On this day, in 1968, Johnny Cash (along with June Carter, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and the Tennessee Three (guitarist Luther Perkins, bassist Marshall Grant, drummer W.S. "Fluke" Holland), walked into Folsom Prison and the recording of the resulting concert pretty much changed not only Cash's career and country music, but proved to be a major milestone in American popular culture as a whole.
A few years ago the entire - uncensored - concert from both Folsom, as well as the one a year later in San Quentin (which gave us "
A Boy Named Sue") were released, and worth checking out, if only for some of the rather salty stage banter between the songs, that, of course, never appeared on the original record.
So, here's the Man In Black himself, doing
Folsom Prison Blues at San Quentin Prison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Ts4M3irWM&feature=related#In a new world of wimpy punks posing as thugs - this here is real hard core stuff, from a guy who really lived it, and never found anything all that glamorous about it.
