Best Songs Ever

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“Folsom Prison Blues” is an American country music song by Johnny Cash. The song combines elements from two popular folk genres, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career. It became one of Cash’s signature songs. In the lyrics, the jailed protagonist listens to the whistle of a train outside his cell and recounts his crimes (“I shot a man in Reno/just to watch him die”), imagines the free people inside the train (“They’re probably drinking coffee and smoking big cigars”) and dreams of what he would do if he were free. “I know I had it coming/I know I can’t be free,“ sings the imprisoned man. “But those people keep a’moving/and that’s what tortures me.“ Read on...