Little Richard [Wayne Penniman] (b. 1932)

Little Richard [Wayne Penniman] (b. 1932)

Every Hour (1951)



Rev. Richard Wayne Penniman (b. December 5, 1932, Macon, GA), better known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter and pianist, who began songwriting and performing publically (outside of the church) in 1945 and was a key figure in the transition from rhythm & blues to rock and roll in the 1950's.



Penniman's reputation rests on a string of hit singles from 1955 through 1957, such as Tutti Frutti (1955), Lucille, and Long Tall Sally, which influenced generations of rhythm and blues, rock, and soul music artists.



Little Richard's early work was a mix of boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, and gospel music, but with a heavily accentuated back-beat, saxophone riffs, and raspy shouted vocals, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections.

In 1957, while at the height of stardom, he became a born-again Christian, enrolled in and attended Bible college, and withdrew from recording and performing secular music.

Claiming he was called to be an evangelist, he has since devoted large segments of his life to this calling.

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Good Golly Miss Molly is a hit rock 'n' roll song first recorded in 1958 by Little Richard. The song, a 12-bar blues, was written by John Marascalco and producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. Although it was first recorded by Little Richard, Blackwell produced another version by The Valiants, who imitated Little Richard, but sang the song even faster. Although the Valiants' version was released first, Little Richard had the hit. Like all his early hits, it quickly became a rock 'n' roll standard and has subsequently been covered by hundreds of artists.

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Richard Wayne Penniman was the third of 12 children of Charles "Bud" Penniman, Sr., a bootlegger, and his wife Leva Mae (née Stewart). He grew up in a religious family in which singing was an integral part of their lives; they performed in local churches as The Penniman Singers, and entered contests with other singing families. His family called him "War Hawk" because of his loud, screaming singing voice. His grandfather, Walter Penniman, was a preacher, and his father's family were members of the Foundation Templar African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Macon. His maternal grandmother was a member of Macon's Holiness Temple Baptist Church. Penniman attended the New Hope Baptist Church in Macon, where his mother was a member. Penniman's favorites were the Pentecostal churches because of the music and the fun he would have doing the holy dance and speaking in tongues with members of the congregation. When he was 10, he became a faith healer, singing gospel songs and touching people, who would testify that they felt better afterwards. Inspired by Brother Joe May, a singing evangelist known as "The Thunderbolt of the West," Penniman wanted to become a preacher.

Nearly all of Penniman's dramatic phrasing and swift vocal turns are derived from black Gospel artists of the 1930s and '40s. He said Sister Rosetta Tharpe was his favorite singer when he was a child. She had invited him to sing a song with her onstage at the Macon City Auditorium in 1945, after hearing him sing before the concert. The crowd cheered, and she paid him more money than he had ever seen after the show.

He was also influenced by Marion Williams, from whom he got the trademark "whoooo" in his vocal, Mahalia Jackson and Brother Joe May.

He was influenced in appearance (hair, clothing, shoes, makeup, etc.) and sound by late 1940s gospel-style, jump blues shouter Billy Wright, a friend of his who was known as the "Prince of the Blues."

Wright set Penniman up with DJ Zenas Sears, who scored the newcomer his first recording contract in 1951.

One of Penniman's main influences in piano-playing was Esquerita (Eskew Reeder, Jr.), who showed him how to play high notes without compromising bass. Penniman met Esquerita when he traveled through Macon with a preacher named Sister Rosa. Another influence was Brother Joe May. Penniman explained, "I used to get in a room and try to make my piano sound just like him. He had so much energy."

May generated energy by moving from a subtle whisper to a thunderous tenor and back in a four-bar phrase.

Penniman lived in a black neighborhood; he had some contact with whites but, due to racial segregation, he could not cross the line where the whites lived.

While in high school, Penniman played alto saxophone in the marching band. He began losing interest in school and began performing in a variety of travelling shows in his mid-teens.

In October 1951, Penniman began recording jump blues records for RCA Camden. His father was shot to death while he was performing at a club on January 12, 1952.

In October 1953, he began recording with Peacock Records.

Records were released each year from 1951–54, but none were significant hits.
Following two recording sessions with Peacock in 1953, Penniman, dissatisfied with his solo career, began to form a new R&B road band that he called "The Upsetters." The band began with New Orleans drummer Charles "Chuck" Connors and two saxophonists, including Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith.

By 1955, the band was joined by saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and Grady Gaines, who became its leader, along with Olsie "Baysee" Robinson on bass, and Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas on guitar.

At Lloyd Price's suggestion, Penniman recorded a demo for gospel/R&B label Specialty Records on February 9, 1955.

Specialty's owner, Art Rupe, loaned him money to buy out his contract from Peacock Records and placed his career in the hands of Specialty's A&R man Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.

Rupe and Blackwell originally pictured Penniman as a commercial rival to Ray Charles, who was experiencing success with Atlantic Records by taking gospel songs and developing them in a bluesy setting with a beat.

Penniman told Rupe he liked Fats Domino's sound, so Rupe and Blackwell booked Cosimo Matassa's J & M Recording Studio in New Orleans, and hired studio musicians who had worked with Domino (including Earl Palmer on drums and Lee Allen on sax) rather than members of Penniman's road band on many of the mid-1950s Specialty tracks.

Following some recording that did not satisfy Blackwell, they took a break. Penniman began pounding out a boogie woogie rhythm on piano and hollering out impromptu recital of Tutti Frutti, a song he had been performing on stage for years. While Penniman is credited with co-writing the song, it bears resemblance to a song titled Tutti Booty recorded by Slim and Slam in 1938. Blackwell was so impressed with the sound that he had Penniman record the song.

However, in order to make it commercially acceptable, Penniman's lyrics were rewritten. Blackwell recognized that the lyrics, with their “minstrel modes and homosexuality humor” needed to be cleaned up.

For example “Tutti Frutti, good booty / If it don’t fit, don’t force it / You can grease it, make it easy", were replaced with “Tutti Frutti, all rooty! Tutti Frutti, aw-rooty.” The song featured the a cappella intro "A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop-a-lop-bam-boom!" that had also been altered slightly to make it commercially acceptable.

The recording was released on Specialty in October 1955.

