Johnny's explanation was that he had no designs on becoming a songwriter when he penned "Folsom City Blues" and received bad advice regarding how heavily he could "borrow" from anothers' work. His version is still legendary, but I was a little bit disappointed to find out about this.
I've wondered about that for years. I have the 7 Dreams album that includes Crescent City Blues in the segment called The Conductor. Jenkins and Cash settled out of court in the 60's.
Cash had to pay the writer of "Crescent City" $75,000 as a settlement for taking their song. It's just fact, and it happens. He shouldn't have done it, and I'm sure that Cash learned a lesson. Cash also gave the world a lot of the best original music as well.
Fred Herrman nobody really cares. Johnny Cash made the song way better. If it hadn't been for him writing or plagiarizing that song nobody would give a shit about Crescent City Blues and they wouldn't have to have paid the $75,000. Cash taking that song is the best thing to happen to the original author
@@porflepopnecker4376 think you obviously don't like Cash his music. And everybody steals in the business. He wrote enough own stuff about real life, wich spoke to people. Cash wrote some brilliant stuff, he also improved the original of Folsom Prison Blues.
What I've never understood about FPB is this: if I shoot a man in Reno, NEVADA, what am I doing banged up in a CALIFORNIA State Pen? I'm mean, when I'm singing this song, what's my motivation here?
redpaul101 you dont go to the closest prison, you go to one that has the right facilities to hold you there and wherever they want to send you to a point
I may be hazy on the specifics, but I recall that, in a longer version of the song, the protagonist shot a man in Reno, but was arrested for not paying for a decaf maple latte at a Starbucks franchise in San Francisco.
@@Fetidaf You do generally go to a prison in the state the crime was committed in. I believe that murder is a state offense, not a federal offense.You don't usually commit a crime in one state and go to prison in another state. If it were a federal offense, then I suppose you could go to a federal prison in another state. He should have been extradited back to Nevada and tried and imprisoned there.
I know this is late, but it was probably because it had to be two syllables, and if he had said “I shot a man in Lompoc” it would have not sounded as badass.
Somehow I went over 50 years as a huge Johnny Cash fan without knowing this. I love his work and always will, but this is just plain shameless. George Harrison lost a suit over "My Sweet Lord" because it followed the same song structure as "He's So Fine." Harrison didn't copy the lyrics, though, and he may have used the melody and chorus without realizing the parallels between the two songs. When you take several actual lines from a song and claim them as your own that's just plain theft. This was even worse than when the Beach Boys turned Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" into "Surfing USA." They had to shell out, too.
rbpmindful........Lots of songs get stolen or "borrowed" by others. Harrison and The Beatles were dialed in to all the pop/r&b/r&r etc. that was being released in the late 1950s/early 1960s; they covered tons of it. It simply defies logic and credulity for anyone to believe that George came up with the melody for "My Sweet Lord" totally on his own and without ANY influence from "He's So Fine". In the same vein, his buddy John, borrowed a line from Arthur Crudup's "Baby, Let's Play House" which he used in "Run For Your Life". He probably actually "borrowed" the lyric from Elvis, who covered the tune while recording for"Sun" records. Lennon might have never heard Crudup's version but probably heard plenty of Elvis tunes. 12-11-18
@@egbertsouce3895 It's not like there's not truth in what you're saying, but I've been listening for 60 years and you're not exactly informing the uninformed here. There's some ill defined line where inspiration crosses into imitation and then into theft. There's plenty of space between "Crescent City Blues" and "Folsom Prison Blues" musically speaking. Lyrically speaking, Cash lifted several lines verbatim. I was mad at him for about 45 minutes after I learned about that and then put it away, made easier by the fact that he wrote so many great originals afterwards. One of the greatest American artists ever.
@@rbmindful , I was a Cash fan BEFORE country music was cool! That was in the early 70s, and since then I have researched MK Ultra mind control, and that WOKE ME UP!
Yes, as Bob Tubert told me at his house in Hendersonville Tenn, a few blocks away from where John lived, John not only settled out of court for 75 grand, but that Gordon Jenkins would receive all future royalties for the song, PROVIDED he did not go to the media about it. That was the deal. This would have been a big blot on his career, at a point where he had a hit TV show and was about to come out with a book about how Jesus had "Saved" him. Maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal if Folsum Prison wasn't his THEME song that opened all of his shows, but it was. Bob was a country songwriter, former manager of Red Foley, manager of Nashboro/Excello division in Nashville. He played me the Seven Dreams record by Gordon Jenkins at his house in about 1973, and I was flabbergasted. My illusions about Johnny Cash were destroyed that day. I called the copyright office myself and they told me, "We can't discuss it other than to state that a settlement was reached between the parties." Bob died this past summer at the age of 90 years old. His wife, Demetiss Tapp, recorded a version of "Crescent City" blues about 30 years ago that he produced. It was Bob's way of letting Music City know that he knew Big John's secret.
I'm thinking THIS was the reason behind John's drug abuse. He was running from that demon/$ecret. I do feel Johnny was a good man inside and wanted to do right. He just had that burning desire to "make it". One of his last recordings says it all........."Hurt"
Johnny Cash was a basically unprincipled person. He pretended to be a convict earlier in his career to add to his mystique, then when he hooked up with June Carter he started getting into that God crap.
@@South3West77 Thanks, for the info, Kelley. I used to run sight seeing tours to the House of Cash and his house on, I think it was Old Hickory Lake. His mother worked at the souvenir store. She was all business and seemed kind of cranky. I think she was greedy. I'd see his dad walking around near his house, they lived in a house near Johnny's place. He looked a little confused, maybe slightly distraught, as if he was wondering, "What the hell's goin' on here?".
You never know. He may have heard the song & rewrote it by accident. I did that when I was first learning to play guitar. I wrote a song most of my friends thought was awesome till another friend said that's Pink Floyd. I didn't know much Pink Floyd at that time but he played me the song & I had pretty much ripped them off. I was 17 at the time & never recorded my song. I'm glad. I think I'd heard it on the radio before & just rewrote something I liked later. I Honestly didn't know I'd done that at the time. Maybe Johnny did the same. It's just my guess.
We do know. He admitted that he rewrote the lyrics to the song after watching a movie about Folsom prison. He made it quite clear that he did it on purpose. Whatever. THey're both good in their own way.
We like to give our 'heroes' the benefit of the doubt don't we? We listen to music to distract us from REALITY! The reality of PAYING for THREE houses to buy one! (economic SLAVERY). If we knew what these 'stars' were really doing, some of us would STOP supporting them ASAP!
If you think Cash lifted this song (he obviously did) go look up how Led Zeppelin stole Dazed And Confused (pretty much entirely) and Stairway to Heaven(the signature guitar lick) People has slightly different standards about the importance of copyrights back in those days I guess.
