1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 155. Johnny Cash – At San Quentin (1969)

 

There’s more to Johnny Cash than playing gigs in prison, surely? But so far that’s what he gets in this list, probably because as an ongoing concept it’s something that he made his own.

This particular gig is also recorded by Granada TV from the UK, and at times Cash expresses frustration at the way the film crew dictates affairs on the stage. As with Folsom Prison, there’s a bit of banter with the audience, although Cash sounds a bit more tired and low-key, boosted when June Carter joins him on stage for Darlin’ Companion. But this is also the first outing for A Boy Named Sue, as well as featuring performances of I Walk The Line and Folsom Prison Blues. There’s a track specially written for this concert, San Quentin, which is played twice.

When you compare the original album release to some of the re-releases, there was a *lot* of material trimmed from the concert, and you can tell how chopped up the album was, with Cash talking about a new song called A Boy Named Sue before (eventually) going into Starkville City Jail instead.

Compared to Folsom Prison, the album is a bit lower energy, not Cash at his best, but it does provide another interesting record of a particular point in time.