Tutti Frutti climbed to the top of Billboard's R&B chart. Sixteen more hit singles followed in less than three years, seven of which reached number 1.

While most of these hits were characterized by a driving piano, boogie-woogie bass line, a variety of rhythmic drumbeats, and wild screams before Lee Allen's sax solos, such as Rip It Up; Lucille; Jenny, Jenny; Good Golly, Miss Molly; and Keep A-Knockin' a few of them were slower in tempo and more soulful, such as Slippin' and Slidin'; Send Me Some Lovin'; and True Fine Mama.

During this period, he also appeared performing his hit songs in three films, including The Girl Can't Help It (1956), in which he sang the hit title track, Don't Knock the Rock (1956), and Mister Rock and Roll (1957).

Tutti Frutti was quickly covered by both Elvis Presley and Pat Boone.

While Presley's versions only appeared as album tracks, Boone's covers were released as singles and his Tutti Frutti single outsold the source record and "outdid Richard's on the hit parade."

Boone also released a version of Long Tall Sally with slightly bowdlerized lyrics, but this time, the original version outperformed the cover on the Billboard pop chart.

Presley and Bill Haley tackled Penniman's fourth R&B chart topper, Rip It Up, but his single was the hit.

Penniman, along with his road band, performed his hits in sports stadiums and concert venues across the United States through 1956 and 1957.

He brought the races together at his concerts, at a time in the United States when laws still dictated that public facilities (including concert venues) be divided into separate "white" and "colored" domains. His audiences would start out segregated in the building, usually with one race on the floor and the other on the balcony, but most of the time, by the end of the night they were mixed together.

Racists in the south, such as The North Alabama White Citizens Council, responded by putting out statements on television, warning the public that "Rock n Roll is part of a test to undermine the morals of the youth of our nation. It is sexualistic, unmoralistic and ... brings people of both races together."

The demand for him was so great, however, that even in the south where segregation was most rampant, the taboos against black artists appearing in white venues were being shattered.

Penniman was an innovative and charismatic performer, appearing in sequined capes under flicker lights that he brought from show business into the music world. He would run off and on the stage, jumping, yelling, and whipping the audience into a frenzy.

At a concert in Baltimore, Maryland, US concert history was made when excited people had to be restrained from jumping off the balconies, and the police had to stop the show twice to remove dozens of girls that had climbed onstage to try to rip souvenirs from Penniman. Later in the show, girls began to throw their undergarments onto the stage.

While on the road in the mid-50s, Penniman would have notorious parties, replete with orgies, in hotel rooms wherever they appeared. In late 1956, he met a voluptuous high school graduate in Savannah, Georgia by the name of Angel Lee. She became his girlfriend and started travelling on the road with him. Penniman would invite attractive men to his parties and would enjoy watching them having sex with his girlfriend.

In early October 1957, on the fifth date of a two week tour of Australia, Penniman was flying from Melbourne to appear in front of 40,000 fans in concert in Sydney. Shocked by the red hot appearance of the engines against the night sky, he envisioned angels holding up the plane. Then, while he performed at the stadium, he was shaken by the sight of a ball of fire that he watched streak across the sky overhead. He took what was actually the Russian satellite Sputnik as another sign to quit show business and follow God. The following day he departed Sydney on a ferry and threw his $8,000 ring in the water to show his band members that he was serious about quitting. The plane that he was originally scheduled to fly back home on ended up crashing in the Pacific Ocean, which he took as confirmation that he was doing what God wanted him to do.

The news of him quitting at the height of his career had broken all over the world by the time he returned to the United States.

He attended one more recording session for Specialty on October 18, 1957, and, at the request of DJ Alan Freed, performed a farewell concert at the Apollo Theatre in New York. He then had his roadies drive his Cadillacs across the United States to a property he bought for his mother in California and gave her the keys.

He formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, travelling across the country preaching, and helped people locally through a ministry on skid row in Los Angeles.

From October 1957 to 1962, Penniman recorded gospel music for Goldner, Little Star, Mercury, and Atlantic Records.

He also enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Hunstville, Alabama, where he planned to take a three year course which was to culminate in ordination.

In November 1957, he met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelistic meeting in Washington, D.C.

They were married on July 11, 1959.

Following release of his gospel album for Mercury Records, Little Richard met Mahalia Jackson, one of his childhood heroes. She was appearing in Los Angeles and he stopped her on the street to invite her to hear him sing at the Mount Maria Baptist Church. She attended and indicated that she was delighted with his singing, stating that "he was singing gospel songs the way they should be sung" and "he had that primitive beat and sound that came so naturally."

Two of his gospel songs during this period hit the charts - "He's Not Just a Soldier" (1961) for Mercury, and "Crying In The Chapel" (1962) for Atlantic Records.

He continued in the ministry but was experiencing marital problems and some difficulty living his ideal of a disciplined Christian life.

Although rock and roll sales were in a slump in America in 1962, Penniman's records were still selling well in England. British promoter Don Arden booked him for an October tour of the country, with The Beatles as an opening act.

Penniman thought he was going to perform gospel music, but Arden had promoted the concert as a rock and roll show. On the first night of the tour he began performing gospel music, but gave in to the pressure and began performing his secular hits. He walked off to a standing ovation. The frenzied crowd reaction was to be repeated wherever he appeared.

Penniman returned to Specialty Records in April 1963, recording one secular track. In mid-summer, around the time of Penniman's divorce, Don Arden began negotiating a second tour of England. Penniman did not disclose this to the church community because he wasn't convinced that rock and roll was evil and still wanted to keep his options open in the ministry.

He toured England and Wales in October and November 1963, with Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers and the then little-known Rolling Stones.

Mick Jagger would later state, "I heard so much about the audience reaction, I thought there must be some exaggeration. But it was all true. He drove the whole house into a complete frenzy... I couldn't believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing."

Near the end of the tour, he recorded a television show, The Little Richard Spectacular, with Sounds Incorporated as the backing band and The Shirelles performing backing vocals, for Britain's largest independent television company at the time, Granada Network. After the show was first aired in May 1964, the Granada received over 60,000 letters from fans, which prompted the company to two repeat broadcasts of the show. Much of the footage was used for a TV special, highlighting the frenzy and excitement associated with rock and roll, that was seen all over the world.

Penniman recorded four more secular tracks for Specialty in April 1964.