+BloozeDaddy In Cash's case, I think he was a bit ignorant. He changed some lyrics. I heard that he told his manager where he got the basis of the songs (although I'd say that it's more than a little lifted). I wouldn't say that he had the same music industry experience as Page. My guess, in both cases, it was business decision to nit give credit to the rightful composers..
D Anton well yeah it was a business decision...the real money in the music biz is in publishing / performance rights...not album sales. Putting the writers of the other song on the copyright would cut that money in half ...at least.
BloozeDaddy Cash recorded the song in 1955. Crescent City Blues was written in 1953. It was really early in his career and if we believe Cash, he said he told his manager about Crescent City Blues.
D Anton not sure what your point is but at some point Cash signed a publishing contract on it....if he only put his name on the song then he is responsible....manager or not. He clearly felt he'd changed the song enough to call it his own. It was plagiarism .
BloozeDaddy No doubt it was plagiarism and he rightly had to pay. My point is, a doing it with one song is a lot different then an experienced person doing with more then a handful of songs.
Crescent City (or rather the Crescent City) is a nickname for New Orleans, which is a reasonably big city, not a little town someone would likely feel "stuck" in. But there is also a small town called Crescent City, California, a few miles south of the Oregon state line. I was there briefly in 1995, it was the one and only time I have been on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. So I'm wondering, is this song actually about that town, or is it about "N'Orleans"?
Well, according to Wikipedia, there are towns called "Crescent City" in California, Florida, and Illinois. Their article on "Crescent City Blues" says that it refers to "the Midwestern town of Crescent City", so I guess that would be the one in Illinois. Like redpaul101, I have also also wondered about how the protagonist of "Folsom Prison Blues" wound up in a California prison for a killing that took place in Reno, Nevada. Perhaps the line should be changed to "I shot a man in CHINO".
The story was that he rewrote the words (with inspiration from the film "inside Folsom prison") and when he brought the song to the studio (sunset records) The owner said not to worry about it. He did the right thing by paying them later on
Wait just a minute here. The main character in the original song is named "Sue" if you listen. So, what about "A Boy Named Sue?" Coincidence? I think not. Well, maybe.
There’s a find line between borrowing and theft, but I think Johnny crossed the line on this one. The lyrics are just a little too close for comfort. But he did tweak the tune and he juiced up the tempo. Gordon Jenkins was a fine musician, he was stranger and conducted on some of Frank Sinatra’s finest albums.
Someone said that in country music there is just a few themes. Johnny heard a blues song and adapted into a country/blues theme. I'll bet there are untold songs with this theme and structure. Copyright is a mean mistress.
Even though Cash completely ripped off the song "Crescent City Blues" from composer/arranger/conductor Gordon Jenkins, American music is much richer for for his having done that. I'm a huge fan of Jenkins - he arranged a lot of albums for everyone from Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Sinatra, and up to Harry Nilsson. But, if someone said "Look, you can have the original song - or you can have what Cash did with it," I'd say "Goodbye, Gordon!" in a heartbeat.
@@kennethcurtis1856 I'm not sure how that connects with a Gordon Jenkins song, but I like the look of your channel. Have a safe and interesting year. ☺
@Stockwell, Yup! JC's version was much more UPBEAT, and I'm sure Johnny was much more 'RICHER' from that plagiarism also! BTW , MLKing's 'famous' speech was also plagiarized.
What we have here is a classic case of a white man named Gordon Jenkins steals a song in 1953 called 'Crescent City Blues' buried in a dream sequence song called 'The Conductor' on a concept album called 'Seven Dreams; issued on Decca Records from a black man named Little Brother Montgomery whose solo instrumental piano song 'Crescent City Blues' which was recorded on October 16, 1936 for the RCA Records subsidiary Bluebird Records and he gets away Scott-free. Then another white man Johnny Cash steals from the other white guy (Gordon Jenkins) in 1955 with his song 'Folsom Prison Blues' recorded on Sam Phillips 'Sun Records' and there is a plagiarism lawsuit filed about 15 years later (filed in the early 70's long after Cash left Sun) that is settled out of court where neither Jenkins or Cash have their names trounced in the news over the matter and Cash agrees to pay damages to Jenkins in the amount of $75,000.00 - a one time amount that does not involve future royalties nor does the legal matter mention Little Brother Montgomery or his piano solo recording Crescent City Blues whose melody line is the foundation for both of their songs, a point that if brought out in open court could have resulted in yet another lawsuit and damages paid to Montgomery's survivors and or the copyright holder/publisher of his instrumental barrelhouse piano song 'Crescent City Blues' - which never happened. By then Montgomery's copyright had likely expired and he was long forgotten save for a few die hard musicologists who knew the truth. Jenkins tweaked the melody and added lyrics that were inspired elsewhere, then Cash came along and appropriated the melody yet again and tweaked the lyrics with his own twist, resulting in a song that everyone knows whether one likes Cash or country music - everyone has heard that song. Hardly anyone ever heard of Jenkin's song until the lawsuit and virtually fewer yet even know about Montgomery. Such is life with intellectual property - particularly songs and recordings. When black blues singers 'borrowed' melody lines and lyrical content resulting in new songs based on others songs, they call it poetic license and creative license, and they are called genius song crafters even after appropriating others works often note for note, and sometimes borrowing word for word. And that's all good. BUT then come white folks with their crooked lawyers and music publishers who are one in the same - they certainly are not songwriters or performers, much less real musicians and what do they do to make a living? They file lawsuits and make under the table deals like Cash & Jenkins made where the original writer or composer is often and in fact usually left out. It's a nasty business. One thing is for certain: Cash brought a recognizable song with a great signature guitar riff identifying it so much so all one has to do is hear one or two notes. The lyrics are filled with great descriptor lines that far surpass the Jenkins song, with memorable lines like "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" and others that actually 'sing' better than the Jenkins song. Besides who has ever heard the Jenkins song requested at a Karaoke bar? Like him or not, Cash was a genius for his part in adapting the song to become Folsom Prison Blues. And he paid dearly for it. It was a gamble and in the end an investment. After all it IS the music BUSINESS!
@ChristianFreeman: Later in life, Cash told Marty Stuart that he adapted a line from Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)": "I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma/Just to see her jump and fall" into the FPB line "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die." This info is from "Johnny Cash: The Biography", by Michael Streissguth, pp 48-49. And who knows who inspired Rodgers - and on and on down the line.
