…I Shot A Man In Reno Just To Watch Him Die

This morning I was driving to the office, thinking about the things to do today, without paying too much attention to what was playing on the radio. However, at one moment it was that verse that sounded very familiar to me, without being able to put my finger on the song in the first moment…

Very familiar lyrics, but the damn obsessive squealing that was on top of everything was really driving me nuts, reminding me of Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the membrane” and I really hated that song…So at first I thought it’s the same song (it was on another radio channel a few hours earlier and I switched to something else) and I was ready to switch the channel again, when that lyric took me by surprise plus that I recognized a very bluesy pattern…man, something’s cooking here!!

I started to pay attention to the song and suddenly I recognized it: Johnny Cash! Well, not quite Johnny Cash (but a cousin, as a friend of mine used to say) but one of his songs. To be honest I didn’t know the name of the song, I just knew the song at that moment, now I know the name too, Folsom Prison Blues. I like Johnny Cash but I only know a few of his songs by name.

And I started to think again about my post of a few days ago about being original in playing blues. I think this is one of the most down to earth examples of how you can take a song and give it your own interpretation.

This is not exactly the point I tried to make in my previous post, I referred to something else when I spoke about being original in blues, but this song comes to show me that there are ways to do it and you can always bring something new into this game.

I am sure a blues savvy would not be part of the target group for this song, I guess this is more of a way to bring older songs to new public, but it does the trick very well.

Everlast, Folsom Prison Blues

Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues

And just for the damn squealing, Cypress Hill’s Insane in the membrane. Damn!

What do you think? Can this be considered a way of being original in blues?

PS: I know this is not blues, but It works on similar basis.

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