One of these recordings, Bama Lama, Bama Loo was released as a single and was a minor hit on the Billboard charts.

On March 1, 1964, he brought a fledgling Jimi Hendrix into his band, Hendrix began dressing and growing a mustache like Penniman's.

He toured with Penniman and played on at least a dozen tracks for Vee Jay Records between the spring of 1964 and 1965.

Three singles, including a cover of Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On, would again hit the charts with moderate success.

Penniman continued to record and perform only secular music in the mid-60's, during which time he began drinking heavily.

He has stated that he could have had more commercial success during this period, but southern preachers displeased with his backslide from the ministry pressured R&B radio stations throughout the southern U.S. not to play his music, while on the West Coast, particularly in Los Angeles following the Watts Riots, some black DJs were not playing his music because he was drawing both races to his concerts.

In 1966 and 1967, Penniman recorded two soul albums for Okeh Records, with his old friend from the mid-'50s, Larry Williams, as producer, and Johnny Guitar Watson on guitar.

The first produced the hit single, "Poor Dog"; in August 1967 the second (a collection of concert performances) returned Penniman to Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart for the first time in 10 years.

Williams also acted as the musical director for Penniman's live performances used for the album, and Penniman's bookings during this period skyrocketed.

This period also marked Penniman's return to a lifestyle of orgies and bisexuality. He also began dabbling in cocaine.

With the emergence of the Black Power movement in the latter part of the decade, Penniman was invited to perform for strictly black crowds. He refused because he did not want to exclude any races from attending his shows.

He remained a popular concert attraction, travelling extensively in the United States and Europe, as well as in Mexico and Canada, throughout the remainder of the decade.

In 1969, he was invited to perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. The event was filmed by director D.A. Pennebaker and also featured Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent.

Penniman continued his wild partying through the first half of the 1970's and developed a dependency on a variety of drugs.

He and his brothers started their own management company, Bud Hole Incorporated.

He continued to tour, appeared in an occasional film, and recorded secular music through the first half of the decade. He had four minor hits for Reprise Records between 1970 and 1973 and a single charted briefly for Manticore in 1975.

That same year, he played piano on the recording "Take It Like a Man" from the Bachman-Turner Overdrive hit album Head On and recorded a gospel song entitled, "Try To Help Your Brother". In 1976, he re-recorded twenty of his biggest '50s hits in Nashville for a K-Tel Records album.

In 1977, Penniman reached a crossroad in his life. Two close friends, a brother and a nephew that he loved as a son, died, and he came close to being shot by his long-time friend, Larry Williams, over a drug debt. Even though he and Williams were very close friends, cocaine addiction fueled a rage in Williams when Penniman failed to repay him because he was high. In what he referred to as the most fearful moment of his life, Penniman happened to have the money and Williams spared him.

Penniman repented for his wayward living and returned to evangelism.

He also represented Memorial Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the black people in the Bible.

In 1979, he recorded a gospel album entitled God's Beautiful City, and embarked upon an evangelical campaign across the U.S.

During this period, he proclaimed that it was not possible to perform rock and roll music and serve God at the same time.

Penniman continued to evangelize to crowds of as few as 250 in small churches to packed auditoriums of 21,000 through the first half of the 1980s. His preaching focused on bringing the races together and lost souls to repentance through God's love, as well as the rejection of his former lifestyle of alcoholism, drug addiction and homosexuality.

In 1984, Charles White's authorized biography of Penniman (The Life and Times of Little Richard) was published, featuring extensive first-person testimony from its subject, and attracting attention for its "juicy anecdotes."

Shortly before its publication, Penniman's mother died. Not long before she died he promised her that he would remain a Christian. He thereafter reconciled his role as an evangelist and as a rock and roll artist, stating that he believed that rock and roll music could be used for good or evil.

In an effort to merge his faith with his music, Penniman enrolled his old friend Billy Preston to help him write a song with religious lyrics that sounded like rock and roll. The song was destined for the soundtrack of a new motion picture entitled Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which he would also perform in the film. The result was "Great Gosh A'Mighty (It's a Matter of Time)", which became a hit.

The song was included in an album of faith-based material entitled Lifetime Friend, recorded (primarily in England) from 1984 through 1986. Penniman referred to his new style of music as "message music" and "messages in rhythm," which included a track that was an innovative blend of rap and funky rock music.

Near the end of the recording process for Lifetime Friend, Penniman flew back to the United States to appear in an episode of the television show Miami Vice. Following the filming he broke his leg in an automobile accident, which prevented him from attending the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on January 23, 1986, at which he was honored as one of the first inductees.

Penniman appeared in the 1986 motion picture Down and Out in Beverly Hills, receiving critical acclaim for his performance.

In 1988, he appeared on the tribute album Folkways: A Vision Shared ("The Rock Island Line," backed by Fishbone) and performed the theme song for the Twins motion picture soundtrack with Philip Bailey. He also preached the sermon and sang background vocals on the live, extended version of the 1989 U2/B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town."

He made many other appearances on film, TV, music videos and record through the latter half of the decade.

Penniman remained active through the 1990s on television, in music videos, commercials, movies, in concert and as a guest recording artist.

In 1990, he recorded a rap segment for Living Colour's "Elvis Is Dead" (featuring Maceo Parker on saxophone) and then performed it with the band live on television.

He appeared (as a preacher) in music videos for Cinderella's "Shelter Me" and in a new recording of "Good Golly Miss Molly" for the motion picture King Ralph (1991).

He recorded an album of classic children's songs in his original rocking style for Disney, as well as the opening theme song for the science mystery cartoon The Magic School Bus. He has also voiced an animated version of himself in an episode of the Hanna-Barbera version of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures. He recorded duets with Jon Bon Jovi, Hank Williams, Jr., Elton John, Tanya Tucker and Solomon Burke, and new tracks for two motion picture soundtracks: Casper (1995) and Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998). He appeared (as himself) in the latter, as well as in the 1999 film Mystery, Alaska, in which he sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada". He also guest starred as himself in television shows including Columbo (in an episode entitled "The Murder of a Rock Star"),[97] Full House (in the episode entitled "Too Little Richard Too Late"), Martin (in the episode entitled "Three Men and a Mouse") and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

In the summer of 1998 he toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.