I wasn't sure where to post this so here it is. My Mother is a huge Shirley Temple Fan and lately she has been watching a streaming channel that streams all of her movies, I sometimes fine myself sitting down and watching a few of them with her and enjoying the time spent but to my surprise during one of the many movies that she sings in Shirley Temple began to sing a song very similar to Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison" even having the lryic "Train Coming around the Mountain" and the songs beat. At first I figured the Song was like many others during this time that borrowed from each other and figured it was part of the times during that era but as I looked into it I couldn't find anything connecting the two songs other then they sounded very much alike minus some changed lryics. As I searched for a connection there was none, no story that had Johnny Cash reminiscing about hearing the song and just having to put his spin on it or that maybe both songs shared a connection to an older folk song but again there was nothing. Now I dare not say that Cash stole the song, Cash has been a huge inspiration to music and his contributions to 🎶 Music has no equal but seeing interviews with him speaking about writing the song and coming up with the melody and lryics are whats making me have another look at these two songs and try to find out whats happing here? Did Cash borrow the song and in turn make it his own? Is this considered a sample or is it musical plagiarism? I am currently looking for the name of the Shirley Temple Movie that the song appears in and once I have it I will share it with anyone else who can place some light onto this issue. If anyone else knows more I would really like to hear their take on it, Cash is one of my favorite Musical Artist and seeing that this film could of been showed to Air Force and other Military service men during the time Cash was in service does raise the question "Did Cash see the Movie and Steal the Song?" I hope to know soon.
@AudioAndroid: While in the service in Germany, Cash saw the Warner Bros. movie "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison" and got the idea for FPB, then adapted Crescent City Blues. Cash later told Marty Stuart that he adapted a line from Jimmie Rogers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)": "I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma/Just to see her jump and fall" into the Folsom Prison Blues line "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die." This info is from Michael Streissguth's "Johnny Cash: The Biography", pp. 48-49.
@@MrGarysugarman thanks some of that lore I hadn't heard before and it helps me give some extra credit to Cash writing the song. I think if we all looked at everything we will find that everything is connected and we draw inspiration from that which came before. I am happy to read that he did pay a royalty fee to the original artist cool.
That's pretty much it. Cash ripped off Gordon Jenkins, paid $75,000.00 for copyright infringement, but Jenkins wasn't a jerk about it and didn't forbid Cash from continuing to perform his revamped version of the song. By anyone's standards, Cash came up with a genuine classic. I mean, I've never seen "Crescent City Blues" on the song list of any karaoke bar. I'm a huge fan of Jenkins - he was a great arranger and wrote some songs which have become standards - but the only reason I know about his original song is because of Cash.
When the fans want to see Sinatra's Favorite Arranger duke it out with The Man in Black, someone needs to step in and say, "Hey hey HEY! Can't we all just let bygones be bygones?" Case closed.
That's really a bullshit way to look at it, dude. This guy straight jacked this song in order to get ahead and that's just a scumbag move. I guess it should have been expected from a guy who cheated on his wife and did whatever he had in order to shoot up his next fix. I'm not judging his habits, but I am saying that what he did should of have made what he was capable of doing=more obvious, so no one should have been surprised when he fucked people over. And just because he paid, that doesn't square it. He only paid because he was called out on it, so he was forced to pay otherwise he would have never paid and screwed Jenkin's over. And to say he made the better is like saying it's ok for your wife to cheat on you as long as the sex she is getting is better than yours! Making it better don't make it right. I have always been a fan of this guy, but right is right and this guy just stole in order to get ahead and that will always be part of his legacy.
I found this out about six years ago and I never look at Johnny Cash the same rarely ever really listen to his music anymore I just don’t like liars and people that claim other peoples work
Well, he shouldn'a done it, but he was just a kid at the time -- he was 21 in 1953. And the "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" is probably the best line in all of country music.
How can a trashy line like that be the best in country music? Kristofferson wrote, "from the rockin' of the cradle to the rollin' of the hearse, the goin' up was worth the comin' down. Others wrote classic, inspirational lines.
@Steve Vinson: Later in life, Cash told Marty Stuart that he adapted a line from Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)" - "I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma/Just to see her jump and fall" into the line from FPB: "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die." Both are great lines. Info from "Johnny Cash: The Biography" by Michael Streissguth, pp. 48-49.
The fine was only 75k for stealing the song. Cash must have been like wow I should do that will all my songs if I only have to pay 75k for songs like I make 10s of millions of dollars on lol
John C. Anderson did you know little brother montgomery wrote this song first? not gonna lie johnny cash and gordon Jenkins are both in the wrong but i guess nobody cares.
Yes the "Similarities" extend to the EXACT same order of verses in each of their songs. It was a lazy man's CUT and PASTE, re-edit a few words, and put your own name on it. Thief.
I see your point. I feel that Johnny was so eager for a record deal with Sam P in Memphis (Sun Records) that he tossed it out there on the table under pressure to do original works and made a decision on the spot that would cost him years of inner pain and feelings of guilty = drug abuse. I really do feel he was a good man inside and wanted to do right by this and lead by example
Dude there is no bigger Johnny Cash fan than me, and I still consider Folsom Prison Blues to be a work of genius, but there is *no* denying that Cash took the basics of his classic from "Crescent City Blues."
Bullshit. He lifted the entire melody and some of the lyric. It's ironclad plagiarism. It doesn't matter what instruments or how loud he plays the song. It's the same melody.
Influences and ripoffs are not the same thing. Give me a break. It's blatant, I'm sure they worked hard to come up with that song and he just takes it and plays it off as it's own.
@@TheOutlawSessions I have played guitar for 34 years now and this song by cash... I don't know how many times.I am a huge cash fan. He clearly ripped this off. lol. The melody is totally the same, just slower. Half of the words are the same. If I were to compare it to a car as other's have, I would say he painted it, changed the seats and drove it a bit faster lol. I love cash, but he stole it.
"Influenced?" Ripped off is more like it! Look, I like Johnny Cash and I have always been a fan, but this motherfucker straight jacked this fucking song! He paid as a result of his thievery so to say that he was "influenced" is putting it very mildly. I also love the way people downplay this act of straight theft....but imagine you're the singer singer-writer of the original and you hear this shit on the radio...how the fuck would any person feel? And on top of it, his song becomes a hit while yours doesn't even break the top 100!
He was unprincipled.He played the bad guy when it was convenient then got all churchy pie when he hooked up with June. June was the beginning of my Summer of Hell is a song he didn't get around to writing. Maybe I'll have to write it for him. June was the Beginning of my Summer of Hell before I met her I was doin' real well drinkin and dopin and havin' fun then came June with that searing sun And I saw that damned light John C.
@@Jahncee That all sounds like a bunch of excuses, friend.... This man took someone else's song and they got little in return for their efforts. I'm not say the man was not talented, but he rested comfortably on someone else's song for a long time and tried to bury the knowledge of that. In fact, his last hit song, was someone else's song too. Sure, I love his version of "Hurt" but it just seems as if his ending high note was similar to the starting one!
