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Topic: Why I hate bands that cover "Folsom Prison" |
Jim Bob Sedgwick
From:
Clinton, Missouri USA
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Posted 16 Jun 2006 9:22 pm |
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| Anyone notice the Bass player was playing the 1-5 pattern backwards? 5-1,5-1,5-1, etc. |
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Dave White
From:
Fullerton, California USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2006 2:27 pm
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| There's one thing that always bothered me about that song. He "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." Reno is in Nevada. Folsom Prison is in California. Why isn't he in a Nevada prison? Has Reno been annexed to California and someone forgot to tell me about it? |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 19 Jun 2006 2:31 pm
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| Poetic license. |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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John Lacey
From:
Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 20 Jun 2006 2:24 am
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| I'm not sure which Cowsill did the singing there. Billy, who just passed away in Calgary, could make your skin crawl with authenticity when he did a Hank song. Google him sometime. |
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David L. Donald
From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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Posted 20 Jun 2006 5:46 am
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Smiley,
The only crime that bass player could commit is
Incitng Statutory Rape.
Actually her bass line was pretty much correct.
I guess just loving song enough to do it,
is not enough anymore.
Funny, cause we don't look or sing like Dolly Parton,
but we get many madly impasioned requests
to play anything from Dolly.
They don't seem to care that we don't look the part.
Neither the voice, the hair or the mamalian protuberances.
But they sure get pissed off when we say
we can't do any...
[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 22 June 2006 at 07:06 AM.] |
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Don E. Curtis
From:
St Louis, Missouri, USA (deceased)
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Posted 21 Jun 2006 10:32 am
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"Sewage!"
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Dave White
From:
Fullerton, California USA
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Posted 21 Jun 2006 1:58 pm
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Jim P.--It's sorta like the same poetic license Robert Johnson used when he wrote "Sweet Home, Chicago:"
"Hey, hey, baby don't you want to go?
Hey, hey, baby don't you want to go?
Back to the land of California,
To my sweet home, Chicago."
I had a poetic license once but it expired and I never bothered to get it renewed. The lines at the DMV were too long.[This message was edited by Dave White on 21 June 2006 at 02:59 PM.] |
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Joe Alterio
From:
Irvington, Indiana
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Posted 22 Jun 2006 4:52 am
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Of course, now I may have stuck my foot in my mouth.....the bass player in my band so poignantly noted that I sing "Truck Driving Man" but have never stepped foot in a semi. Hmmmm......maybe I'd better rethink all this!  |
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David L. Donald
From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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Posted 22 Jun 2006 6:11 am
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The question then must be asked:
To sing a song must you have had to
ACTUALLY expirence it's meaning?
Lots of murder, divorce, life in jail,
drunken to redeamed,
and such can't then be sung by us all.
HALF THE BLUEGRASS CANNON WOULD BE OFF LIMITS...
Could Johnny have continued to sing
"A Boy Named Sue" under these same strictures?
What if my window.. NEVER faced the south? |
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Gavin Dunn
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 22 Jun 2006 1:45 pm
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I'm with John, Billy Cowsill turned out to be one of the best country performers I know of.
What were you all doing when you were kids? |
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Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 22 Jun 2006 2:06 pm
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I rememember reading that Johnny got a kick out of The Cowsills...had them on his show way back then. I also remember reading that the producers of the above clip didn't want them to sing Folsom Prison, but they insisted because they liked Johnny so much. They were just kids back then. If living the song is a prerequisite to playing the song, then Johnny was out of luck, as well. I doubt that he shot a man in Reno...but he might've.
------------------
Mike
------------------
Blue Moon Highway
(Country Music...and then some.)
www.bluemoonhighway.com
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 23 Jun 2006 11:44 am
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Mike, I smiled when you mentioned Pinball Wizard lyrics over Folsom... that's exactly what we did in one of my bands 25 years ago! It was hilarious.
As far as the Cowsills, they were just kids at the time, so I think they did okay as a novelty act back in the day. It's nothing I could listen to or watch seriously though.
Folsom Prison: I never enjoyed playing it on Steel Guitar. The steel didn't seem to fit that song, probably because the original had no steel in it. Nowadays I play the song on Guitar every weekend with my band... and it's a lot more fun to play on guitar than on steel, for some reason. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 23 Jun 2006 4:55 pm
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Personally, I always thought it was kinda hard to screw up a Johnny Cash song! 
Given their age, and the time period that taping was done (those years were pretty embarrassing for most everyone), I actually thought the kids did a pretty good job! |
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Joe Casey
From:
Weeki Wachee .Springs FL (population.9)
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Posted 24 Jun 2006 4:15 am
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| I guess as a singer I couldn't count the times I have done or been asked to do the song. It was always easy to do with any players new or old and the versions always were to say the least, somewhat different.But sitting in with a band or winging a request of the song was always easy to do.Doing a show I don't think I ever had it on my song list however in clubs not to many nights got by with out it being requested.I think I even did it with Doug a few times. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 24 Jun 2006 9:41 am
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I always thought that the Grateful Dead referenced that song in "Friend of the Devil":
| Quote: |
| Got a wife in chino, babe, and one in cherokee |
"Shot a man in Reno"?
"Got a wife in Chino"?
Sneaky hippies.... |
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Louie Hallford
From:
denison tx
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Posted 24 Jun 2006 9:42 am
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| I liked it cause that girl bass player was giving the the finger to everbody(I guess) that didn't like their version of the song. [This message was edited by louie hallford on 24 June 2006 at 10:43 AM.] |
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Don E. Curtis
From:
St Louis, Missouri, USA (deceased)
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Posted 25 Jun 2006 8:08 pm
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Hey, how about singing the lyrics to Folsom Prison over top of Pinball Wizard???
NOT!
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 27 Jun 2006 9:09 pm
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| waylon did a great version on his album titled "jewels." cookin' tele solos. |
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Rick McDuffie
From:
Benson, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 29 Jun 2006 8:50 am
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| The "female bass player" is Susan Cowsill. She is a serious singer, and still gigging. My sister was a huge Cowsills fan in the early days, and I remember that John was the drummer and that Barry played bass originally. Barry, of course, died during Katrina last year. That may be him singing in this clip- don't know. There was also Bill and Paul, along with Mom. I don't think this is a lip-synch- it sounds very live to me (and not in a positive way). At least they played their own axes. [This message was edited by Rick McDuffie on 29 June 2006 at 09:52 AM.] |
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