In 2000, Robert Townsend directed a biopic entitled Little Richard about the artist's life from childhood to his early 30s (circa 1962). Leon Robinson received an Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the starring role.

Penniman's continued to record, tour, and appear on television throughout the decade.

He wrote and recorded a song for the 2001 film The Trumpet of the Swan. In 2002, he recorded a version of Johnny Cash's "Get Rhythm" for Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to Johnny Cash. In 2005, he and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded a duet of the Beatles' hit "I Saw Her Standing There" for Lewis' 2006 album Last Man Standing. In 2006, he was featured in a Geico television advertisement.

Later that year, he was asked by Simon Cowell to judge the Fox television series Celebrity Duets.

On March 24, 2007, Penniman performed and lectured students at the University of Texas event 40 Acres Fest, featuring 1200 bands.

He also performed that year at the Capitol Fourth, a July 4 celebration in front of the White House. On July 25, 2007, he made an appearance on the ABC show The Next Best Thing.

On November 22, 2007, he headlined the half-time show for a Thanksgiving football game at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

In 2007, to help raise funds to benefit sick and dying children, as well as to debunk the notion that Don Imus was a racist, he recorded a guest track for The Imus Ranch Record (2008).

In June 2008, Penniman also made a cameo appearance on The Young and the Restless as an ordained piano-playing minister.

Reverend Richard Penniman, who had performed wedding ceremonies for celebrities including Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Steve van Zandt and John Branca (for whom Michael Jackson was best man), spoke at his old friend Wilson Pickett's January 2006 funeral, officiated at a wedding of 20 couples in December 2006, and preached at Ike Turner's December 2007 funeral.

On May 30, 2009, following a performance in honor of Fats Domino to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Penniman led Domino and others present in prayer.

On June 12, 2009, prior to performing for the grand finale of 29th annual Riverbend Music Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee he said, "although I sing rock 'n' roll, God still loves me. I'm a rock 'n' roll singer, but I'm still a Christian."

In late November 2009, Penniman asked for fans to pray for his quick and full recovery from a recent surgery on a hip, which had been causing him pain in his left leg for some time.

Little Richard continued to recover from the operation on his left hip in the first part of 2010. On June 5th and 6th of 2010, he spent time at The Rock House in Franklin, Tennessee to record a new track -- a cover of Dottie Rambo's He Ain't Never Done Me Nothing But Good, as part of a star-studded tribute to the late Gospel songwriting legend.

[8933 Barry / 8932 Little Richard / 8932 Johnny Cash]

Johnny Cash (1932-2003) - Folsom Prison Blues

John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century.

Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll -- especially early in his career -- as well as blues, folk, and gospel. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists, among them the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails and the synthpop band Depeche Mode.

Johnny Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" freight train sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black."

He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," and usually following it up with his standard Folsom Prison Blues.

Much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption.

His signature songs include I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, Get Rhythm, and Man in Black. He also recorded humorous numbers, such as One Piece at a Time and A Boy Named Sue; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called Jackson; as well as railroad songs including Hey, Porter and Rock Island Line.

Cash, a devout but troubled Christian, has been characterized "as a lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges."

A Biblical scholar, he penned a Christian novel entitled Man in White, and he made a spoken word recording of the entire New King James Version of the New Testament.

Even so, Cash declared that he was "the biggest sinner of them all,",\ and viewed himself overall as a complicated and contradictory man.

Accordingly, Cash is said to have "contained multitudes," and has been deemed "the philosopher-prince of American country music."

Cash was of Scottish royal descent, however learned this only upon researching his ancestry.

After the opportunity of meeting with former Falkland, Fife laird, Major Michael Crichton-Stuart, he traced the Cash family tree to 11th-century Fife, Scotland.

Scotland's Cash Loch bears the name of his family.

He had believed in his younger days that he was mainly Irish and partially Native American, including Cherokee and Choctaw. Though Cash learned he was not of Native American descent, his empathy and compassion for Native Americans was unabated. Such feelings were expressed in several of his songs, including Apache Tears and The Ballad of Ira Hayes, and on his album, Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian.

Born J. R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas, the second of seven children to Ray Cash and Carrie Rivera, he was raised in Dyess, Arkansas.

Cash was given the name "J.R." because his parents could not agree on a name, only on initials.

When he enlisted in the United States Air Force, the military would not accept initials as his name, so he adopted John R. Cash as his legal name. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name.

His siblings were Jack, Joanne, Louise, Reba, Roy and Tommy.

His younger brother, Tommy Cash, also became a successful country artist.

By the time he was five years old, J.R. was working in cotton fields, singing along with his family simultaneously while working. The family farm was flooded on at least two occasions, which later inspired him to write the song Five Feet High and Rising.

His family's economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, especially those about other people facing similar difficulties.

Cash was very close to his older brother, Jack, who in 1944 was pulled into a whirling table saw in the mill where he worked, and cut almost in two. He suffered for over a week before he died.

Cash often spoke of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident. According to Cash: The Autobiography, his father was away that morning, but he and his mother, and Jack himself, all had premonitions or a sense of foreboding about that day, causing his mother to urge Jack to skip work and go fishing with his brother. Jack insisted on working, as the family needed the money. On his deathbed, Jack said he had visions of heaven and angels. Decades later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in heaven.

Cash's early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. Taught by his mother and a childhood friend, Cash began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy. In high school he sang on a local radio station; decades later he released an album of traditional gospel songs, called My Mother's Hymn Book. He was also significantly influenced by traditional Irish music that he heard performed weekly by Dennis Day on the Jack Benny radio program.

Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas, Cash was assigned to a U.S. Air Force Security Service unit, assigned as a code intercept operator for Soviet Army transmissions at Landsberg, Germany "where he created his first band named The Landsberg Barbarians."

After he was honorably discharged as a sergeant on July 3, 1954, he returned to Texas.

Cash became close friends with a man named John Rollins. Rollins had a similar childhood as Cash, both grew up in the cotton fields of Georgia. Rollins later became a successful business man selling umbrellas. Cash later became the godfather of his son Michael.

On July 18, 1951, while in Air Force training, Cash met 17-year-old Vivian Liberto at a roller skating rink in her native San Antonio. They dated for three weeks, until Cash was deployed to Germany for a three year tour. During that time, the couple exchanged hundreds of pages of love letters.

