My friend Doug showed me this the other day - Johnny Cash straight up ripped off Folsom Prison Blues. Hear the original:

http://box.net/public/lee/files/1527934.html

Its called Crescent City Blues and it was released by Gordon Jenkins on a concept album entitled Seven Dreams in 1953 - Johnny Cashs version didnt come out until 1956.

Apparently Cash never claimed to have written Folsom Prison Blues (although somehow he receives full writer credit on the song), here are some quotes from the Man in Black himself on the subject:

"I was in the U.S. air force stationed in Germany in 53," Cash remembers. "And it was then that I saw a film called Inside The Walls Of Folsom Prison. While I was there I also had that album by Gordon Jenkins with the song Crescent City Blues, which was a great inspiration for Folsom Prison Blues as well.
"At the time, I really had no idea I would be a professional recording artist. I wasn't trying to rip anybody off. So when I later went to Sun to record the song, I told Sam Phillips that I rewrote an old song to make my song, and that was that. Sometime later I met up with Gordon Jenkins and we talked about what had happened, and everything was all right."

After the success of the At Folsom Prison album, Gordon Jenkins sued Sun Records and received some sort of monetary settlement but to this day gets no credit for writing the original song. In the movie Walk The Line, Cash is shown composing the song while in the Air Force.

:eek: :eek:

Jenkins must have gotten something from it or he would have had every right to sue.
I'm amazed that obviously this was known by obviously quite a few people, but it never came to light to the public.
Unless I missed some big furor about it long before I was born.

Jenkins must have gotten something from it or he would have had every right to sue.
He did sue, and won.

Duh, I see it in your post now. :doh:

I guess this just proves we shouldn't take our heroes too seriously.

A recent Time-Life box set of Johnny Cash's Sun recordings goes into full detail about this [by noted music historian Colin Escott]and gives shared credit for the song with Gordon Jenkins.

It was the first song Cash ever wrote,seldom does even a great songwrtier come out with a non-rewritten song on their first try.

As far as Sun goes,Sam Phillips himself was no angel when it came to stealing credit for songs.

In modern music with its formula style riffs etc. you can be guilty of plagiarism and not even realize it. It's hard to stay inside the lines of what people want and produce something really new.

In modern music with its formula style riffs etc. you can be guilty of plagiarism and not even realize it. It's hard to stay inside the lines of what people want and produce something really new.
Well yes, but if you listen to crescent city blues, it's a straight up cover with a few lyrics changed.

In modern music with its formula style riffs etc. you can be guilty of plagiarism and not even realize it. It's hard to stay inside the lines of what people want and produce something really new.
You can't copyright riffs though [if you could Chuck Berry,Bo Didley and possibly Johnny Cash would be the richest men who ever lived,and Horace Silver would have a few bucks from Steely Dan] .