Johnny Cash in San Quentin (1969 TV Special) User Reviews

Don't miss this, but be prepared for performance interruptus

[dcurranwriter · 9/10 · 10 November 2005]

A little too much in the way of interviews with inmates about prison life, especially frustrating when they interrupt songs, but that's the only thing wrong with this picture. That and the fact that it doesn't include the whole concert, every note from beginning to end, because anything less leaves you knowing there was more where this came from, but you'll never see or hear it.

I always want to hear songs from start to finish, particularly when they're performed live. And oh, what a performance we have here. Johnny, the ex-con junkie, is absolutely at home and relaxed in front of a roomful of lifers, truly enjoying doing what he was born to do. Genuine, alive, connected every moment with his equally engaged audience. He's absolutely wondrous, and so is his band. I'm probably not the first to suggest this, but it almost would have been worth doing hard time just to be in the audience. (Almost. Life without parole is a pretty pricey ticket.) This is the real stuff, folks. They don't make 'em like this anymore, and when they did, they didn't make many.

Excellent!

[Blondie_ · 9/10 · 30 November 2005]

I really enjoyed this concert, which is being aired frequently on CMT now to coincide with the Cash movie release. Cash was so very charming, funny, energetic, and his love for performing really shone through. Mrs. Cash and her family were also excellent in their performance with Johnny. I also enjoyed the interruptions to air interview the inmates and prison staff about their lives and crimes. I found it to be very interesting since this concert took place in 1969, it was a good history lesson and something to contrast with today. It made me wonder what ever ended up happening with some of these inmate's lives, and if some of the death row inmates they interviewed ever ended up making it or not. I just wish this concert was out on DVD! I can't believe that it has never been released. Cash is such a legend, and one would think that a concert as well-known as this one would definitely of been released by now.

Captive audience

[Lejink · 9/10 · 31 May 2012]

A quite remarkable document of Johnny Cash's historic concert at the infamous San Quentin penitentiary, which works not only on a musical but also on a documentary level. Cash and his band perform a range of "jailbird" songs interspersed with a little gospel and some tough humour to an enthusiastic crowd of inmates, no doubt glad for some relief from the daily grind of prison life.

Cash himself isn't interviewed during the programme, although he delivers some confident between-songs banter as well as introducing his wife June to sing a surprising cover of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Darlin' Companion. There are newly minted songs too, including Bob Dylan's "Wanted Man", the big hit "A Boy Named Sue" and his own scathing "San Quentin" ("...I hate every inch of you", goes the next line), Cash, no stranger to trouble, clearly identifying with the prisin audience rather more than the authorities.

Great show as it is, the inter-cut testimony from prisoners and the governor alike is what leaves the biggest impression, including a confession by one death-row convict which will freeze your soul.

I haven't seen a concert by any popular act quite like this before and it made me think about Cash's Sun label colleague in the Million Dollar Quartet who around this time was performing cabaret in Las Vegas. Unlike Presley though, Cash was clearly his own man and here as never before, truly walked the line.

Great music, interesting social commentary

[grantss · 8/10 · 4 October 2019]

A capture of Johnny Cash's famous concert at San Quentin prison, performed on 24 February 1969. Song list: I Walk The Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Orange Blossom Special, Jackson, Darlin' Companion, Will The Circle Be Broken, San Quentin, Wanted Man, A Boy Named Sue, Peace In The Valley, He Turned The Water Into Wine.

This was the second of Johnny Cash's two famous prison concerts, both of which were recorded and released as albums. The first was at Folsom Prison in 1968.

Great music, covering most of Johnny Cash's more famous tracks. Cash and his band are in fine form, with Cash every bit the showman and troubadour.

Interspersed with the songs are interviews with inmates and guards, talking about life in prison and, in the inmates' cases, the circumstances that brought them there. Quite illuminating.

The interviews do often ruin the flow of the music though, as they are often injected into the middle of a song, rather than between songs. I don't mind the interviews at all, just wish they were placed better.

Mr. Cash I love every inch of you

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 28 July 2018]

The title "Johnny Cash in San Quentin" is pretty telling here as this little documentary movie takes us to the well-known American prison of San Quentin and we see and hear the man in black Johnny Cash perform a few of his songs, especially those that fit the best in terms of tone and lyrics to this unusual concert location. This was airing on television back in 1969, so it will soon have its 50th anniversary. Maybe it happened already depending on when you read this review. Apparently, there is a half-hour version for West Germany out there, but all I could find runs for roughly 51 minutes and that's allso the uncut version, the one you want to see. Even I as a huge Johnny Cash fan heard some songs of his in here that I wasn't yet familiar with. So regardless if you know everything or nothing about the man, this one is worth checking out. Yes the editing may not always have been smooth and basically all songs are interrupted by interviews with inmates and guards, but if you want the complete songs, you know where to get them, not in this documentary. I actually liked the non-Cash inclusions too. They add more political and social relevance to this one and make it an important document of its time half a century ago. It sure would be with 100% concert footage though too. I think the idea is pretty brilliant too. And it says a lot positive about Cash that he agreed to perform here. You wouldn't see that from Elvis, Sinatra or most of the others. Cash is a man of the simple people, also those who made bad decisions during their lives and will have to pay the rest of their existence for their errors. On board here are also The Tennessee Three and June with her family including Mother Maybel. For the captives, this was probably an event of their lifetime, a true moment to remember that distracts them for once at least from their bleak existence without any future prospects. Most of them had a life sentence I suppose. The best song, i.e. the most fitting one in here, is of "San Quentin", hence my reference in the title of this review. So yeah I may be slightly biased due to the fact that I am a huge J.C. fan, but completely aside from that I also think it was kinda heartbreaking to see all these inmates (and guards) in here who are probably long gone by now. The one who apparently is not is British BAFTA-nominated director wo is seemingly still alive today way into his 80s. Thanks to him for recording this truly extraordinarily concert. It's a shame it's forgotten by so many to be honest as concerts in somewhat unusual occasions are something I'd love to see far more freuqently today as well by those artists that have defined the music industry in the last decades. Instead they play it safe. Shame. Cash is not one to play it safe. What an artist, great job he does here as usual. Highly recommended. One of 1969's very best releases and that includes absolutely everything. See it, it's still easy to get a hand on these days luckily.