On August 7, 1954, one month after his discharge, they were married at St. Anne's Catholic church in San Antonio. The ceremony was performed by her uncle, Father Vincent Liberto. They had four daughters: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara. Cash's drug and alcohol abuse, constant touring, and affairs with other women, and his close relationship with future wife June Carter, led Liberto to file for divorce in 1966.

In 1968, 13 years after they first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Cash proposed to June Carter, an established country singer, during a live performance in London, Ontario, marrying on March 1, 1968 in Franklin, Kentucky. He had proposed numerous times, but she had always refused[citation needed]. They had one child together, John Carter Cash (born March 3, 1970). They continued to work together and tour for 35 years, until June Carter died in 2003. Cash died just four months later. Carter co-wrote one of his biggest hits, Ring of Fire, and they won two Grammy awards for their duets.

Vivian Liberto claims a different version of the origins of Ring of Fire in I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, stating that Cash gave Carter the credit for monetary reasons.

In 1954, Cash and Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract. After auditioning for Sam Phillips, singing mostly gospel songs, Phillips told him that gospel was unmarketable. It was once rumored that Phillips told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell," though Cash refuted that Phillips made any such comment in a 2002 interview.

Cash eventually won over the producer with new songs delivered in his early frenetic style. His first recordings at Sun, Hey Porter and Cry! Cry! Cry!, were released in 1955 and met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on studio owner Sam Phillips to pay a social visit while Carl Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks, with Jerry Lee Lewis backing him on piano. Cash was also in the studio and the four started an impromptu jam session. Phillips left the tapes running and the recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived and have since been released under the title Million Dollar Quartet.

Cash's next record, Folsom Prison Blues, made the country Top 5, and I Walk the Line became No. 1 on the country charts and entered the pop charts Top 20. Home of the Blues followed, recorded in July 1957. That same year Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Although he was Sun's most consistently best-selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash felt constrained by his contract with the small label. Presley had already left Sun, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Lewis. The following year Cash left the label to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single Don't Take Your Guns to Town became one of his biggest hits.

In the early 1960s, Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle's daughters, Anita, June and Helen. June, whom Cash would eventually marry, later recalled admiring him from afar during these tours. In the 1960s he appeared on Pete Seeger's short lived Rainbow Quest.

He also acted in a 1961 film entitled Five Minutes to Live, later re-released as Door-to-Door Maniac. He also wrote and sang the opening theme.

As his career was taking off in the early 1960s, Cash started drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. For a brief time, he shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was heavily addicted to amphetamines. Cash used the uppers to stay awake during tours. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the warning signs of his worsening drug addiction. In a behind-the-scenes look at The Johnny Cash Show, Cash claims to have "tried every drug there was to try."

Although in many ways spiraling out of control, Cash's frenetic creativity was still delivering hits.

His rendition of "Ring of Fire" was a crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. The song was originally performed by Carter's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was provided by Cash, who said that it had come to him in a dream.

In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burned several hundred acres in Los Padres National Forest in California.

When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it."

The fire destroyed 508 acres (2.06 km2), burning the foliage off three mountains and killing 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors. Cash was unrepentant: "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards." The federal government sued him and was awarded $125,172 ($863,091 in current dollar terms). Cash eventually settled the case and paid $82,001.

He said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.

Although Cash carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, he never served a prison sentence. Despite landing in jail seven times for misdemeanors, each stay lasted only a single night. His most infamous run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested by a narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. The officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, but it was prescription narcotics and amphetamines that the singer had hidden inside his guitar case. Because they were prescription drugs rather than illegal narcotics, he received a suspended sentence.

Cash was later arrested on May 11, 1965, in Starkville, Mississippi, for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers (This incident gave the spark for the song Starkville City Jail, which he spoke about on his live At San Quentin prison album).

In the mid 1960's, Cash released a number of concept albums, including Ballads Of the True West (1965), an experimental double record mixing authentic frontier songs with Cash's spoken narration, and Bitter Tears (1964), with songs highlighting the plight of the Native Americans. His drug addiction was at its worst at this point, and his destructive behavior led to a divorce from his first wife and canceled performances.

In 1967, Cash's duet with Carter, Jackson, won a Grammy Award.

Johnny Cash's final arrest was in Walker County, GA where he was taken in after being involved in a car accident while carrying a bag of prescription pills. Cash attempted to bribe a local deputy, who turned the money down, and then spent the night in a LaFayette, GA jail. The singer was released after a long talk with Sheriff Ralph Jones, who warned him of his dangerous behavior and wasted potential. Johnny credited that experience for saving his life, and he later came back to LaFayette to play a benefit concert that attracted 12,000 people (the city population was less than 9,000 at the time) and raised $75,000 for the high school.

Cash quit using drugs in 1968, after a spiritual epiphany in the Nickajack Cave, when he attempted to commit suicide while under the heavy influence of drugs. He descended deeper into the cave, trying to lose himself and "just die," when he passed out on the floor. He reported to be exhausted and feeling at the end of his rope when he felt God's presence in his heart and managed to struggle out of the cave (despite the exhaustion) by following a faint light and slight breeze. To him, it was his own rebirth. June, Maybelle, and Ezra Carter moved into Cash's mansion for a month to help him conquer his addiction. Cash proposed onstage to June at a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario, Canada on February 22, 1968; the couple married a week later (on March 1) in Franklin, Kentucky. June had agreed to marry Cash after he had "cleaned up."

He rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area, pastored by Rev. Jimmy Rodgers Snow, son of country music legend Hank Snow. Cash chose this church over many larger celebrity churches in the Nashville area because he said that there he was treated like just another parishioner and not a celebrity.

Cash felt great compassion for prisoners. He began performing concerts at various prisons starting in the late 1950s.His first ever prison concert was held on January 1, 1958 at San Quentin State Prison.

These performances led to a pair of highly successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969).

The Folsom Prison record was introduced by a rendition of his classic Folsom Prison Blues, while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single A Boy Named Sue, a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that reached No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on the U.S. Top Ten pop charts. The AM versions of the latter contained a couple of profanities which were edited out. The modern CD versions are unedited and uncensored and thus also longer than the original vinyl albums, though they still retain the audience reaction overdubs of the originals.

