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Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison: Legacy Edition
| Nme |
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“Now, when John comes out, he will say – which will be recorded – ‘Hi there, I’m Johnny Cash’,” instructs MC Hugh Cherry. “When he says that, then you respond. Don’t respond to him walking out… I’ll have my hands up, and you all just follow me, OK?” You’d have thought a 40th anniversary reissue including such preamble might shatter the legend of ‘At Folsom Prison’, revealing it to be less an exercise in genuine empathy with outlaws, more about Cash… if not building, then at least massaging his badass myth. You might say it reveals the inmate whoops that greet lines such as “I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die” (‘Folsom Prison Blues’) or “I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down” (‘Cocaine Blues’) to be little more than highly irresponsible record label PR. You’d be partially correct on both counts. Because let’s face it, if Keane played some songs about serial killers in front of a load of serial killers, they’d go down pretty well too, right?...full text |
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| Rollingstones |
| After years of dwindling sales, Johnny Cash walked into California's Folsom Prison on January 13th, 1968, and reinvigorated his career: At Folsom Prison, the live album he cut that day, went platinum and shored up Cash's outlaw image with jailbird anthems that vividly evoked prison life with a country-folk sound that became roughly as enduring as the Bible. This two-CD, one-DVD reissue includes the set that followed the original recording, plus songs from openers Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers and three previously unreleased Cash performances from the first set — the standout is a cover of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman," a hard-driving duet with soon-to-be-wife June Carter. Though the second set mostly repeats the original, the expanded edition makes for an excellent historical document, highlighting Cash's rapport with prison folk: He warns them that, since the concert was going on wax, "you can't say 'hell' or 'shit.' " And as Cash watches a filmed thank-you message from Folsom inmate and songwriter Glen Sherley — whose "Greystone Chapel" Cash covered — he tears up....full text |
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| Popmatters |
| It has been called “the single most important day in the career” of Johnny Cash. The date was January 13, 1968, a year that will forever go down in infamy in American history on account of the shocking assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, not to mention the infamous Tet Offensive, which plunged the United States neck-deep into one of the most unpopular wars the world had ever seen. The Tet Offensive went down mere days after this benchmark date in the life of the Man in Black. January 13, 1968 was the day Cash stepped through the gates of the notorious Northern California maximum security prison at Folsom—flanked by his ever-present entourage of June Carter, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and his longtime backing band the Tennessee Three—to perform before a mess hall of inmates. There were two performances that day, one at 9:40 am and the other around lunchtime. Both shows were recorded by producer Bob Johnston, although the first show was exclusively used for the official record, after Johnston felt that Cash didn’t quite deliver with the same fire the second time around. But now, for the first time, both sets have been made available as part of this beautiful Legacy Edition, along with an informative DVD with a documentary on Cash’s trip to Folsom, featuring interviews with Roseanne Cash, Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, and several former inmates who attended the iconic concert....full text |
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