Description

On 13 January 1968 Johnny Cash walked into Folsom State Prison in California to record a live album in front of the inmates, and Columbia sent the photographer Jim Marshall to document it. The cover is a tight close-up of Cash from that day, sweat dripping from the bottom of his sideburns, his face hard and intense under the stage lights. It looks less like a publicity shot than a picture of a man doing hard work.

Marshall never forgot the prison itself. "The granite walls in Folsom are about eight feet thick," he recalled. As the second gate slammed shut behind them, Cash turned to him and said, "Jim, there's a feeling of permanence in that sound." Marshall admitted, "After that, I started wondering when we were going to get out of there." Cash performed with the Tennessee Three and Carl Perkins, and the inmates' shouts and cheers ended up on the record.

Marshall also took the most famous photograph of Cash's prison years. During a rehearsal before a show, he said, "John, let's do a shot for the warden," and Cash looked straight into the lens and raised his middle finger. Marshall called it "probably the most ripped off photograph in the history of the world." At Folsom Prison was released on 6 May 1968 and revived Cash's career, and the sweating close-up on its cover became the image of country music's rebel.

Credit

Photography by Jim Marshall