Back on January 13th, 1968, Johnny Cash played a concert at Folsom Prison, a maximum security penitentiary in California. This performance was recorded and was released as the album At Folsom Prison in May of 1968. The album was considered a true landmark, which was also responsible for resurrecting Johnny Cash’s career.
After that historical performance, Cash continued to perform a number of prison concerts and released multiple live prison albums including 1969’s At San Quentin, which also became a big hit. Cash felt an empathy and kinship with the prisoners, and that came across in his performances.
That kinship and empathy also resulted in Cash becoming a vocal advocate for the fair treatment of prisoners. This included him testifying to a 1972 U.S. Senate subcommittee on prison reform. He advocated for keeping minors out of jail and he argued the importance of trying to rehabilitate inmates. Unfortunately, reforms are still badly needed and the for profit prison system is still thriving in America.
One of the tunes that he performed during the Folsom Prison concert was “25 Minutes to Go”. The song was written by Shel Silverstein (who also composed Cash’s “A Boy Name Sue”) and first appeared on Silverstein’s 1962 album, Inside Folk Song. Cash first recorded the tune for his 1965 album, Sings the Ballads of the True West. The song features gallows humor and it tell the tales of an inmate who is awaiting execution by hanging. The song is a minute by minute countdown, which ends with the prisoner’s tragic demise.
The animated video is from the 2008 documentary, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.