He was a nobody practicing writing a song and came up with a different version. Everybody who is learning does stuff like this. He should have given credit for it, but it sure should have seen the light of day. His version is greatness.
@@cleawox Get the fuck out of here! The man quietly settled a lawsuit and admitted taking what wasn't his. And stop making shit up. He was learning, he was already an established singer-song writer when he STOLE this song. You don't get it, I live this man and I have covered his songs, but I don't hide behind the love I have for this man. It is what it is. The man took someone else's song, period. And, maybe you should do your homework before chiming in. There is an entire internet devoted to this subject!
I never much cared for Johnny Cash or his music. Mostly everything he'd done sounds like "I Walk The Line", primarily because he can't really sing. But when I read about this theft, I realized just how musically limited Cash really was.
If you just lost respect for Cash today you must not have been paying attention. Dishonesty and self agrandizement were his strong suits. You should have seen his greedy grasping mother selling shit at the House of Cash souvenir joint in Hendersonville.
@@Jahncee I read a book written about Cash a while back by I think one of his producers. He was not really all that nice a person all of the time. He got his sister in law Anita pregnant and she had an abortion. I didn't really consider that to be all that Christian. June also treated his first wife like shit. I guess that the kids all got along OK, but it didn't sound like a very happy family. June also was on drugs, just different ones than he was.
@@davidfowler7040 David, I believe I read somewhere that Waylon did a bit-- "Hullo, I'm Johnny Cash, I used to have a monkey on my back, til I met June Carter. Lord, I wish i had that monkey back on my back."
@@Jahncee Waylon had his problems with drugs also. He was also into uppers like Cash was. He and Johnny were room mates for a while. I think that both of them were pretty much stoned out of their gourds most of the time back then. Shortly after Cash was arrested in El Paso for trying to smuggle drugs in his guitar I saw him at a concert. It was very obvious that something was wrong with him. He botched up several of his songs. He claimed that it was because of a tooth ache. I don't think so. He was still entertaining, but the show was not nearly as good as other times that I had seen him. He really botched up the song "Ira Hayes". Fortunately, the drugs hadn't totally wiped out his voice that night.
It's a business folks. The Johnny Cash people still make out. You take calculated chances and in this case they made out in a very fat way. You think Cash was the only artist that plagiarized material. OK they got caught and paid the price. They still made out and Cash fans couldn't care less.
Again, another bullshit response. What people do and have done in order to get ahead has nothing to do with this issue right here and what this dirtbag did. I am a fan of this guy, but even I know this was scumbag move. He ripped someone off in order to get ahead and that says a lot about his character. And his settlement doesn't square it because he only did that because he got called out on it...otherwise he would have fucked them over. And if you think this is not a big deal and not part of his legacy, guess again because here we are discussing a dick move by a guy that cheated on his wife constantly and would fuck his grandmother if it meant he could get his next fix. I mean really, why the fuck is anyone surprised that this "celebrity" was really nothing short of a nickel and dime thug. This guy had no loyalty to anyone in his own family so how could anyone outside of his family have any chance of getting loyalty?! Say what you want, but this man was a thief and its that simple.
@@mr.blackhawk142 I had to go back and review this. It was 6 years ago. Thank you for making your point. You are someone with morals. Are you no longer a Cash fan?
Johnny's explanation was that he had no designs on becoming a songwriter when he penned "Folsom City Blues" and received bad advice regarding how heavily he could "borrow" from anothers' work. His version is still legendary, but I was a little bit disappointed to find out about this.
I've wondered about that for years. I have the 7 Dreams album that includes Crescent City Blues in the segment called The Conductor. Jenkins and Cash settled out of court in the 60's.
Yep
Cash had to pay the writer of "Crescent City" $75,000 as a settlement for taking their song. It's just fact, and it happens. He shouldn't have done it, and I'm sure that Cash learned a lesson. Cash also gave the world a lot of the best original music as well.
I'm less critical of Cash if his story is true - that he told his manager where he got it from.
D Anton he did.
Fred Herrman nobody really cares. Johnny Cash made the song way better. If it hadn't been for him writing or plagiarizing that song nobody would give a shit about Crescent City Blues and they wouldn't have to have paid the $75,000. Cash taking that song is the best thing to happen to the original author
Cash turned the song to shit. Then he started writing his own original shitty songs.
@@porflepopnecker4376 think you obviously don't like Cash his music. And everybody steals in the business. He wrote enough own stuff about real life, wich spoke to people. Cash wrote some brilliant stuff, he also improved the original of Folsom Prison Blues.
Crescent City Blues was not a Robert Johnson song. It was an instrumental by Little Brother Montgomery, out of Louisiana, purloined by Jenkins.
@fluxxus There are still portions that resemble the Johnson version. I still think they're similar enough.
Oh! Purloined??? You mean STOLEN, as in THIEVERY?
What I've never understood about FPB is this: if I shoot a man in Reno, NEVADA, what am I doing banged up in a CALIFORNIA State Pen? I'm mean, when I'm singing this song, what's my motivation here?
redpaul101 you dont go to the closest prison, you go to one that has the right facilities to hold you there and wherever they want to send you to a point
I may be hazy on the specifics, but I recall that, in a longer version of the song, the protagonist shot a man in Reno, but was arrested for not paying for a decaf maple latte at a Starbucks franchise in San Francisco.
@@Fetidaf You do generally go to a prison in the state the crime was committed in. I believe that murder is a state offense, not a federal offense.You don't usually commit a crime in one state and go to prison in another state. If it were a federal offense, then I suppose you could go to a federal prison in another state. He should have been extradited back to Nevada and tried and imprisoned there.
i dunno bout all that. all i know is that i fucking hate the rich.
I know this is late, but it was probably because it had to be two syllables, and if he had said “I shot a man in Lompoc” it would have not sounded as badass.
Somehow I went over 50 years as a huge Johnny Cash fan without knowing this. I love his work and always will, but this is just plain shameless. George Harrison lost a suit over "My Sweet Lord" because it followed the same song structure as "He's So Fine." Harrison didn't copy the lyrics, though, and he may have used the melody and chorus without realizing the parallels between the two songs. When you take several actual lines from a song and claim them as your own that's just plain theft. This was even worse than when the Beach Boys turned Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" into "Surfing USA." They had to shell out, too.
rbpmindful........Lots of songs get stolen or "borrowed" by others. Harrison and The Beatles were dialed in to all the pop/r&b/r&r etc. that was being released in the late 1950s/early 1960s; they covered tons of it. It simply defies logic and credulity for anyone to believe that George came up with the melody for "My Sweet Lord" totally on his own and without ANY influence from "He's So Fine".
