115. Johnny Cash — Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison (1968)

Lookit that sweaty man

1. “Helloooo, I’m Johnny Cash.” What an iconic opening to this truly excellent record. Knowing that the moment was staged — inmates were asked not to cheer until he announced himself — doesn’t matter. Few live albums welcome you into the audience as well as this does. When Cash immediately launches into “Folsom Prison Blues,” you’re ready to scream along with the rowdy attendees from 53 years ago.
2. The live atmosphere is impeccably captured here throughout. A prison Warden occasionally interrupts the proceedings to make an announcement, often for a couple of specific inmates, always named by their processing number. It’s a striking way to evoke an atmosphere that, realistically, many of us will never actually experience. The crowd is amped up in a way you rarely hear in a live album, where crowd noise can often sound no different than a generic sound effect. Here, there’s no doubt who’s in the crowd, and Cash’s banter really makes him sound like one of the guys.
3. Each song selected here evidently needed to be approved by the authorities, and yet they’re all remarkably perfectly selected. Many of these songs work through the inmate experience, whether the aforementioned “Folsom Prison Blues” or the bleak-as-hell “The Wall” or “25 Minutes To Go,” often serving as a sort of gallows humor for the crowd. Cash leans into it each step of the way. He even ends the show with “Greystone Chapel,” a song about the Folsom church written by a man who was at that time an inmate.
4. This is the first Cash album on the list so far, and it’s the sound of a guy who absolutely owns his place on the mountaintop. It’s wild to realize he was down and out, addicted to amphetamines and years removed from any recent hits when he put this album together. I can imagine a fair bit of apprehension on the part of Columbia Records at releasing a Live From Prison album. But it’s all the perfect tale for the Man in Black. It’s just a real damn shame they didn’t videotape it as well.

One Essential Song:

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