FunkyBlueDandelion: Wednesday Cash Coverstravaganza: Shoulder Surgery Edition

My poor husband started having pain in his shoulder in the fall and after several weeks of physical therapy that just seemed to aggravate it finally had an MRI that revealed a bone spur. He had surgery yesterday and is currently doped to the gills so this week's Coverstravaganza is for him. Unfortunately his first two choices were ones we've already talked about but he loves this one, too.

"Folsom Prison Blues" is a Johnny Cash original and appeared on his first album, Johnny Cash With His Hot And Blue Guitar in 1957 but it didn't actually become a hit single until 1968 after it was released on At Folsom Prison. After it became a hit an American composer named Gordon Jenkins noticed that it sounded like his 1953 song "Crescent City Blues" and Johnny agreed to the tune of $75,000. I think I do, too, as much as it pains me and, uh, so does this vidder. Beverly Maher is the vocalist here with Jenkins's band.

In the version that appears on At Folsom Prison you can hear the inmates whooping it up at the "I shot a man in Reno" line but according to wikipedia that was added post-production because the inmates didn't want to freak out the guards and staff. Nice of them. Actually, one of the things I love most about Johnny Cash is that he didn't forget prisoners.

Because my husband is the man of my dreams he gets a bonus. American poet Shel Silverstein wrote "A Boy Named Sue" probably sometime in the 60's and Johnny covered it on At San Quentin, released in 1969.