In the same vein, his buddy John, borrowed a line from Arthur Crudup's "Baby, Let's Play House" which he used in "Run For Your Life". He probably actually "borrowed" the lyric from Elvis, who covered the tune while recording for"Sun" records. Lennon might have never heard Crudup's version but probably heard plenty of Elvis tunes. 12-11-18
@@egbertsouce3895 It's not like there's not truth in what you're saying, but I've been listening for 60 years and you're not exactly informing the uninformed here. There's some ill defined line where inspiration crosses into imitation and then into theft. There's plenty of space between "Crescent City Blues" and "Folsom Prison Blues" musically speaking. Lyrically speaking, Cash lifted several lines verbatim. I was mad at him for about 45 minutes after I learned about that and then put it away, made easier by the fact that he wrote so many great originals afterwards. One of the greatest American artists ever.
J
@@rbmindful , I was a Cash fan BEFORE country music was cool! That was in the early 70s, and since then I have researched MK Ultra mind control, and that WOKE ME UP!
I'm amazed this "Christian" thought he wouldn't be found out. Now I'm off to find out what he actually wrote and didn't steal.
Yes, as Bob Tubert told me at his house in Hendersonville Tenn, a few blocks away from where John lived, John not only settled out of court for 75 grand, but that Gordon Jenkins would receive all future royalties for the song, PROVIDED he did not go to the media about it. That was the deal. This would have been a big blot on his career, at a point where he had a hit TV show and was about to come out with a book about how Jesus had "Saved" him. Maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal if Folsum Prison wasn't his THEME song that opened all of his shows, but it was. Bob was a country songwriter, former manager of Red Foley, manager of Nashboro/Excello division in Nashville. He played me the Seven Dreams record by Gordon Jenkins at his house in about 1973, and I was flabbergasted. My illusions about Johnny Cash were destroyed that day. I called the copyright office myself and they told me, "We can't discuss it other than to state that a settlement was reached between the parties." Bob died this past summer at the age of 90 years old. His wife, Demetiss Tapp, recorded a version of "Crescent City" blues about 30 years ago that he produced. It was Bob's way of letting Music City know that he knew Big John's secret.
I'm thinking THIS was the reason behind John's drug abuse. He was running from that demon/$ecret. I do feel Johnny was a good man inside and wanted to do right. He just had that burning desire to "make it". One of his last recordings says it all........."Hurt"
Thank you for sharing your story.
@@WesHuntermusicman , NOTHING is what is seems. Just shows to go you! L0L
Johnny Cash paid Gordon Jenkin's $75,000 in a copyright infringement case because of the lyrics and similarity of the two songs.
Johnny Cash was a basically unprincipled person.
He pretended to be a convict earlier in his career to add to his mystique, then when he hooked up with June Carter he started getting into that God crap.
@@Jahncee Why are you judging him? He can believe in God if he wants to. And he had to be in the mind set of a convict to right prison songs.
Melodee Joy or $175.000? Thought that was the figure mentioned on a Texas radio station. I could look it up..
@@South3West77
Thanks, for the info, Kelley.
I used to run sight seeing tours to the House of Cash and his house on, I think it was Old Hickory Lake.
His mother worked at the souvenir store.
She was all business and seemed kind of cranky.
I think she was greedy.
I'd see his dad walking around near his house, they lived in a house near Johnny's place.
He looked a little confused, maybe slightly distraught, as if he was wondering, "What the hell's goin' on here?".
@@Jahncee interesting, running tours to his old house. You new his parents. Why so bitter about them cashs? And why do you say ( god crap).
You never know. He may have heard the song & rewrote it by accident. I did that when I was first learning to play guitar. I wrote a song most of my friends thought was awesome till another friend said that's Pink Floyd. I didn't know much Pink Floyd at that time but he played me the song & I had pretty much ripped them off. I was 17 at the time & never recorded my song. I'm glad. I think I'd heard it on the radio before & just rewrote something I liked later. I Honestly didn't know I'd done that at the time. Maybe Johnny did the same. It's just my guess.
We do know. He admitted that he rewrote the lyrics to the song after watching a movie about Folsom prison. He made it quite clear that he did it on purpose. Whatever. THey're both good in their own way.
But you didn't make thousands on royalties either.
We like to give our 'heroes' the benefit of the doubt don't we? We listen to music to distract us from REALITY! The reality of PAYING for THREE houses to buy one! (economic SLAVERY). If we knew what these 'stars' were really doing, some of us would STOP supporting them ASAP!
If you think Cash lifted this song (he obviously did) go look up how Led Zeppelin stole Dazed And Confused (pretty much entirely) and Stairway to Heaven(the signature guitar lick) People has slightly different standards about the importance of copyrights back in those days I guess.
+BloozeDaddy In Cash's case, I think he was a bit ignorant. He changed some lyrics. I heard that he told his manager where he got the basis of the songs (although I'd say that it's more than a little lifted). I wouldn't say that he had the same music industry experience as Page. My guess, in both cases, it was business decision to nit give credit to the rightful composers..
D Anton
well yeah it was a business decision...the real money in the music biz is in publishing / performance rights...not album sales. Putting the writers of the other song on the copyright would cut that money in half ...at least.
BloozeDaddy Cash recorded the song in 1955. Crescent City Blues was written in 1953. It was really early in his career and if we believe Cash, he said he told his manager about Crescent City Blues.
D Anton not sure what your point is but at some point Cash signed a publishing contract on it....if he only put his name on the song then he is responsible....manager or not. He clearly felt he'd changed the song enough to call it his own. It was plagiarism .
BloozeDaddy No doubt it was plagiarism and he rightly had to pay. My point is, a doing it with one song is a lot different then an experienced person doing with more then a handful of songs.
Crescent City (or rather the Crescent City) is a nickname for New Orleans, which is a reasonably big city, not a little town someone would likely feel "stuck" in. But there is also a small town called Crescent City, California, a few miles south of the Oregon state line. I was there briefly in 1995, it was the one and only time I have been on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. So I'm wondering, is this song actually about that town, or is it about "N'Orleans"?
Well, according to Wikipedia, there are towns called "Crescent City" in California, Florida, and Illinois. Their article on "Crescent City Blues" says that it refers to "the Midwestern town of Crescent City", so I guess that would be the one in Illinois.
Like redpaul101, I have also also wondered about how the protagonist of "Folsom Prison Blues" wound up in a California prison for a killing that took place in Reno, Nevada. Perhaps the line should be changed to "I shot a man in CHINO".
here is an exhaustive list of people from NOLA WHO CALL THE PLACE''N'Orleans,or ''Nawins''
He totally cocked up. He paid for it. Does not change his ultimate legacy.
