JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON;THE MAKING OF A MASTERPIECE by MICHEAL STREISSGUTH

 |   |  2 min read

JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON;THE MAKING OF A MASTERPIECE by MICHEAL STREISSGUTH

A hip comedy club, New York, late 1980s. The stand-up delivers a one-liner which has the smart set baying: "Does anyone know why Johnny Cash still wears black?" 

At the time Cash's career was in one of its periodic lows. In the 90s it would be turned around with the spare and elemental albums under the genre-defining banner American Recordings, and by the time of his death the singer had become an icon whose features were as recognisable, and as rough hewn, as the faces on Mt Rushmore.

Obituaries rarely addressed the lows in his long career other than in a myth-inflating manner, but there were many years when he was on the margins and struggling. 

His star fell dramatically in the mid 60s when Beatles pop then Bob Dylan's literate rock swept country music aside, but in January 1968 he recorded in Folsom Prison, California, and the edginess of the venue and material he chose distilled the outlaw spirit in him. 

Streissguth's penetrating account of Cash's career before and after that pivotal day illuminates not just the man and musician, but places them in the greater cultural context. From interviews with band members, prisoners and wardens, and by listening to the Columbia Records tapes he reconstructs the day and Jim Marshall's numerous black and white photographs add further resonance. 

Most people remember Cash's later Live in San Quentin album (and the hit sprung from it, A Boy Named Sue) but Streissguth makes the convincing case that the Folsom performances and subsequent album were when Cash revived his career and reinvented himself. 

Streissguth also acknowledges the sense of theatre in the moment, how Columbia Records marketed Cash as a rebel (his next album however was Holy Land, a gospel collection), and how the media elevated Cash by falling for the line that he was a mean dude while ignoring his conservative, Christian, newly married aspects.


   The author is an associate professor of English in New York who has written on country music frequently. 

   The account cuts a wide swathe through popular culture but includes a history of Folsom, how Cash effected the marriage of country and rock cultures through his rebel image, and why this album deserves to be considered among the best that fertile decade produced. 

   You'll also understand why he wore black. 

Share It

Your Comments

mark - Sep 3, 2010

It's taken me a long time but I am slowly warming to Johnny Cash's music.

post a comment

More from this section   Writing at Elsewhere articles index

DYLAN HORROCKS INTERVIEWED (2010): The graphic novelist as social commentator

DYLAN HORROCKS INTERVIEWED (2010): The graphic novelist as social commentator

At the launch of the long overdue local publication of his graphic novel Hicksville in Auckland recently, Dylan Horrocks said he grew up in two places: In New Zealand and in comics, and both were... > Read more

AUTUMN OF LOVE by DAVE ALLEN

AUTUMN OF LOVE by DAVE ALLEN

Anyone who has been lucky enough to visit pop music museums and exhibitions around the world – and Elsewhere as seen them in Tokyo, London, Seattle, Sweden and Oslo – will attest to... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GWEN STEFANI of NO DOUBT INTERVIEWED (2001): Style and substance

GWEN STEFANI of NO DOUBT INTERVIEWED (2001): Style and substance

The fact is, Gwen Stefani of No Doubt looks even more gorgeous lounging casually on the couch opposite than she does in her carefully styled photo shoots.  While her magazine image is... > Read more

Tom Verlaine: Souvenir from a Dream (1978)

Tom Verlaine: Souvenir from a Dream (1978)

After the exceptional Television fell apart in '78 following their classic debut Marquee Moon and the lesser Adventure, guitarist/singer and writer Tom Verlaine dropped from sight for a year.... > Read more