I don’t condone gun violence or cold-blooded murder.
But this is a tune and a lyric. And no chorus either…..
I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rolling ’round the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when
I’m stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin’ on
But that train keeps a-rollin’ on down to San Antone
When I was just a baby, my mama told me, “Son
Always be a good boy, don’t ever play with guns”
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowin’, I hang my head and cry
I bet there’s rich folks eatin’ in a fancy dining car
They’re probably drinkin’ coffee and smoking big cigars
Well, I know I had it coming, I know I can’t be free
But those people keep a-movin’, and that’s what tortures me
Well, if they freed me from this prison, if that railroad train was mine
I bet I’d move it on a little farther down the line
Far from Folsom prison, that’s where I want to stay
And I’d let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away
mp3: Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Top tune, but that jarring lyric about Reno is a bit “celebrity singer strikes a psycho pose that he thinks looks cool”. I prefer the sardonic Dan Bern quatrain from Cowboy that debunks the myth-making:
“One time when I’s in Reno
I shot a man so I could be like Johnny Cash
This other time I’s broke and busted
I slept on thistles and broke out in a rash.”
chaval
I have performed this song live, on vox and guitar.
Props to Tennessee Two bassist Marshall Grant, playing an Epiphone Newport with a batwing headstock! I never played this tune as Adam did. But we had ‘Cocaine Blues’ in our set if folks wanted to hear some covers.
Cocaine Blues with the crowd cheering when he sings about shooting his woman