Johnnie paid Cash....
The story was that he rewrote the words (with inspiration from the film "inside Folsom prison") and when he brought the song to the studio (sunset records) The owner said not to worry about it.
He did the right thing by paying them later on
By paying WHO later on???? Oh....THEM??? Luckily EVERYBODY knows who 'THEM' is?!? (Except me)
@@mr.blackhawk142 The writer of crescent city blues sued cash in 1968 and settled for 75,000 or so.
@@floydkiedis3807 You probably meant “Sun Records.”
Wait just a minute here. The main character in the original song is named "Sue" if you listen. So, what about "A Boy Named Sue?" Coincidence? I think not. Well, maybe.
Definitely a coincidence, since A Boy Named Sue wasn't written by Johnny Cash, it was by Shel Silverstein. Good thought though
Cash didn't write "A Boy Named Sue," Shel Silverstein did.
Shel Silverstein wrote a Boy named Sue.
JC was an ENTERTAINER, not a song-writer. The same with Elvis, who was also 'spawned' by "Sun" Records! (satanic reference)
There’s a find line between borrowing and theft, but I think Johnny crossed the line on this one. The lyrics are just a little too close for comfort. But he did tweak the tune and he juiced up the tempo. Gordon Jenkins was a fine musician, he was stranger and conducted on some of Frank Sinatra’s finest albums.
Crescent city blues sounds more on pace with folsom at 1.75 - 2x speed. Definitely some artistic liberties taken but I think it really makes the song.
Someone said that in country music there is just a few themes. Johnny heard a blues song and adapted into a country/blues theme.
I'll bet there are untold songs with this theme and structure.
Copyright is a mean mistress.
Funny thing is that crecent city blues was stolen from little brother Montgomery
How many songs do you hear that sound like another one. There's Lots of them.
can’t believe people think gordon jenkins wrote this song when literally little brother Montgomery wrote it first sigh
Even though Cash completely ripped off the song "Crescent City Blues" from composer/arranger/conductor Gordon Jenkins, American music is much richer for for his having done that.
I'm a huge fan of Jenkins - he arranged a lot of albums for everyone from Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Sinatra, and up to Harry Nilsson. But, if someone said "Look, you can have the original song - or you can have what Cash did with it," I'd say "Goodbye, Gordon!" in a heartbeat.
@Clay Goeke Har har har! Keep em' flying, Chester! The world needs your kind of insightful comments, good spirits, and warmth more than ever. 😁
Capone's Valentine"s Day Massacre was good for the US, but it was still murder.
@@kennethcurtis1856 I'm not sure how that connects with a Gordon Jenkins song, but I like the look of your channel. Have a safe and interesting year. ☺
@Stockwell, Yup! JC's version was much more UPBEAT, and I'm sure Johnny was much more 'RICHER' from that plagiarism also! BTW , MLKing's 'famous' speech was also plagiarized.
Cash's Cocaine Blues is a reworking of Riley Pluckett's Chain Gang Blues
William Simmons Cocaine blues was a song from the 40s bud
@@TheAtomBat I believe that Jimmie Rodgers did a similar song in the late '20s or early '30s.
Thought is was little Sadie by doc Watson.
What we have here is a classic case of a white man named Gordon Jenkins steals a song in 1953 called 'Crescent City Blues' buried in a dream sequence song called 'The Conductor' on a concept album called 'Seven Dreams; issued on Decca Records from a black man named Little Brother Montgomery whose solo instrumental piano song 'Crescent City Blues' which was recorded on October 16, 1936 for the RCA Records subsidiary Bluebird Records and he gets away Scott-free. Then another white man Johnny Cash steals from the other white guy (Gordon Jenkins) in 1955 with his song 'Folsom Prison Blues' recorded on Sam Phillips 'Sun Records' and there is a plagiarism lawsuit filed about 15 years later (filed in the early 70's long after Cash left Sun) that is settled out of court where neither Jenkins or Cash have their names trounced in the news over the matter and Cash agrees to pay damages to Jenkins in the amount of $75,000.00 - a one time amount that does not involve future royalties nor does the legal matter mention Little Brother Montgomery or his piano solo recording Crescent City Blues whose melody line is the foundation for both of their songs, a point that if brought out in open court could have resulted in yet another lawsuit and damages paid to Montgomery's survivors and or the copyright holder/publisher of his instrumental barrelhouse piano song 'Crescent City Blues' - which never happened. By then Montgomery's copyright had likely expired and he was long forgotten save for a few die hard musicologists who knew the truth.
Jenkins tweaked the melody and added lyrics that were inspired elsewhere, then Cash came along and appropriated the melody yet again and tweaked the lyrics with his own twist, resulting in a song that everyone knows whether one likes Cash or country music - everyone has heard that song. Hardly anyone ever heard of Jenkin's song until the lawsuit and virtually fewer yet even know about Montgomery. Such is life with intellectual property - particularly songs and recordings. When black blues singers 'borrowed' melody lines and lyrical content resulting in new songs based on others songs, they call it poetic license and creative license, and they are called genius song crafters even after appropriating others works often note for note, and sometimes borrowing word for word. And that's all good.
BUT then come white folks with their crooked lawyers and music publishers who are one in the same - they certainly are not songwriters or performers, much less real musicians and what do they do to make a living? They file lawsuits and make under the table deals like Cash & Jenkins made where the original writer or composer is often and in fact usually left out. It's a nasty business.
One thing is for certain: Cash brought a recognizable song with a great signature guitar riff identifying it so much so all one has to do is hear one or two notes. The lyrics are filled with great descriptor lines that far surpass the Jenkins song, with memorable lines like "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" and others that actually 'sing' better than the Jenkins song. Besides who has ever heard the Jenkins song requested at a Karaoke bar? Like him or not, Cash was a genius for his part in adapting the song to become Folsom Prison Blues. And he paid dearly for it. It was a gamble and in the end an investment. After all it IS the music BUSINESS!
Cash did this as a hobby not knowing that he would later be a recording artist
Wise words brother. Can I get Amen?!
@ChristianFreeman: Later in life, Cash told Marty Stuart that he adapted a line from Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)": "I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma/Just to see her jump and fall" into the FPB line "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die." This info is from "Johnny Cash: The Biography", by Michael Streissguth, pp 48-49. And who knows who inspired Rodgers - and on and on down the line.
@@MrGarysugarman Yeah, I had heard that somewhere too. I remember having that book.
Montgomery should have hired a lawyer.
Is that why it sounds like he yells “SUE ME!” During the first solo?
