JOHNNY CASH BOTH CLASSIC PRISON LPs "FOLSOM PRISON" & "SAN QUENTIN" 60s 2-EYE

$

20

JOHNNY CASH

THE 2 CLASSIC PRISON ALBUMS

“AT FOLSOM PRISON” 1968

“LIVE AT SAN QUENTIN” 1969

BOTH ON ORIGINAL 2-EYE RED COLUMBIA LABELS

NICE OVERALL CONDITION FOR FIRST ISSUES 

You are bidding on original Columbia 2-eye copies of BOTH of Johnny Cash’s live in prison albums, 1968’s “At Folsom Prison” and 1969’s follow up “Live At San Quentin.” These are both classic timeless albums that should be part of any record collection no matter what kind of music you collect or listen to.

Johhny Cash was a unique performer. Singing inside a prison to men whose spirits are being destroyed was Johnny Cash’s style and he does it so well on these two albums. 

Folsom and San Quentin, despite being recorded a year apart, are really meant to be companion pieces to each other. These totally unique and legendary records, by one of the founders of Country, Rock and Americana, may be the most honest albums of all time. 

His countercultural appeal during the late 1960s and his abiding popularity throughout the 1970s are grounded in the rough-and-tumble energy he was able to exude on stage during these two concerts.

On these records, it's not just the songs that stand out, but Cash's attitude towards the prisoners. He is honest, truthful, funny, bitter, sad and mad. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and you can hear it on the vinyl. 

In these grooves, you can hear that actual human communication is taking place live on stage. His music became almost spiritual within the context of the prison. Many of the songs selected deal with prison life, crime and the real and deep emotions that the inmates must struggle with on a daily basis. Many of the songs on these albums fit well with prison, sorrow, and longing for freedom. 

One can only imagine that the tension prior to and during these prison shows was different than the typical concert. His audience was peppered with men who do not have much use for The Ten Commandments. The band/crowd interaction on these timeless LPs certainly has a personality all its own. Johnny cash reached out to some of the roughest and most outcast men in America. He did not condescend or act righteous - he was real and honest. 

Cash had the ability to charm the balls off a Christmas tree, and he managed to pull off these shows where he had the respect of both the prisoners AND the guards, simply because prison was no stranger to the man in black. He had spent nights in jail and knew the situation well. 

Cash’s sometimes-funny, sometimes-deadly serious, but always intense songs and chit-chat make these records classics. The songs are gritty and harsh, but also, at times, witty and fun.

Both of these albums capture Cash at his rawest and wildest. Cash knew from personal experience how little separated the free and the condemned, so he turned his knowledge into raucous country music. He sounds like both an outlaw and a renegade here, which is what gives them their power. John had a real feeling for the down and out, for the prisoners. For the everyday guy. 

The electrifying quality of these albums is that Cash sings of men with 99-year sentences to men with 99-year sentences. He and his audience are in each other’s heads. 

Cash himself was no stranger to run-ins with the law. Having struggled with drugs and alcohol, he was arrested several times in the late fifties and early sixties. Although he never served a prison sentence, these incidents helped cultivate his outlaw image which he embraced throughout his career. In honor of the incarcerated, he started wearing black and became known as “The Man in Black” 

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JOHNNY CASH

“AT FOLSOM PRISON”

LABEL: COLUMBIA CS-9639

EARLY RED 2-EYE COLUMBIA LABEL

RECORDED: FOLSOM STATE PRISON – JAN 13, 1968

RELEASED: MAY 1968 

This album was recorded live in one day, January 13, 1968, at Folsom State Prison in California, where Cash performed two nearly identical shows to a cafeteria full of prisoners. 

Cash had toyed with the concept of recording an album live in a prison since he wrote “Folsom Prison Blues” in 1955. His band, his managers and the record company all thought it was a crazy idea, too dangerous and too unlikely to be profitable. They were right but that didn’t deter Johnny. Few people outside of Cash’s tight group of friends thought it was a good idea. 

Eventually his record company and the State of California agreed to let him try. Cash mainly financed the entire project himself. He stripped his entourage and band down to essential personnel, got prison clearance and went for it. The rest, and the album, are history. 

It turns out that ‘At Folsom Prison’ was a very risky endeavor but ended up having such a rewarding payoff. No-one could have predicted that at the time. 

This classic album catches highlights of that infamous show and superlative performance. It captures much of Cash's notoriously volatile, feisty and playful performance that day. Cash played two shows that day. Most of the album is taken from the first show which was more unknown, unpredictable, tense and immediate. 

‘Folsom’ has an ideal set list, with every song playing to the plight of the prisoners. 

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" at the very beginning of this album is timeless. His signature introduction -- as if he actually needed to tell a prison audience who he was-- is one of the best moments in recorded rock history, rendered in his immediately recognizable robust baritone and prompting unabashed applause. 

The show is equally remarkable for the banter he maintains with the prisoners. Playing off their excitement, he slyly portrays himself as a rebel and as someone familiar with prison life: Before "I Still Miss Someone", Cash explains, "This show is being recorded for an album release on Columbia Records, and you can't say 'hell' or 'shit' or anything like that." 

“Twenty-five minutes to go” is a countdown to a hanging, ending with the condemned man’s death-sounds. The album continues with a quartet of songs specifically about prison. “Give My Love to Rose” is a Cash original about a prisoner and his lament of not seeing his wife and son. “I Got Stripes” gets back to the upbeat train rhythm, while Curly Putman’s popular worldwide sixties tune “Green, Green Grass of Home” features the full band. 

“The Long Black Veil” is a haunting folk song, which tells a story about a man falsely accused but refuses to provide an alibi in order to save the honor of his best friend’s wife. “Send a Picture of Mother” is a Johnny Cash original. Harlan Howard’s “The Wall” is a song about escaping prison and suicide. Definitive versions of several of his hits are here also. 

The album concludes with Cash’s performance of "Greystone Chapel." That song's composer, Glen Sherley, was then a Folsom inmate and in the front row of the show. The fact that it was written by one of Folsom’s own lends it gravity and made the concert all the more real for the audience.

The inclusion of this song solidifies the authenticity of the album and its intent. Future outlaw country singer Waylon Jennings was famously in attendance as well. 

At the very end of “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison,” there is an official announcement: “Please hold your seats until released by the officer.” Then the sound of prison door bolts being driven back. It’s the hard truth. 

The rawness of Folsom I think is what makes it. That’s it. Real simple. It was the realness, the rawness, the honesty at Folsom that made that record important. There were no frills. It was basic, real, honest and truthful. 

‘Folsom’ caused a sudden resurgence of his career when it was released in 1968. 

At Folsom Prison reached the Top 20 and really revitalized Cash’s career, with several of his earliest recordings making a popular comeback in subsequent years. He went on to make several other ‘Prison’ records including the classic San Quentin album in 1969. 

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JOHNNY CASH

“JOHNNY CASH AT SAN QUENTIN”

LABEL: COLUMBIA CS 9827

EARLY RED 2-EYE COLUMBIA LABEL

RECORDED: SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON FEB 24, 1969

RELEASED: June 4, 1969 

In 1969, only months after his amazing, groundbreaking performance at Folsom Prison, Johnny Cash continued his Prison Tour with a stop at the Nearby San Quentin, another Maximum Security Prison. 

The reality and intensity of emotion is evident in the laughter of the inmates, the enthusiasm of the applause, and the swell of boos that you’ll hear when a guard brings Cash a glass of water after he’s sung his new “San Quentin (You’ve Been a Living Hell to Me).” 

The San Quentin prison show had a different set list and was even more confident and more aggressive than his famous Folsom set. Many of the songs on the album fit well with prison, sorrow, and longing for freedom. 

A new Dylan tune, “Wanted Man,” starts the show and Cash’s rapport with the crowd is instant. 

Red Arnall’s “Cocaine Blues” is perhaps the most intense and exciting part of the first side, with the music again employing the famous “train” rhythm and fast shuffle throughout. “25 Minutes to Go” is a countdown to execution. On this song, Cash sells the desperation well. Merle Travis’s “Dark As a Dungeon” is a slow somber song while “I Still Miss Someone” is a short sweet song with melodic vocals. 

He plays some lighter songs as well including “Orange Blossom Special” and a couple of novelty songs “Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog” and “Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart”, adding comic relief to the show. June Carter and the Tennessee sing the recent hit from 1967, “Jackson”, one of the highlights of the second side. 

Cash sings “San Quentin” twice in a row, to make sure he got a version to release. The incredible difference between the two “takes” totally justifies the double-shot. 

Cash then performed several ballads and folk songs solo, with just his acoustic guitar. Cash had spent nights in jail, and one night was chronicled in one of the songs on here, "Starkville City Jail", where Cash managed to be both funny and bitter about Southern Justice. 

“I Walk the Line” comes off as hard, tough, Johnny Cash style funk. He also does a fine job of covering John Sebastian's "Darling Companion". 

Then there’s Shel Silverstein’s talking blues, “A Boy Named Sue” — which became an unexpected hit after this LP was released. "Sue" was a Shel Silverstein composition that was intended to be ‘cute’, but it is re-worked in this wild-eyed, committed performance by Cash, where it sounds like he really was set on murdering that son of a bitch who named him Sue. 

“Peace in the Valley,” the old spiritual brings everything down to a quiet, reverent mood before Cash wips out a brief, pounding version of “Folsom Prison Blues.” 

While Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the 1968 album that made Cash a household word, spent only two weeks at No. 1, this 1969 follow-up topped the charts for 20 weeks partly due to the surprise hit ‘A Boy Named Sue’ but more likely due to the way Johnny connects with the audience. You can’t help but be moved listening to this performance. 

‘San Quentin’ was nominated for a number of Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and it won Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "A Boy Named Sue." 

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Condition of both vinyl copies is EX- and the covers are VG+++ they show typical wear but nice overall copies. I'm sure you'll be pleased with both of these vintage classic LP's. Very nice copies.

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