1955

Cry, Cry, Cry (Johnny Cash) was the flip side of Johnny Cash’s 1955 debut release.  Side A was Hey Porter. Although Hey Porter failed to hit the charts, Cry, Cry, Cry reached #6 on Billboard’s country chart.

By the time Sun Records released Cash’s debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar (1957), he had already had several hit songs. Four of them appeared on the record: So Doggone Lonesome, I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, and his first hit Cry, Cry, Cry.

(below) A very brief performance on the 1961 TV showcase Star Route USA, preceded by Cash introducing the band members

1956

I Walk the Line

(from wikipedia) – The song is very simple and like most Cash songs, the lyrics tell more of a story than the music conveys. (You’ve got a way to keep me on your side/You give me cause for love that I can’t hide/For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide).

I Walk the Line is based upon the “boom-chicka-boom” or “freight train” rhythm common in many of Cash’s songs. In the original recording of the song, there is a key change between each of the five verses, and Cash hums the new root note before singing each verse. The final verse, a reprise of the first, is sung a full octave lower than the first verse. According to Cash, he loved the sound of a snare drum, but drums were not used on country music back then, so he placed a piece of paper in his guitar strings and created his own unique “snare drum”. From that point onwards, at many concerts, Cash would tell the story and perform the song the same way.

The unique chord progression for the song was inspired by an accidental backwards playback on Cash’s tape recorder while he was in the Air Force. Later, he wrote the lyrics in a backstage dressing room in Gladewater, Texas in 1955, after a discussion with fellow performer Carl Perkins encouraged him to adopt “I Walk the Line” as the song title. Cash originally intended the song as a slow ballad, but producer Sam Phillips preferred a faster arrangement, which Cash grew to like as the uptempo recording met with success.

a. Performed on television show Tex Ritter’s Ranch Party with the Tennessee Two which consists of Luther Perkins on lead guitar and Marshall Grant, upright bass, 1956.

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b. 1964

So Doggone Lonesome (Cash)- Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two on Ranch Party show around 1957

Get Rhythm (Cash) This one is also from Ranch Party c. 1957, accompanied by the Tennessee Two. It appears to be from the same show as So Doggone Lonesome, immediately above.

Folsom Prison Blues - by Johnny Cash (credited) and Gerdon Jenkins (uncredited)

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]

Another source for the song was Gordon Jenkins‘s 1953 Seven Dreams concept album, specifically the song Crescent City Blues^[2]. Cash used the same melody, and borrowed many of the lyrics without crediting or getting permission from Jenkins when he recorded the song, now entitled with his trio in 1955 for the Sun Records label. Jenkins later filed an infringement lawsuit and received a settlement after Cash’s 1968 live recording achieved widespread success.

Town Hall Party, Los Angeles, California August 8, 1959

1957

Home of the Blues – on Country Style USA in 1957

1958

Big River (Cash)

1. Star Route USA, 1961

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2. Grand Ole Opry, 1962

Cash departed Sun Records in 1958 to sign a contract with Columbia where he continued to write and record hits. His first hit for Columbia, one of his best-selling songs, was Don’t Take Your Guns to Town.

1959

Don’t Take Your Guns to Town (Cash) – #1 country single, Billboard

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Five Feet High and Rising (Cash)

Star Route USA, 1961

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I Got Stripes  — #4 on Billboard’s country singles chart

Star Route USA, 1961 — second song in this video is Five Feet High and Rising

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The  link below will play the album Johnny Cash, his Sun Years: Down South- CD 1 (of 3) at Rhapsody.com, if you’ve got an account. A free trial is available. However, access to this service may not be available outside the US. The track list follows the photos.

Play Here: His Sun Years: Down South – CD1 by Johnny Cash

Track list for His Sun Years: Down South

Track list for His Sun Years: Down South

1. Two Timin’ Woman – 1:57
2. Folsom Prison Blues – 2:48
3. Luther Played The Boogie -2:04
4. Mean Eyed Cat – 2:29
5. Big River – 2:32
6. Blue Train -2:02
7. Fools Hall Of Fame -2:23
8. Wide Open Road -2:24
9. Cry! Cry! Cry! -2:26
10. Hey! Porter -2:13
11. Get Rhythm -2:14
12. I Love You Because -2:24
13. I Forgot To Remember To Forget -1:52
14. Train Of Love -2:23
15. Goodnight Irene -2:40
16. Doin’ My Time -2:36
17. Rock Island Line -2:09
18. The Wreck Of The Old ’97 -1:47
19. Belshazzar -2:24
20. I Was There When It Happened-2:13

It’s Pickin’ Time — live with Tennessee Ernie Ford

(below) As “Harry the Hobo”, date unknown

Sorry, I gave the wrong date in the title and here in the text for awhile. This is the first of four parts,  provided by jlabomb. The first three parts were recorded by him on June 21, 2003. Part 4 was recorded two weeks later, July 5, by a friend.

Johnny Cash at the Carter Family Fold 6-21-03
Sorry for the camera work but we didn’t expect to be able to film it so I didn’t have a tripod. we got there 8 hours before it was to start and had front row seats, but it was so crowded they added folding chairs in front of us 15 minutes before it started. Also you wouldn’t believe how many people needed nachos when Johnny Cash is singing.

