Product Description

"With a sleuth's attention to detail, Streissguth explores the mysterious origins of an album every bit as mythic as Sgt Pepper or Pet Sounds." -Details

On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash (1932-2003) took the stage at Folsom Prison in Folsom, California. The concert and the live album, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, propelled him to worldwide superstardom. He reached new audiences, ignited tremendous growth in the country music industry, and connected with fans in a way no other artist has before or since.

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is a riveting account of that day, what led to it, and what came after. Scrupulously researched, rich with the author's unprecedented access to Folsom Prison's and Columbia Records' archives, illustrated with more than 100 photos, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison shows how Johnny Cash forever became a champion of the downtrodden, as well as one of the more enduring forces in American music.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #467262 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-16
• Released on: 2005-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The most notorious moment on the live 1968 album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison occurs when the Man in Black growls the killer line from his 1956 hit "Folsom Prison Blues"—"I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"—and a convict whoops seemingly in solidarity. Actually, that reaction was added post-production, writes Streissguth: "[W]hat the record buyers heard after Cash uttered the bloody line was pure image-making.... In reality, the crowd had remained enthralled by the first glimpse and words of the black circuit rider before them,…saving their clamorous gusts exclusively for its conclusion." In this enlightening if slightly disjointed and occasionally hyperventilating look at Cash's most famous album, Streissguth examines not only the concert's genesis and the subsequent revitalization of Cash's career, but also Folsom's difficult history, Columbia Records' reluctance about the project, and the role of the folk movement and late-'60s underground press in moving Cash's public image beyond the hillbilly clichés often plastered on country artists. Most compellingly, it presents a fond but unvarnished portrait of Cash, a moralistic, mordantly witty man fighting his own drug-addiction demons, who viewed his prison concerts (he gave more than 30) as a chance to connect with convicts, not preach at them. The myth-making studio tricks, it seems, were superfluous. 100+ photos not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
When on January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash, already recognized as a founder of rock and modern country music, performed at the California penitentiary made famous by his "Folsom Prison Blues," he took a large step toward superstardom. In this comprehensive look at the gig and the album that came out of it, Streissguth details how much of the song Cash lifted from previous works and how much actual commonality existed between Cash and the prisoners, who constituted a sympathetic but tough audience and lent a boisterous, enthusiastic backdrop to the recording. Streissguth also holds forth on the concert's and the album's implications for Cash's subsequent career and for rock's thereafter renewed relations with country. As an important piece of pop, rock, and country-music historiography and as a fitting remembrance of the late Man in Black, this photo-laden tidbit is essential. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A fascinating examination of the making of an icon." -- Tracks

"A lushly illustrated, note-by-note reconstruction of Cash's historic concert on Jan. 13, 1968." -- Chicago Tribune

"A riveting account of that day and the story that surrounds it." -- Shelf Awareness 11/16/2005

"A wonder.... This is an important book about an epochal album." -- American Songwriter

"Rich in detail on the background and recording of Cash's 1968 breakthrough." -- New York Post 9/18/05

"Streissguth goes above and beyond...The complete and total story of one of the greatest albums of all time." -- Bookgasm.com, 11/21/05

"The book is a revelation...Copiously illustrated and engaging from the first word, this is a fascinating work." -- HUB, 11/24/05

Customer Reviews

Cash at Folom Prison: The stuff of legends...
For anyone who is not familair with the 1968 recorded "live" album, it is recommended that you give a listen and experience the album first...Cash at Folsom Prison was perhaps the first recording made in quite a while combining a musical event with a genuine social statement. As a result, it seemed ominously fitting that this legendary Cash LP was made in the turbulent year of 1968, in a maximum security prison no less, only to become one of the years best selling albums. If any year could be perfectly represented by one piece of recorded music, it was 1968's JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON. The author explains exactly how Cash (who was denied the chance to record a live prison LP years earlier) and Columbia Records went about planning this album, how it was recorded by producer Bob Johnson, how it was carefully edited & released, and what the publics reaction was. Yet, page after page, Streissguth, brings the little known story of the recording and the history of the event together like a beautifully made documentary. Most of all this book strengthens the powerful message and experience of AT FOLSOM PRISON and gives the recording a new found dimension that enables it to still be considered one of greatest "live" album events in popular music history. RECOMMENDED!

Neat Little Book on the Forging of a Master Recording
This short book, probably less than 100 pages if you take out pictures and account for unused page space, is the recounting of Johnny Cash's 1968 recording of "Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison," the album that catapulted Cash into superstardom and highlighted for a generation the misery of prisoners life behind bars. Streissguth does an excellent job of telling about the concert and giving the back-story behinds the original idea, as well as why it ended up as an iconic album.

One would do well to learn about this instant in the long career of Cash and how it changed him and America. I highly recommend this book for a quick afternoon read.

Not worthy of its subject
When I saw this book on the shelves, I grabbed it. As the title states, Johnny Cash at Folsom prison is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, this book is anything but. The story, which really requires no elaboration, is marred by writing which is so excruciatingly bad in places that I found myself wincing. Instead of being able to focus on the story, I was irritated by a neverending series of atrocious similes and metaphors. Open the book at random, and they jump out like fleas. Page 25: "Cash glided through the grim lyric [of Folsom Prison Blues] like a harrow through soft, pebbly earth." Next page: "[Cash's 1950's recordings] strutted rock and roll style and ached like cracked dry skin, far scalier than the Nashville Sound that was melting over country music..." This is unfortunate because the book is, or appears to be, well-researched. If an editor's pen had excised the purple prose, this might have been a good book.