At Folsom Prison
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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At Folsom Prison is a live album by Johnny Cash, recorded on January 13, 1968 at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California. Also on the album are June Carter, Carl Perkins, and Cash's band, the Tennessee Three.
The final song, "Greystone Chapel", was written by an inmate, Glen Sherley. Johnny Cash had never sung the song until the night before the Folsom visit. A Reverend asked Cash to listen to an audio tape of Sherley singing the song. After hearing the tape Cash rushed to include the song on the live album the next night.
Throughout the album Cash seems to empathize with the plight of the prisoners. The inmates for their part had a great deal of respect for Cash and his works, though some of the sounds that seemed to be from the inmates (cheering and shouting) were actually dubbed in after the recording, most notably the cheering following the line "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" on "Folsom Prison Blues."
On the original LP release, the song order was changed and several songs were cut, probably for space reasons. The version released on CD in 2000 still does not contain the entire concert, but rather with added tracks from the concert that day. Four additional tracks were performed that day but not included on the re-release: "I'm Not in Your Town to Stay," "I've Got a Woman," "Long Legged Guitar Picking Man," and an alternate performance of "Greystone Chapel."
In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
