Oakland's Vinyl Vault - At San Quentin

Well, the good news is the world has not ended.  The bad news is that that means you get to "enjoy" another episode of Oakland's Vinyl Vault.  Today we get one of the handful of live albums that I have in my stacks.  In order to have seen the live performance that the album captured, you would have had to been a hardened criminal.  That's because today we are looking at Johnny Cash At San Quentin.

Release Date: June 4, 1969
Singles: A Boy Named Sue

The second most famous album to be recorded at a prison, Johnny Cash At San Quentin does not have as strong of a set list as its predecessor, At Folsom Prison.  But what it lacks musically, it makes up for in pure Johnny Cash charisma.  Only Cash could have playful banter with a roomful of some of the most hardened criminals the state of California has to offer, as if they were any other crowd.  At one point, while Cash is addressing the crowd, somebody apparently yells something out, and Cash responds:

"What?  Excuse me, I couldn't hear you, I was talking."

The highlight of the album, for me, is when Cash plays "San Quentin."  The crowd loves it so much (the guards, not so much) that Cash decides to play it again.  And crazy part is that for some reason when they were deciding which songs to include on the album, they opted to keep both performances of "San Quentin," so the second side of the album starts off with back-to-back versions of the same damn song.  I'd be willing to bet there's no other album in history that does that.

Rating: 6 shivs - Johnny Cash really was a unique talent and character in the world of music, and what this album gets right is giving you Johnny Cash, raw and unfiltered (but not uncensored on the original release).  A fun record, even if it's not quite as good as the more famous At Folsom Prison.

And now here's Johnny performing "San Quentin."  Along with the album, the concert was also filmed, so we can watch actual footage!  Huzzah!



I can't believe there wasn't a riot.  Pat is crazy.