Write Away Magazine - April

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Cash: The Autobiography, by Johnny Cash
and Patrick Carr
During his time as a Morse Interceptor,
despite his military success (Cash was the
first to intercept news of Stalin’s death),
music remained on Cash’s mind.
While enlisted in Germany, Johnny used his
first steady pay cheque to buy his first guitar
(it cost him $5 US dollars), and later a tape
recorder. He worked on his singing, and even
listened to the Grand Ole Opry live from
Tennessee on the military radio equipment.
While serving in the Air Force and stationed in
Germany, he wrote a number songs that he
would later record professionally: Folsom
Prison Blues, Hey Porter Run Softly, Blue
River, Oh What a Dream
Johnny met his first wife, Vivian Liberto whilst
in basic training for The Air Force. The couple
were married in 1954 after he was discharged,
and they settled in Memphis where
they had four children together. After leaving
the Air Force, Johnny entered radio school
with his GI Bill, hoping to become a disc jockey.
But he really needed a steady job, so after
enquiring about joining the police he went to
work selling appliances instead.
Johnny’s elder brother, Roy, had introduced
him to two mechanics who liked to strum their
guitars together: Luther Perkins and Marshall
Grant. In 1955, Johnny Cash, Luther Perkins,
and Marshall Grant signed with a local producer,
Sam Phillips of Sun Records, where
Phillips billed his new artists as “Johnny Cash
and the Tennessee Two.”
In 1953, Johnny saw Crane Wilbur’s film
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison whilst stationed
in Germany. The 90-minute long film
left an impression on him, and he empathised
with the tale of the imprisoned men, which
inspired him to write the song ‘Folsom Prison
Blues.’
“It was a violent movie,” remembers Cash.
“And I just wanted to write a song that would
tell what I thought it would be like in prison.”
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of
a Masterpiece, by Michael Streissguth.
But a prison movie wasn’t the only muse that
lead to the creation of this iconic tune; for
Johnny had some lyrical inspiration too. He
adapted both melody and lyrics for Folsom
Prison Blues from a song called Crescent City
Blues, from a then un-credited Gordon
Jenkins.
Crescent City Blues was written by Jenkins
and performed by his wife, Beverly Mahr, on
the 1953 album Seven Dreams. Johnny’s
lyrics were similar enough to Jenkins’ that he
would later settle with the man in court. But at
the time, young John R. Cash (as he was
called in the Air Force) wasn’t a professional
musician with copyright issues on his mind…
He was a young man inspired.
Crescent City Blues V Folsom Prison
Blues
Jenkins’ Crescent City Blues is a slow moving,
orchestral love song about a woman
dreaming of leaving her Midwestern town.
If I owned that lonesome whistle
If that railroad train were mine
I bet I’d find a man
A little further down the line
In contrast, Johnny’s Folsom Prison Blues
picks up the tempo for his guitar-centered
song about a lonely prisoner longing for his
freedom.
Well if they freed me from this prison
If that railroad train was mine
Bet I’d move it on a little
Farther down the line
It took four months for Columbia Records to
release Cash’s album At Folsom Prison. On
May 25, 1968, Folsom Prison Blues hit the
Billboard Top 100 Chart.
The significance of Folsom Prison Blues hitting
the Billboard chart is better understood
when you consider some of the other artists
on the chart that same day. In a sea of artists
such as Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Aretha
Franklin, Tom Jones, Otis Redding, and the
Temptations, Cash’s country sound stood
apart from the crowd of Motown and R&B
performers.
Folsom Prison Blues came with its fair share
of controversy.
The song was pulled from radio stations following
the June 5th assassination of Senator
Robert Kennedy. The lyrics, “But I shot a man
in Reno, just to watch him die,” were considered
too offensive after the senator’s shooting
and death.
Columbia Records quickly edited and rereleased
the single without the controversial
line, despite protests from Cash. The newly
edited single was given airtime on radio stations,
and welcomed by the public.
Folsom Prison Blues made it to the #1 spot on
the Country Western charts.
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