I wasn't sure where to post this so here it is. My Mother is a huge Shirley Temple Fan and lately she has been watching a streaming channel that streams all of her movies, I sometimes fine myself sitting down and watching a few of them with her and enjoying the time spent but to my surprise during one of the many movies that she sings in Shirley Temple began to sing a song very similar to Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison" even having the lryic "Train Coming around the Mountain" and the songs beat. At first I figured the Song was like many others during this time that borrowed from each other and figured it was part of the times during that era but as I looked into it I couldn't find anything connecting the two songs other then they sounded very much alike minus some changed lryics. As I searched for a connection there was none, no story that had Johnny Cash reminiscing about hearing the song and just having to put his spin on it or that maybe both songs shared a connection to an older folk song but again there was nothing. Now I dare not say that Cash stole the song, Cash has been a huge inspiration to music and his contributions to 🎶 Music has no equal but seeing interviews with him speaking about writing the song and coming up with the melody and lryics are whats making me have another look at these two songs and try to find out whats happing here? Did Cash borrow the song and in turn make it his own? Is this considered a sample or is it musical plagiarism? I am currently looking for the name of the Shirley Temple Movie that the song appears in and once I have it I will share it with anyone else who can place some light onto this issue. If anyone else knows more I would really like to hear their take on it, Cash is one of my favorite Musical Artist and seeing that this film could of been showed to Air Force and other Military service men during the time Cash was in service does raise the question "Did Cash see the Movie and Steal the Song?" I hope to know soon.
@AudioAndroid: While in the service in Germany, Cash saw the Warner Bros. movie "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison" and got the idea for FPB, then adapted Crescent City Blues. Cash later told Marty Stuart that he adapted a line from Jimmie Rogers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)": "I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma/Just to see her jump and fall" into the Folsom Prison Blues line "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die." This info is from Michael Streissguth's "Johnny Cash: The Biography", pp. 48-49.
@@MrGarysugarman thanks some of that lore I hadn't heard before and it helps me give some extra credit to Cash writing the song. I think if we all looked at everything we will find that everything is connected and we draw inspiration from that which came before. I am happy to read that he did pay a royalty fee to the original artist cool.
After hearing both, Johnny Cash version is 100 times better. Just goes to show no one can do anything by themselves.........
uh-oh
I forgot who said you’re only as good as who you steal from 🤔
Johnny Cash just made it better that's all (:
That's pretty much it. Cash ripped off Gordon Jenkins, paid $75,000.00 for copyright infringement, but Jenkins wasn't a jerk about it and didn't forbid Cash from continuing to perform his revamped version of the song. By anyone's standards, Cash came up with a genuine classic. I mean, I've never seen "Crescent City Blues" on the song list of any karaoke bar.
I'm a huge fan of Jenkins - he was a great arranger and wrote some songs which have become standards - but the only reason I know about his original song is because of Cash.
TheStockwell good point
When the fans want to see Sinatra's Favorite Arranger duke it out with The Man in Black, someone needs to step in and say, "Hey hey HEY! Can't we all just let bygones be bygones?" Case closed.
That's really a bullshit way to look at it, dude. This guy straight jacked this song in order to get ahead and that's just a scumbag move. I guess it should have been expected from a guy who cheated on his wife and did whatever he had in order to shoot up his next fix. I'm not judging his habits, but I am saying that what he did should of have made what he was capable of doing=more obvious, so no one should have been surprised when he fucked people over. And just because he paid, that doesn't square it. He only paid because he was called out on it, so he was forced to pay otherwise he would have never paid and screwed Jenkin's over. And to say he made the better is like saying it's ok for your wife to cheat on you as long as the sex she is getting is better than yours! Making it better don't make it right. I have always been a fan of this guy, but right is right and this guy just stole in order to get ahead and that will always be part of his legacy.
I think it's a good song in its own right, with nice vocals and orchestration. It is not worst than Cash's take on it, IMHO.
I dont care what anybody says , Johnny's version is a work of art ...the original sucks...💯%. 🎶🎵
Jenkins' version wins by a landslide. Greater interest, dynamic arrangement and more soul.
@Austen, you are probably correct 'musically', but FINANCIALLY, JC's version was a 'HIT'!
Jenkins version, very hokey sounding. Cash's version way better.
@fishtrout9424 Cash couldn't sing. Do you hear him? Sounds like an old homeless dude at a bus stop. Garbage music. Use your ears, friend.
I found this out about six years ago and I never look at Johnny Cash the same rarely ever really listen to his music anymore I just don’t like liars and people that claim other peoples work
Crescent city is Robert Johnson's song.
Lol. Gee just a touch borrowed 😂
Well, he shouldn'a done it, but he was just a kid at the time -- he was 21 in 1953. And the "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" is probably the best line in all of country music.
Yes. For psychopaths.
How can a trashy line like that be the best in country music?
Kristofferson wrote, "from the rockin' of the cradle to the rollin' of the hearse, the goin' up was worth the comin' down.
Others wrote classic, inspirational lines.
@Steve Vinson: Later in life, Cash told Marty Stuart that he adapted a line from Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)" - "I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma/Just to see her jump and fall" into the line from FPB: "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die." Both are great lines. Info from "Johnny Cash: The Biography" by Michael Streissguth, pp. 48-49.
Correction: Johnny Cash isn't country.
@@humandelicatessen8885 ??
The fine was only 75k for stealing the song. Cash must have been like wow I should do that will all my songs if I only have to pay 75k for songs like I make 10s of millions of dollars on lol
Yup! There's VERY little, to NO deterrent is there?
A lot of money then.
Steal your way to fame and fortune, it really is the easiest and best way to do it!
Sad but true
Yeah, then when you get there hook up with June Carter, throw in with Jesus and God then all the radical right wingers will love you.
No way could it be the best way.
John C. Anderson did you know little brother montgomery wrote this song first? not gonna lie johnny cash and gordon Jenkins are both in the wrong but i guess nobody cares.
The ENTERTAINMENT (distraction industry) is VERY corrupt isn't it?
I hear similarities, but I can hear differences as well. Yes, some of the lines are the same or similar, but Folsom Prison Blues is it's own song.
+DoubleJ1203 Still, it fits the definition of plagiarism pretty well. I'm sure if it happened in reverse order, Cash fans would be livid.
Yes the "Similarities" extend to the EXACT same order of verses in each of their songs. It was a lazy man's CUT and PASTE, re-edit a few words, and put your own name on it. Thief.
I see your point. I feel that Johnny was so eager for a record deal with Sam P in Memphis (Sun Records) that he tossed it out there on the table under pressure to do original works and made a decision on the spot that would cost him years of inner pain and feelings of guilty = drug abuse. I really do feel he was a good man inside and wanted to do right by this and lead by example
Dude there is no bigger Johnny Cash fan than me, and I still consider Folsom Prison Blues to be a work of genius, but there is *no* denying that Cash took the basics of his classic from "Crescent City Blues."
