“If I could ever get a live recording at a prison, it was going to be something really worth listening to.”
Those were the words a post-drug-addicted Johnny Cash muttered to himself just before he and his Tennessee Three (accompanied by June Carter) would record one of the most notable live albums of all time.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison directed by Bestor Cram, is a very fluid and informative documentary that reveals many buried gems surrounding the legendary “Man in Black” and his famous 1968 recording captured behind prison walls.
The film is a bonus DVD included with the new 40th anniversary box set release. It includes interviews with a cast of Cash associates, including his son and daughter. Also included are country music great Merle Haggard and Tennessee Two original bassist Marshall Grant.
“The Folsom Prison album is a snapshot of the time period of my father and his life when he was in his prime. His energy was coming into a new awakening,” says a now middle-age John Carter Cash of his father and the magical era Cash defined.
The documentary has a unique way of immersing the audience into the life of Cash and his numerous prison performances while further intertwining the history of the band, Cash’s amphetamine addiction, and his soon-to-be wife, June Carter Cash.
All of these things are intermingled nicely with full-length audio tracks of the concert mashed with trippy Ralph Stedman-style animations that submerge the viewer in an intimate and eclectic experience.
Particularly notable among the eccentric visuals and animations is the song 25 Minutes to Go, in which Cash sings of a prisoner counting down the minutes until execution while manic cartoons dance his lyrics all the way to the inevitable hangman’s noose.
But what of the famous song that spurred the prison concert into fruition?
Folsom Prison Blues is the song that established Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. The film details Cash’s famous song from its conception while Cash was in the Air Force in Germany to its birth among band members back in the States.
It was lifted from the vocal line of an old blues tune, Crescent City Blues. Grant remarks, “We literally stole the song,” as the film mirrors the two tracks side by side, unveiling a very interesting hidden fact about Cash’s most memorable tune.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is a highly recommended document of one of America’s most influential musicians of the 20th century and his famous performance that inspired convict and commoner alike.
Filled with an array of musical history and knowledge from multiple perspectives, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is an enlightening event for not only for music fans but also for fans of history.
Friends Read Free