Those Cheers Were Added to "Folsom Prison Blues"

"I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" followed by cheers from the prisoners at Folsom State Prison. Except no, that never happened.

Produced by Matt Beat.

On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash performed his hit “Folsom Prison Blues” at…wait for it…Folsom State Prison. He played twice, at two separate shows that day. Lucky for us, the first of those live performances was recorded, and later became the most famous song on Cash’s most successful live album of all time, At Folsom Prison.

Listening to it today, we hear: “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die” *cheers* Except that, those cheers didn’t actually happen. They were added in post-production.

What really happened? The prisoners were mostly quiet, as they feared they might get punished from the guards.

The cheering that you hear in that version of “Folsom Prison Blues” was actually recorded later in the concert. Instead, the inmates were likely cheering for a fellow inmate, named Glen Sherley, who wrote a song that Cash was about to cover.

Sources/further reading:
https://www.kqed.org/news/11642653/songwriter-in-a-cage-meet-glen-sherley-johnny-cashs-friend-in-folsom
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2018/05/24/johnny-cash-folsom-prison-50th-anniversary/633332002/

Видео Those Cheers Were Added to "Folsom Prison Blues" канала The Beat Goes On