazine

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FLASH FORWARD: 1968
Good as Gold:
68
THE MIND-BLOWING MUSIC THAT MADE IT GREaT IN ‘68
credit:
wikipedia.org
After his 1955 song “Folsom Prison Blues”, Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison.
California on January 13, 1968. The resulting album consisted of fteen tracks from the rst show and two tracks from the second.
song after seeing the lm
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.
His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash’s material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around.
Despite little initial investment by Columbia, the album was a hit in the United States, reaching number one on the country charts and the top 15 of the national album chart.
Cash came up with the lyrics
“But I shot a man in Reno, just
to watch him die,” by sitting and thinking of what the worst reason would be to kill someone.
Backed with June Carter, Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in
Cash was stationed in Germany while serving in the Air Force. Cash was inspired to pen the
death in 2003, Cash had his rst
34
Folsom Prison Blues was rst
written in 1953 when Johnny
Cash’s 2002 album, American IV: The Man Comes Around, went platinum in the US and cracked the top 40 here; then, after his
No 1 album since 1969’s At San Quentin with 2006’s American V: A Hundred Highways.