“When I was just a baby
My mama told me, son
Always be a good boy
Don’t ever play with guns
But I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die”
Taken from the album Johnny Cash With His Hot And Blue Guitar
Also released on At Folsom Prison, At San Quentin, VH1 Storytellers, Love, God, Murder, The Essential Johnny Cash, The Legend Of Johnny Cash, The Legend, The Complete Sun Masters and Johnny Cash Remixed
US #32
It’s funny how something fake can become real over time through overexposure. Those cheers heard on the live version of ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, from Folsom Prison, were added in post-production on the line “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”, but I so want to believe that they were real because they encompass the uncomfortable demon behind that line and this song. ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ asks us to feel sorry for a man who killed someone for the worst reason possible. It portrays him as a victim of his own evil.
Written by Johnny Cash after viewing a film in the Air Force about the prison, it has become a rock and roll classic by a country legend. “I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when”, he sings, as “time keeps draggin’ on”. He dreams about the people on the train and he dreams about their freedom. The train never stops, it always keeps going further and further away from him. “Far from Folsom Prison, that’s where I want to stay”, he sings, but it’s an impossible dream. Why do we feel sorry for this guy? Do we? It’s confusing. It’s supposed to confuse us.
Whether in it’s 1955 studio version or that electrifying live version from 1968, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ remains a fascinating song, sung by the only person I could imagine doing it justice. No cover or reinterpretation could capture the dangerous thrill of that famous line, no cover could play this character like Johnny Cash could. He was famous for acting like an outlaw when he wasn’t one, but hearing this you’d never guess he hadn’t lived the life portrayed in this song.
Live audio from Folsom Prison:
