Johnny Cash "Stole" Folsom Prison Blues?????

Cafe Society
1

It’s no secret that I love “The Man In Black” and anything he’s ever done, but just a little while ago, on Public Broadcasting, I saw a Soundstage special on him, and my jaw dropped when I heard Marshal Grant (The Tennessee Three’s bass player) explain that the song was taken almost word for word from another artist.

Not only did he say it, but the other song was played on the special and one could see the similarity of the words as the sheet music was shown.

Here’s a link. You may need to scroll down.

ExactlyHowLong.com – Your How Long Questions Answered Here.

I know about “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine”, but this stands out like a turd in a punchbowl.

Not taking anything away from the man’s talents, but this is disturbing.

Thanks

Q

2

I have to add that JR did settle out of court with Gordon Jenkins, so I guess it’s mostly a moot point, but Marshal thought it important to mention it in the interview.

Q

3

Moved The Game Room --> Cafe Society.

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From a comment (by kurunta) on the YouTube video of “Crescent City Blues”: “Cash told Sam Philipps, that the lyrics are from [Gordon] Jenkins. Philips disregarded this fact and gave no credits to Jenkins. 1968, after his live-recording At Folsom Prison, Cash paid $ 75.000 to Jenkins, because he was sued by Jenkins.”

This Wikipedia article mentions Cash “[not] crediting or getting permission from Jenkins…”

Somewhere in the middle of the above descriptions of what Cash did or didn’t do, this article (page 2) quotes Cash as saying: “So when I later went to Sun to record the song, I told Sam Phillips that I rewrote an old song to make my song, and that was that. Sometime later I met up with Gordon Jenkins and we talked about what had happened, and everything was right.”

I would say it appears Cash made some attempt to do the right thing, but perhaps didn’t pursue it vigorously enough at first.

5

A little bit off-topic, but I think one of the most…interesting… moments in recording history is when JC sings the line “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die”, and the crowd cheers. Hmmm. Not your usual audience.

6

Keb Mo covered the song, but changed the line to:
They say I shot a man in Reno, that was just a lie.

As much as I love Mr Moore, I’m always a bit bummed that he feels the need to change a line in a song.

7

Perhaps even more interesting is that it didn’t actually happen that way. From here: “…the recording’s most notable feature — the whoops from the audience at the ‘Reno’ line — was actually added in post-production, according to Michael Streissguth. A special on the Walk the Line DVD indicates that the prisoners were careful not to cheer at any of Cash’s comments about the prison itself, fearing reprisal from guards.”