Vitals

Johnny Cash, country rock superstar

San Quentin State Prison, California, February 1969

Film: Johnny Cash in San Quentin
Release Date: September 6, 1969
Director: Michael Darlow

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 94th birthday of Johnny Cash, born February 26, 1932 in Arkansas. After his initial success recording hits like “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line” for Sun Records, Cash began his tradition of performing concerts at prisons with a New Year’s Day 1958 gig at San Quentin State Prison, with a 19-year-old Merle Haggard among the inmates in attendance.

A decade later, Cash was retaking control of his life and career after both had been stalled by his narcotic addictions. It was a fortuitous time for his self-rehabilitation as Columbia Records had recently hired visionary producer Bob Johnston, who was more eager to entertain Cash’s unorthodox collaborations—including the singer’s long-expressed desire to record an album inside a prison. Folsom State Prison responded first after Johnston called them and San Quentin, resulting in Cash recording his now legendary concert there on January 13, 1968.

Despite little promotion from Columbia, At Folsom Prison revitalized Cash’s career as it rose to the top of the U.S. Top Country Albums chart and won a pair of Grammy Awards. A year later, Cash returned inside the walls of a California state prison to record yet another live album to an audience of inmates—this time returning to San Quentin, just north of San Francisco and 100 miles southwest of Folsom.

This was Cash’s first album recorded without longtime lead guitarist Luther Perkins, who died following an August 1968 house fire, so guitarist Bob Wootton joined bassist Marshall Grant and drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland in Cash’s Tennessee Three backing band. Additional acts included Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and the Carter Family—including June Carter, who had married Johnny the previous March, just weeks after his on-stage proposal in Ontario. The entire group arrived at San Quentin for a performance on February 24, 1969—two days before Cash’s 37th birthday.

The set begins with the Tennessee Three beating the opening riffs to “Big River” as Cash energetically leaps onto the stage with them, takes the mic, and introduces himself to the enthusiastic crowd with his usual greeting:

Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.

The San Quentin set list echoed Folsom, including June joining Johnny for a few duets—including “Jackson”, of course—though Cash peppered in new tracks like “San Quentin” (viciously skewering the prison, much to the inmates’ amusement) and Shel Silverstein’s “A Boy Named Sue”, which won Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards. The entire album itself was certified gold that August, later attaining triple platinum on March 27, 2003, six months before Cash’s death.

The concert was filmed by the English independent network Granada Television, where The Guardian rock critic Geoffrey Cannon “was part of an ambitious ‘think tank’ charged with coming up with ‘far out’ programming ideas,” according to Robert Hilburn in Johnny Cash: The Life. At Folsom Prison inspired Cannon to explore the sociological ties between country music and prison life, so Cash’s manager Saul Holiff pivoted Cannon’s concept into filming Cash’s upcoming San Quentin show for the one-hour special Johnny Cash in San Quentin, which would ultimately air in the United Kingdom in September 1969 with Cash’s performance interspersed among interviews with prison inmates and staff.

Cash quickly grew frustrated with producer and director Michael Darlow’s crew. During a pre-show sound-check, he may have flashed his middle finger at the film crew… or his friend and photographer Jim Marshall may have asked him to pose for the warden—but, regardless of its genesis, the photo has endured to solidify the Man in Black’s outlaw reputation for decades.

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What’d He Wear?

Johnny Cash’s reputation as the “Man in Black” emerged early in his career when he dressed for the studio and stage in black clothing inspired by screen cowboy Lash LaRue. This wasn’t his exclusive palette, as illustrated by a stage style in the late 1960s that recalled Western-inspired dandies with an edge.

In 1969, when his public appearances included the San Quentin concert and the first year of his ABC variety series The Johnny Cash Show, Cash frequently wore long quasi-Victorian frock coats with matching waistcoats, open-neck shirts with dramatic collars, and black leather ankle boots.

Cash’s San Quentin jacket follows this old-school frock coat design, made from a midnight-colored cloth that alternately appears dark-blue or black under different stage lighting or video resolutions. Styled with a broad ulster collar, the jacket extends to just above his knees with long double vents and slanted side pockets. The double-breasted arrangement of six cloth-covered buttons (in a parallel 6×3 configuration) matches the two vestigial buttons dressing each cuff.

The long, dark swath of cloth with its quasi-Victorian cut and severe collar framing his visage recalls the silhouette of a frontier minister as much as a stage performer, rejecting the peacock flash of psychedelic late ’60s stagewear in favor of sterner restraint that suggests judgement and redemption as he takes the musical pulpit with a room full of fellow sinners.

Cash’s matching double-breasted waistcoat has no lapels and a straight-cut bottom, with the buttons mirroring the same tapered 6×3 configuration as other waistcoats he wore for other performances through this time.

He wears a sky-blue cotton shirt with a large and shapely spread collar, plain button-up front with the top few buttons undone, and double (French) cuffs that he secures with large blue cabochon cuff links. This may have been one of the stage shirts he purchased from Turnbull & Asser around this time.

Cash contrasts the matching jacket and waistcoat with gray-and-black striped flat-front trousers with a long rise that buries the waistband under his waistcoat, recalling the old-fashioned cashmere-striped trousers from formal day dress. These have open-top front pockets and tapered legs down to plain-hemmed bottoms that break high over the tops of his size 13D black leather ankle boots, styled with pointed toes, raised heels, an inside zip—like these Moreschi boots from Cash’s closet auctioned by Julien’s.

Cash’s sole affectation is a center-ridged gold ring [of fire] on his right hand.

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What to Imbibe

If any of the guards are still speakin’ to me, could I have a glass of water?

Cash repeats his bit from Folsom of illustrating the prison’s poor water quality when a smiling guard—his appearance scored by the inmates’ boos—hands Cash a tin cup of water, which the singer proceeds to spit out, dump out, and stomp on.

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How to Get the Look

You don’t need all black to channel Johnny Cash’s style. Just think “rockabilly preacher” and then have the cojones to pull it off.

• Midnight wool double-breasted 6×3-button jacket with broad ulster collar, slanted side pockets, 2-button cuffs, and double vents
• Midnight wool double-breasted 6×3-button waistcoat with straight-cut bottom
• Sky-blue cotton shirt with shapely spread collar, plain button-up front, and double/French cuffs
  • Blue cabochon cuff links
• Gray-and-black striped flat-front trousers with slanted front pockets, tapered leg, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather ankle boots
• Gold center-ridged ring

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the TV special and the 1969 album.