There are two songs on this first part. Surrounded tightly by fans who are walking  back and forth (overcome by a desire for nachos according to the cameraman) and backed by a small combo, he opens with Folsom Prison Blues, and then gives a very moving performance of Sunday Morning Coming Down.

Above is Part 2 of JC’s farewell performances recorded on June 21, 2003.

Here he dedicates the song Angel Band to his recently passed on wife and life-partner of 40 years June Carter. This intro and the performance are very emotional and coming from deep in the heart.

A fragment of a song by his daughter-in-law, Laura Cash, ends the piece.

In Part 3 JC and band do Ring of Fire and I Walk the Line.

Part 4 of jlabomb’s four part “final performances” has the same two songs as part 3, but in reverse order. These were recorded by a friend of his (of the cameraman for parts 1-3)  two weeks later on July 5, 2003.

The first song is I Walk the Line. JC then introduces the next and last song Ring of Fire by mentioning a visit that very evening that he had from June Carter–she had passed on less than two months earlier–who came “I guess from Heaven” to visit him. He was very grateful for the visit and mentions again the love they shared while she was with him and which remains after she is gone, the bond between them that cannot be severed.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Folsom Prison

We took a venture over to Folsom Prison to check out the Museum and take a few photos. It was a gorgeous day outside so I did a small session in black and white.. enjoy.. for all of those who are not familiar on this historic landmarks background I am also including a little bit about the prison @ the bottom of this post..

THE FRONT GATES

OLD WARDENS RESIDENCE

SOUTH GAURD TOWER

ANTIQUE FIRE EXTINGUISHER

Folsom Prison History

Both FSP and California State Prison, Sacramento (SAC) have mailing addresses in “Represa, CA 95671″; however, “Represa” (which means “dam” in Spanish) is merely the name given to the “State Prison post office” because it is close to Folsom Dam. FSP is California’s second-oldest prison, long known for its harsh conditions in the decades following the California Gold Rush. Construction of the facility began in 1878 on the site of the Stony Bar mining camp along the American River. The prison officially opened in 1880. Inmates spent most of their time in the dark behind solid boiler plate doors in stone cells measuring 4 feet by 8 feet (1.2 by 2.4 m) with 6 inch (150 mm) eye slots. Air holes were drilled into the cell doors in the 1940s, and the cell doors are still in use today. FSP was the first prison in the world to have electric power, which was provided by the first hydroelectric powerhouse in California. The quarry at FSP provided granite for the foundation of the state capitol and much of the gravel used in the early construction of California’s roads. FSP was one of America’s first maximum-security prisons; a total of 93 prisoners were hanged at FSP between December 13, 1895, and December 3, 1937. After that time executions were carried out in the gas chamber at California’s San Quentin Prison. California’s vehicle license plates have been manufactured at FSP since the 1930s.

Music
FSP was made known to the outside world by country music legend Johnny Cash, who narrated a fictional account of an outlaw’s incarceration in his song “Folsom Prison Blues” (1956), and who performed a live concert at FSP in 1968. That performance was simultaneously recorded as the album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Contrary to popular belief, Cash was never himself incarcerated in Folsom or any other state or federal prison, although he did spend an occasional night in county jails, including one occasion for possession of illegal drugs, and another in Starkville, Mississippi, for picking wild flowers.

Movies
FSP has been the location of a number of feature films, including Riot in Cell Block 11, Heat, American Me, The Jericho Mile, Another 48 Hours, Diggstown, parts of Walk the Line (a biopic of Johnny Cash), and Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, which was the inspiration for Cash’s song. The television drama 21 Jump Street also featured FSP when Johnny Depp‘s character Tom Hanson was imprisoned for murder. And a few shots for the movie Pros and Cons. The prison was central to the documentary film, “Code of Silence” by Amy Happ.
Incidents
A warden of FSP, Clarence Larkin, was stabbed during an escape attempt in 1937 and he died from his wounds, becoming the only California warden to be killed in the line of duty. Violence at the prison peaked during the 1970s and 1980s when the Aryan Brotherhood and other prison gangs made prisons increasingly dangerous. The establishment of Secure Housing Units, first at the California State Prison, Sacramento, and later at Pelican Bay State Prison and California State Prison, Corcoran, did much to control gang-related violence.
Famous prisoners
Famous men who were incarcerated at FSP include Charles Manson, Timothy Leary, musician Rick James and Death Row Records owner Suge Knight. Also Joseph Gamsky Billionaire Boys Club aka: Joe Hunt, Cameron Hooker, William Mothershed (Book: The Mothershed Case, by Stephen J. Rivele), Bobby Purify (Original singer of: I’m Your Puppet),Danny Trejo and Edward Bunker and Dog the Bounty Hunter.

courtesy of wikipedia.com

Posted by Jess at 7:04 PM

PLAY HERE At Folsom Prison (Legacy Edition) by Johnny Cash

Just released October 14, 2008. Of the 51 tracks 31 were previously unreleased, for 40 years.

Johnny Cash gave two performances at Folsom Prison on January 13, 1968. The entire uncut 65-minute first show comprises  disc one of the Legacy Edition – expletives intact for the first time, and with seven previously unissued tracks. Disc two, with 24 previously unissued tracks (out of 26)  is comprised of the entire 75-minute second show.