In addition to his performances at U.S. prisons, Cash also performed at the Österåker Prison in Sweden in 1972. The live album På Österåker ("At Österåker") was released in 1973. Between the songs, Cash can be heard speaking Swedish, which was greatly appreciated by the inmates.

Cash advocated prison reform at his July 1972 meeting with United States President Richard Nixon.

From 1969 to 1971, Cash starred in his own television show, The Johnny Cash Show, on the ABC network. The Statler Brothers opened up for him in every episode; the Carter Family and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins were also part of the regular show entourage. However, Cash also enjoyed booking other performers as guests; such notables included Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition (who appeared a record four times on his show), James Taylor, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton (then leading Derek and the Dominos), and Bob Dylan.

Cash had met with Dylan in the mid 1960s and became closer friends when they were neighbors in the late 1960s in Woodstock, New York. Cash was enthusiastic about reintroducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. Cash sang a duet with Dylan on Dylan's country album Nashville Skyline and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes.

Another artist who received a major career boost from The Johnny Cash Show was songwriter Kris Kristofferson, who was beginning to make a name for himself as a singer/songwriter. During a live performance of Kristofferson's Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, Cash refused to change the lyrics to suit network executives, singing the song with its references to marijuana intact: "On a Sunday morning sidewalk / I'm wishin', Lord, that I was stoned."

By the early 1970's, he had crystallized his public image as "The Man in Black." He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat. This outfit stood in contrast to the costumes worn by most of the major country acts in his day: rhinestone suit and cowboy boots. In 1971, Cash wrote the song Man in Black, to help explain his dress code: "We're doing mighty fine I do suppose / In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes / But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back / Up front there ought to be a man in black."

He wore black on behalf of the poor and hungry, on behalf of "the prisoner who has long paid for his crime," and on behalf of those who have been betrayed by age or drugs.

"And," Cash added, "with the Vietnam War as painful in my mind as it was in most other Americans', I wore it 'in mournin' for the lives that could have been.' ... Apart from the Vietnam War being over, I don't see much reason to change my position ... The old are still neglected, the poor are still poor, the young are still dying before their time, and we're not making many moves to make things right. There's still plenty of darkness to carry off."

He and his band had initially worn black shirts because that was the only matching color they had among their various outfits.

He wore other colors on stage early in his career, but he claimed to like wearing black both on and off stage. He stated that, political reasons aside, he simply liked black as his on-stage color.

To this day, the United States Navy's winter blue service uniform is referred to by sailors as "Johnny Cashes," as the uniform's shirt, tie, and trousers are solid black.

In the mid 1970's, Cash's popularity and number of hit songs began to decline, but his autobiography (the first of two), titled Man in Black, was published in 1975 and sold 1.3 million copies. A second, Cash: The Autobiography, appeared in 1997. His friendship with Billy Graham led to the production of a film about the life of Jesus, The Gospel Road, which Cash co-wrote and narrated.

He also continued to appear on television, hosting an annual Christmas special on CBS throughout the 1970s. Later television appearances included a role in an episode of Columbo (Swan Song). He also appeared with his wife on an episode of Little House on the Prairie entitled The Collection and gave a performance as John Brown in the 1985 American Civil War television mini-series North and South. He had a returning role as Kid Cole on the CBS series Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman in the mid-1990's.

He was friendly with every United States President starting with Richard Nixon. He was closest with Jimmy Carter, who became a very close friend.

He stated that he found all of them personally charming, noting that this was probably essential to getting oneself elected.



When invited to perform at the White House for the first time in 1972, Richard Nixon's office requested that he play Okie from Muskogee (a satirical Merle Haggard song about people who despised youthful drug users and war protesters) and Welfare Cadillac (a Guy Drake song which denies the integrity of welfare recipients). Cash declined to play either and instead selected other songs, including The Ballad of Ira Hayes (about a brave Native-American World War II veteran who was mistreated upon his return to Arizona), and his own compositions, What is Truth? and Man in Black. Cash wrote that the reasons for denying Nixon's song choices were not knowing them and having fairly short notice to rehearse them, rather than any political reason.

However, Cash added, even if Nixon's office had given Cash enough time to learn and rehearse the songs, their choice of pieces that conveyed "antihippie and antiblack" sentiments might have backfired.

In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age forty-eight, but during the 1980's his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, although he continued to tour successfully. In the mid 1980's, he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making two hit albums.

During this period, Cash appeared in a number of television films. In 1981, he starred in The Pride of Jesse Hallam, winning fine reviews for a film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In the same year, Cash appeared as a "very special guest star" in an episode of the Muppet Show. In 1983, he appeared as a heroic sheriff in Murder in Coweta County, based on a real-life Georgia murder case, which co-starred Andy Griffith as his nemesis. Cash had tried for years to make the film, for which he won acclaim.

Cash relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 caused by an unusual incident in which he was kicked and wounded by an ostrich he kept on his farm.

At a hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack), Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked into the hospital for his own heart condition. Doctors recommended preventive heart surgery, and Cash underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both recovered, although Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers, fearing a relapse into dependency. Cash later claimed that during his operation, he had what is called a "near death experience." He said he had visions of Heaven that were so beautiful that he was angry when he woke up alive.

Cash's recording career and his general relationship with the Nashville establishment were at an all-time low in the 1980s. He realized that his record label of nearly 30 years, Columbia, was growing indifferent to him and wasn't properly marketing him (he was "invisible" during that time, as he said in his autobiography). Cash recorded an intentionally awful song to protest, a self-parody.

Chicken in Black was about Cash's brain being transplanted into a chicken. Ironically, the song turned out to be a larger commercial success than any of his other recent material. Nevertheless, he was hoping to kill the relationship with the label before they did, and it was not long after Chicken in Black that Columbia and Cash parted ways.

In 1986, Cash returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to create the album Class of '55. Also in 1986, Cash published his only novel, Man in White, a book about Saul and his conversion to become the Apostle Paul. He also recorded Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament in 1990.

After Columbia Records dropped Cash from his recording contract, he had a short and unsuccessful stint with Mercury Records from 1987 to 1991.

In 1991, Cash sang lead vocals on a cover version of Man in Black for the Christian punk band One Bad Pig's album I Scream Sunday.

