Folsom Prison looms large in Johnny Cash’s legacy, providing the setting for perhaps his definitive song and the location for his definitive album, At Folsom Prison. The ideal blend of mythmaking and gritty reality, At Folsom Prison is the moment when Cash turned into the towering Man in Black, a haunted troubadour singing songs of crime, conflicted conscience, and jail.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa (June 11).
Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack US destroyers (Aug. 7).
Khrushchev is deposed; Kosygin becomes premier and Brezhnev becomes first secretary of the Communist Party (October).
China detonates its first atomic bomb.
Three civil rights workers—Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney—murdered in Mississippi (June).
President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy issues Warren Report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
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My rules:
Only one song per artist/group
The song must be released that specific year
Songs from live albums not allowed
Restricted to only 20 songs
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll – Bob Dylan
A topical song written by the American musician Bob Dylan. Recorded on October 23, 1963, the song was released on Dylan’s 1964 album, The Times They Are a-Changin’ and gives a generally factual account of the killing of a 51-year-old barmaid, Hattie Carroll, by William Devereux “Billy” Zantzinger.
– William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger At a Baltimore hotel society gath’rin’ And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him As they rode him in custody down to the station And booked William Zanzinger for first-degree murder But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears Take the rag away from your face Now ain’t the time for your tears
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Sam Outlaw started his concert in Oslo last night with Silver Wings. It was a lovely hymn-like rendition in honor of Merle Haggard.
As an encore he asked the supporting act, Darling West , back on stage for another Merle Haggard song. This time a more of a celebration of Haggards contribution to music.
Merle Haggard, who over six decades composed and performed one of the greatest repertoires in country music, capturing the American condition with his stories of the poor, the lost, the working class, heartbroken and hard-living, died at his home in California, his spokeswoman Tresa Redburn confirmed. He died today, his 79th birthday.
~rollingstone.com
“By the time you get close to the answers, it’s nearly all over.”
– Merle Haggard
Yesterday’s wine, yesterday’s wine We’re Aging with time, like yesterday’s wine
– Merle Haggard
Memories and drinks don’t mix too well.
– Merle Haggard
Sing me back home – live in 2009:
Sing me back home with a song I used to hear
Make my old memories come alive
Take me away and turn back the years
Sing Me Back Home before I die