We’re working on an article for Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader (due out in November 2010) called “Show Stoppers.” It’s about concerts or theater shows or whatever that had to be stopped mid-performance for one humorous or interesting reason or another. Here’s an excerpt—and it just happens to be our favorite. (We’ll tell you why at the end of the piece in the “Special Note” section.)
Today is the anniversary of the 1967 release of the very first song by the great British psychedlic-rock (and so much more) band, Pink Floyd. The song was Arnold Layne, written and sung by Syd Barret. It’s about a guy who steals women’s clothes from washing lines and wears them. He is unfortunately caught doing this, and “doors bang, chaingang.” Poor Arnold. Wikipedia has quite a bit of information on the song here.
Today is the Man in Black’s birthday. He died in 2003, but if he were still alive, Cash would be 78 today.
Cash’s signature song was “Folsom Prison Blues.” But Cash didn’t get the idea for the song while doing time. He got it while watching a documentary in 1951 about the legendarily tough northern California penitentiary called Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. It struck him that most people live in a prison of one kind or another, and that they would relate to a song about prison (even a real one) as much as they would to a song about the frequent country song subject matter of drinking, trains, or broken hearts.
