The Making of a Masterpiece
By Michael Streissguth
This fairly short book, well illustrated with original photographs, many never before published,
documents the making of Johnny Cash’s album, Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison. From the genesis of
the song ”Folsom Prison Blues” itself, written while Cash was a serviceman in Germany, to the
concert, to the marketing of the album, and finally to the consequences that album held for both Cash
and for Glen Sherley, the inmate who wrote the song, "Greystone Chapel," which ends the album, it’s
all here. The research is impeccable but never slows down the story.
The concert itself took place on January 13, 1968 and consisted of two sets: one at 9:40AM, the second
at 12:40 PM, which were held in Folsom’s Dining Room #2. All the songs on the original album except
“Save My Love for Rose” came from the first concert.
I don’t want to ruin the book for other readers but there were a number of things revealed in this book of
which I was certainly not aware. The most disturbing being the extent of Cash’s alcohol and pill
addiction and the extent to which it was affecting his career and life at that time. But for good timing by
his friends, he could be known today as Country Music’s Jimi Hendrix. Interestingly, the notes on the
back cover of my CD version refer only to Cash’s “nagging” drug problem. Hmmm. I don’t think that’s
exactly right, at least according to Mr. Streissguth.
Other information I found interesting was that:
· Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers also performed as a warm-up to Johnny himself. It appears
that their performances were recorded mainly to provide information for the recording engineers. It’s
too bad those songs weren’t included as an extra on the CD, assuming that they are of decent quality;
they would have provided a clearer overall picture of all that actually went on that day.
· Folsom Prison Blues has never been out of the CBS catalog.
Finally, there is the performance of the song “Folsom Prison Blues” itself. It has always bothered me
how the inmates clap and cheer when Johnny sings, "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die" (a
line, it turns out, Cash borrowed from Jimmie Rodgers Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)—another of the
stories revealed in the book.)
I always thought it was strange that a maximum security prison would tolerate that sort of outburst or
that the inmates would want themselves to be seen in that sort of light. Well, it turns out that CBS
Records inserted the cheering. The inmates never interrupted any of the songs but held their cheering
for the finish of each song.
The importance this album held for Johnny Cash’s future is also discussed at length as well the place
this album holds in the history of recorded music.
There is no need for me to say more. As music history, as American history, this fine book definitively
documents a seminal event. Everyone should read this book.
Streissguth, Michael, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, The Making of a Masterpiece, Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2004. (www.dacapopress.com)
PS
I don’t know how many different versions of the CD have been issued. I have the American Milestones
edition, copyright 1999. There is no real information included regarding the mastering for this CD.
There are three additional songs included on this CD, which still leaves several songs from the
concerts unreleased, according to the logs reproduced in the book.
I note in the review of the book that “Give My Love to Rose” came from the second session. This
evidently applied to the original LP. Several songs on the 1999 CD also come from the second
session. With 19 songs the CD does provide more sense of what the overall concert included.
The sound quality on the CD is variable. It moves from quite good to fairly rough. Considering it was
recorded live, the sound has to be considered very good under the circumstances. The sound serves
the music while still providing a sense of the venue in which it was recorded. Johnny moves to and
away from the mike and sometime too close to the mike. It all adds to the sense of being there in the
front row.
The only sort of oddity is the lack of sound from the left channel during the first half of the album. It took
me a while to realize that the left channel is Johnny’s guitar. The guitar just doesn’t get picked up until
he is standing at the mike singing by himself. June is not well recorded either on the CD; she is only
really audible on “Jackson” and not easy to hear on many of the other cuts. All this is quibbling, though,
like complaining about Lincoln’s handwriting on the Gettysburg Address.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison has to be considered an essential album.
Kent Johnson
May 2005