His career was rejuvenated in the 1990's, leading to popularity among a younger audience not traditionally interested in country music. In 1993, he sang the vocal on U2's The Wanderer for their album Zooropa. Although he was no longer sought after by major labels, Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock.

Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album American Recordings (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. That guitar was a Martin dreadnought guitar -- one of many Cash played throughout his career.

The album featured several covers of contemporary artists selected by Rubin and had much critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career.

This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and surprising commercial success.

Cash and his wife appeared on a number of episodes of the popular television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman starring Jane Seymour. The actress thought so highly of Cash that she later named one of her twin sons after him. He lent his voice for a cartoon cameo in an episode of The Simpsons, with his voice as that of a coyote that guides Homer on a spiritual quest. In 1996, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and released a sequel to American Recordings -- Unchained -- which won a Grammy for Best Country Album. Cash, believing he did not explain enough of himself in his 1975 autobiography Man in Black, wrote another autobiography in 1997 entitled Cash: The Autobiography.

In 1997, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome, a form of Parkinson's disease. The diagnosis was later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. This illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The albums American III: Solitary Man (2000) and American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002) contained Cash's response to his illness in the form of songs of a slightly more somber tone than the first two American albums. The video that was released for Hurt, a cover of the song by Nine Inch Nails, fits Cash's view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from American IV, is now generally recognized as "his epitaph," and received particular critical and popular acclaim.

June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73. June had told Cash to keep working, so he continued to record and even performed a couple of surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. At the July 5, 2003 concert (his last public performance), before singing Ring of Fire, Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage:

“The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration like she always has.”

Cash died of complications from diabetes less than four months after his wife, at 2:00 a.m. CT on September 12, 2003, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He was buried next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

His stepdaughter, Rosie (Nix) Adams and another passenger were found dead on a bus in Montgomery County, Tennessee, on October 24, 2003. It was speculated that the deaths may have been caused by carbon monoxide from the lanterns in the bus. Adams was 45 when she died. She was buried in the Hendersonville Memory Gardens, near her mother and stepfather.

On May 24, 2005, Vivian Liberto, Cash's first wife and the mother of Rosanne Cash and three other daughters, died from surgery to remove lung cancer at the age of 71. It was her daughter Rosanne's 50th birthday.

In June 2005, his lakeside home on Caudill Drive in Hendersonville was put up for sale by his estate. In January 2006, the house was sold to Bee Gees vocalist Barry Gibb and wife Linda and titled in their Florida limited liability company for $2.3 million. The listing agent was Cash's younger brother, Tommy Cash. The home was destroyed by fire on April 10, 2007.

One of Cash's final collaborations with producer Rick Rubin, entitled American V: A Hundred Highways, was released posthumously on July 4, 2006. The album debuted in the #1 position on the Billboard Top 200 album chart for the week ending July 22, 2006.

On February 26, 2010, what would have been Cash's 78th birthday, the Cash Family, Rick Rubin, and Lost Highway Records released his second posthumous record, entitled American VI: Ain't No Grave.

From his early days as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock and roll in the 1950's, to his decades as an international representative of country music, to his resurgence to fame in the 1990's as a living legend and an alternative country icon, Cash influenced countless artists and left a large body of work. Upon his death, Cash was revered by the greatest popular musicians of his time. His rebellious image and often anti-authoritarian stance influenced the punk rock movement.

Among Cash's children, his daughter Rosanne Cash (by first wife Vivian Liberto) and his son John Carter Cash (by June Carter Cash) are notable country-music musicians in their own right.
Cash nurtured and defended artists on the fringes of what was acceptable in country music even while serving as the country music establishment's most visible symbol. At an all-star TNT concert in 1999, a diverse group of artists paid him tribute, including Bob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dom DeLuise and U2. Cash himself appeared at the end and performed for the first time in more than a year. Two tribute albums were released shortly before his death; Kindred Spirits contains works from established artists, while Dressed in Black contains works from many lesser-known artists.

In total, he wrote over 1,000 songs and released dozens of albums. A box set titled Unearthed was issued posthumously. It included four CDs of unreleased material recorded with Rubin as well as a Best of Cash on American retrospective CD.

In recognition of his lifelong support of SOS Children's Villages, his family invited friends and fans to donate to that charity in his memory. He had a personal link with the SOS village in Diessen, at the Ammersee Lake in Southern Germany, near where he was stationed as a GI, and also with the SOS village in Barrett Town, by Montego Bay, near his holiday home in Jamaica.

***



Folsom Prison Blues was written by Johnny Cash in the early 1950's and originally recorded with his trio in 1956 for the Sun Records label. The song combines elements from two popular folk genres, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career. It has become one of Cash's signature songs.

In the lyrics, the jailed protagonist listens to the whistle of a train outside his cell and recounts his crimes ("I shot a man in Reno / just to watch him die"), imagines the free people inside the train ("I bet they're drinking coffee and smoking big cigars") and dreams of what he would do if he were free. "I know I had it coming / I know I can't be free," sings the imprisoned man. "But those people keep a'moving / and that's what tortures me."


The song does not clarify why the protagonist is serving time in California despite having committed murder in Nevada (unless he is serving time in Folsom for another offence, and is recalling the Reno murder as he reflects on a life of crime, and his unwillingness to follow his mother's advice not to "play with guns").

Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force. Cash recounted how he came up with the "Reno" line: "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind."





The song borrows heavily, both lyrically and melodically, from a Gordon Jenkins composition on his 1953 Seven Dreams album, specifically Crescent City Blues. Jenkins later reportedly filed an infringement lawsuit and received a settlement after Cash's 1968 live recording achieved widespread success.



Cash included the song in his repertoire for decades. The definitive live performance is considered to be the opening song of a concert recorded at Folsom Prison itself on January 13, 1968. This version was eventually released on the At Folsom Prison album the same year. That opening song is more up-tempo than the Sun studio recording, as befits a concert-opening number. However, the recording's most notable features -- the whoops from the audience at the "Reno" line -- were actually added in post-production, according to Michael Streissguth. A special on the Walk the Line DVD indicates that the prisoners were careful not to cheer at any of Cash's comments about the prison itself, fearing reprisal from guards.