Clay Goeke The only similarity here are the words. Fuck the words they don’t mean shit. There is so much more to music than words
I'm glad they weren't having pheasant breast in Johnny's version 🦚
Sounds like a song that was below mediocrity was brought to high accolade by the Man in Black. Way to go Johnny. You won.
The album it was on was a top ten hit on the Billboard charts. Johnny was a thief.
I am so disappointed!!
This is a blatant rip off. He stole this song!
You'll get over it and be back soon! L0L
who cares .. everyone has ripped everyone else off... its called.. influences..
only if you dont claim it as your own...
i steal your car, i make it better by adding rims ... is it mine now ?
Bullshit. He lifted the entire melody and some of the lyric. It's ironclad plagiarism. It doesn't matter what instruments or how loud he plays the song. It's the same melody.
D Anton it's not the same melody.. Instrumental it's far from the same!
Influences and ripoffs are not the same thing. Give me a break. It's blatant, I'm sure they worked hard to come up with that song and he just takes it and plays it off as it's own.
@@TheOutlawSessions I have played guitar for 34 years now and this song by cash... I don't know how many times.I am a huge cash fan. He clearly ripped this off. lol. The melody is totally the same, just slower. Half of the words are the same. If I were to compare it to a car as other's have, I would say he painted it, changed the seats and drove it a bit faster lol. I love cash, but he stole it.
A total ripoff of Crescent City Blues. The melody is 100% the same and the lyrics are 50% word for word. Johnny Cash plagiarized Folsom Prison Blues.
"Influenced?" Ripped off is more like it! Look, I like Johnny Cash and I have always been a fan, but this motherfucker straight jacked this fucking song! He paid as a result of his thievery so to say that he was "influenced" is putting it very mildly. I also love the way people downplay this act of straight theft....but imagine you're the singer singer-writer of the original and you hear this shit on the radio...how the fuck would any person feel? And on top of it, his song becomes a hit while yours doesn't even break the top 100!
He was unprincipled.He played the bad guy when it was convenient then got all churchy pie when he hooked up with June. June was the beginning of my Summer of Hell is a song he didn't get around to writing. Maybe I'll have to write it for him.
June was the Beginning of my Summer of Hell
before I met her I was doin' real well
drinkin and dopin and havin' fun
then came June with that searing sun
And I saw that damned light
John C.
@@Jahncee That all sounds like a bunch of excuses, friend.... This man took someone else's song and they got little in return for their efforts.
I'm not say the man was not talented, but he rested comfortably on someone else's song for a long time and tried to bury the knowledge of that.
In fact, his last hit song, was someone else's song too. Sure, I love his version of "Hurt" but it just seems as if his ending high note was similar to the starting one!
He was a nobody practicing writing a song and came up with a different version. Everybody who is learning does stuff like this. He should have given credit for it, but it sure should have seen the light of day. His version is greatness.
@@cleawox Get the fuck out of here! The man quietly settled a lawsuit and admitted taking what wasn't his. And stop making shit up. He was learning, he was already an established singer-song writer when he STOLE this song. You don't get it, I live this man and I have covered his songs, but I don't hide behind the love I have for this man. It is what it is. The man took someone else's song, period. And, maybe you should do your homework before chiming in. There is an entire internet devoted to this subject!
They got the money though and I bet they had to admit he improved it.
I never much cared for Johnny Cash or his music. Mostly everything he'd done sounds like "I Walk The Line", primarily because he can't really sing. But when I read about this theft, I realized just how musically limited Cash really was.
@geo, Great point! JC was NOT really a good singer, or song-writer, but he was HYPED to the nth degree. I was a HUGE fan before Country was cool!
OMG, he totally ripped it off! There is no 'influenced" about it, he stole this outright. I just lost all respect for Cash this day. What a hack!
If you just lost respect for Cash today you must not have been paying attention.
Dishonesty and self agrandizement were his strong suits.
You should have seen his greedy grasping mother selling shit at the House of Cash souvenir joint in Hendersonville.
The tempo is entirely different. Sure the lyrics are similar, but it's simply Cash's take.
@@Jahncee I read a book written about Cash a while back by I think one of his producers. He was not really all that nice a person all of the time. He got his sister in law Anita pregnant and she had an abortion. I didn't really consider that to be all that Christian. June also treated his first wife like shit. I guess that the kids all got along OK, but it didn't sound like a very happy family. June also was on drugs, just different ones than he was.
@@davidfowler7040 David, I believe I read somewhere that Waylon did a bit--
"Hullo, I'm Johnny Cash, I used to have a monkey on my back, til I met June Carter.
Lord, I wish i had that monkey back on my back."
@@Jahncee Waylon had his problems with drugs also. He was also into uppers like Cash was. He and Johnny were room mates for a while. I think that both of them were pretty much stoned out of their gourds most of the time back then. Shortly after Cash was arrested in El Paso for trying to smuggle drugs in his guitar I saw him at a concert. It was very obvious that something was wrong with him. He botched up several of his songs. He claimed that it was because of a tooth ache. I don't think so. He was still entertaining, but the show was not nearly as good as other times that I had seen him. He really botched up the song "Ira Hayes". Fortunately, the drugs hadn't totally wiped out his voice that night.
It's a business folks. The Johnny Cash people still make out. You take calculated chances and in this case they made out in a very fat way. You think Cash was the only artist that plagiarized material. OK they got caught and paid the price. They still made out and Cash fans couldn't care less.
Again, another bullshit response. What people do and have done in order to get ahead has nothing to do with this issue right here and what this dirtbag did. I am a fan of this guy, but even I know this was scumbag move. He ripped someone off in order to get ahead and that says a lot about his character. And his settlement doesn't square it because he only did that because he got called out on it...otherwise he would have fucked them over. And if you think this is not a big deal and not part of his legacy, guess again because here we are discussing a dick move by a guy that cheated on his wife constantly and would fuck his grandmother if it meant he could get his next fix. I mean really, why the fuck is anyone surprised that this "celebrity" was really nothing short of a nickel and dime thug. This guy had no loyalty to anyone in his own family so how could anyone outside of his family have any chance of getting loyalty?! Say what you want, but this man was a thief and its that simple.
@yori, I care because I actually know right from wrong and I choose to DO right most of the time!
@@mr.blackhawk142 I had to go back and review this. It was 6 years ago. Thank you for making your point. You are someone with morals. Are you no longer a Cash fan?
Elvis stealed all his songs. ;-)))
That is not true. As far as I know, the correct songwriter was listed on the record.
@@robertmaule1946 You don't 'know' very far.
Common thief
Another song that might have contributed to Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues is Hank Williams’ “Lonesome Whistle”.