Bob Dylan has recorded or performed the song on The Basement Tapes in 1967, during the Nashville Skyline sessions in May 1969, and during the Never Ending Tour, but it has never been released commercially.

***

Folsom Prison Blues




as performed by the Navajo country-western band, The Fenders

The Navajo country-western group, The Fenders, recorded an 11 1/2 (as opposed to 12-bar) blues version, which is part of the anthology of selections in Jeff Todd Titon's Worlds of Music (Schirmer, 1984, 1992).

[8932 Little Richard / 8932 Johnny Cash / 8932 John Williams]

John Williams (b. 1932)

In 1948, John [Towner] Williams (b. February 8, 1932, Floral Park, New York) and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended North Hollywood High School.


He later attended the University of California, Los Angeles and Los Angeles City College, and studied privately with composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

In 1952, Williams was drafted into the United States Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his duties.

After his service ended in 1954, Williams moved to New York City and entered Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne.



Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. They had two children together. One of those children is Joseph Williams, former lead singer for the band Toto; another is Jenny Williams, also a singer, who was born in 1956.

He worked as a jazz pianist at New York's many studios and clubs. He also played for composer Henry Mancini: The session musicians were John Williams on piano, Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar -- the same lineup featured on the Mr. Lucky TV series.

Williams's most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century -- especially Wagnerian music and its concept of leitmotif -- that inspired his film-composing predecessors.

After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles and began working as an orchestrator in film studios. Among others, he had worked with composers Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman.

Williams began to compose music scores for television series programs in the late 1950's Williams's first major film composition was for the B-movie Daddy-O in 1958,


He was also a studio pianist, performing in scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith,



Elmer Bernstein,


and Henry Mancini (for whom he played the opening riff to Peter Gunn, 1958).

His first screen credit came by 1960 in Because They're Young.

Williams also recorded with Henry Mancini on the film soundtracks of Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and Charade (1963). He was known as "Johnny" Williams in the early 1960's, and served as arranger and bandleader on a series of popular albums with singer Frankie Laine.


He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano and symphonic music, eventually leading to credits for



Lost in Space (1965) and



The Time Tunnel (1966).



He received his first Academy Award nomination for his score to the 1967 film Valley Of The Dolls, and was nominated again in 1969 for Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He won his first Academy Award for his adapted score to the 1971 film Fiddler On The Roof. By the early 1970's, Williams had established himself as a composer for large-scale disaster films, with scores for The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno; the last two films, scored in 1974, borrowing musical cues from each other.


In 1974, Williams was approached by Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, The Sugarland Express. The young director had been impressed with Williams's score to the 1969 film The Reivers, and was convinced the composer could provide the sound he desired for his films.



They re-teamed a year later for the director's second film, Jaws.

Jaws (1975)



Widely considered a classic suspense piece, the score's ominous two-note motif has become nearly synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score earned Williams a second Academy Award, his first for an original composition.


Shortly afterwards, Williams and Spielberg began preparing for their next feature film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Unusual for a Hollywood production, Spielberg's script and Williams's musical concepts were developed at the same time and were closely linked. During the two-year creative collaboration, they settled on a distinctive five-note figure that functioned both as background music and the communication signal of the film's alien mothership. Williams employed a system of musical hand signals in the film, based on a method invented by Zoltan Kodaly.


In the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, Star Wars (1977) Williams produced a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner.





Its primary melody -- Luke's Theme (Main Title) is among the most widely-recognized in motion picture history, and The Force and Princess Leia are well-known examples of leitmotif. The film and its soundtrack were both immensely successful, and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film Superman. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as Can You Read My Mind, would appear in the four subsequent sequel films.



He married for a second time on June 9, 1980, to his current wife, Samantha Winslow.

Williams is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary fraternity for college band members.

In 1980, Williams returned to score The Empire Strikes Back, where he introduced The Imperial March as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire.

From 1980 to 1993, the composer succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never personally met his predecessor, although he did speak with him on the telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the their first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for The Empire Strikes Back.



Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)



For the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Williams wrote a rousing main theme Raiders's March to accompany the hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The music conveys the film's benign, child-like sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history, in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.

The original Star Wars trilogy concluded with the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, for which Williams's score provided the Emperor's Theme and the climactic Final Duel. Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations. It has been noted that the 1942 film The Talk of the Town carries thematic music similar to that found within the Star Wars films.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984. Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal. Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation, reportedly due to mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule as well as a perceived lack of discipline in the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams reconsidered his resignation and continued for nine more years.

The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film Empire of the Sun.

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony, Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony, Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991 and a Sinfonietta for wind ensemble.

His continuing work with Speilberg has spanned genres from blockbuster such as Jurassic Park, to somber tragedies including Schindler's List (both from 1993).

a Cello Concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994, concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, and tuba. His bassoon concerto, The Five Sacred Trees, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 1995 Williams stepped down from the Boston Pops and was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops.

Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), resident of Symphony Hall in the Massachusetts capital. Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO, to provide a choral accompaniment to films (such as Saving Private Ryan).

His Trumpet Concerto was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996.

In 1999 George Lucas launched the first of a series prequels to the original Star Wars Trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new leitmotifs in Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002). Here Williams composed Across the Stars, a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy).

Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

Williams's association with Spielberg has continued to the present and included Munich and the Eastern-tinged melodrama Memoirs of a Geisha, both from 2005). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."

The Star Wars saga concluded that same year with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Most notable of these was Duel of the Fates, an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. The final installment combined many of the themes created for the entire series. Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six Star Wars films add up to music that takes a full orchestra more than 14 hours to perform entirely.

In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptation of the widely successful young adult's book series, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. He went on to score the first three installments of the franchise. As with his Superman theme, the most important theme from Williams' scores for the film adaptations of the Potter series, dubbed Hedwig's Theme, has been used in the fourth and fifth movies in the series (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), scored by Patrick Doyle and Nicholas Hooper respectively.

In 2008 scored Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and will most likely be scoring Steven Spielberg's future projects Lincoln and Interstellar. He also expressed an interest in composing the score for the seventh and final film in the Harry Potter film series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.


[John Williams - Star Wars: Main Title; Leia's Theme;
Cantina Band / The Empire Strikes Back: Yoda -
Analysis and Figures]

[8932 Johnny Cash / 8932 John Williams / 8931 Herman]