Folsom Prison Blues Thesis

Recording “Folsom Prison Blues” helped to bring Johnny back in good favor to the public eye. Saul then arranged shows for Johnny to play for promoters who lost all their money after he cancelled on them. He almost ended his comeback in May of 1968 when he and June honeymooned in Israel. This gave him the idea for writing songs about Jesus and the Holy Land. Obviously, Saul was concerned about a religious record being the follow up to “Folsom Prison Blues.” After just establishing Johnny’s prison persona, Saul did not want him to sing about Jesus. This would not go over well in the media. Johnny at this point had no intention of ever recording another prison record but Saul found his way around that. In February 1969, Granada Television wanted to put Johnny in a prison documentary. Saul took advantage of this and pushed Johnny and Columbia Records to record his San Quentin LP. This made him an international artist, as it was set in England. While Johnny was prospering, Saul was
emotionally falling apart. He started gambling. He also was being compared to Elvis Presley’s manager, as he was getting the same perks that Johnny received (Holiff, 2013). He also was named a Kentucky colonel. In August 1970, Saul booked Johnny to play at the Canadian National Exhibition. In an interview, Johnny said that they saw each other as little as possible but that Saul knows his job and does it perfectly. Johnny also said that he never worries if things are done and that Saul is the “best agent in the world” (Holiff, 2013). Saul was receiving about 10% of Johnny’s income at this point in his career. In May 1970, Johnny began getting involved in movies. He also had his own show, The Johnny Cash Show. He announced his faith and began playing gospel music on his show. In February 1971, he had a reverend speak on his show and this caused the ratings to fall. When the show was cancelled, Saul wasn’t even able to tell him and Johnny had to read about it in the newspaper. When Johnny was born again into the Christian faith, he called Saul and told him that he wanted to visit Israel and shoot a show about Jesus’ life for Christmas time.
Saul began to work on getting it produced but no one wanted to touch it. Johnny ended up using his own money to make it happen. Saul played Caiaphas, a Jewish priest who was supposedly was involved in Jesus’ crucifixion. On Easter in 1972, Johnny played portions of the movie, Gospel Road, for his audience and they complained about religion being thrown at them. Saul was beginning to not care about money and wanted to spend time with his family rather than working. He said that “Johnny robbed his soul and he thought he was trying to save it for him through his fundamentalist Christianity jazz” and that he found it offensive (Holiff, 2013). Saul told Johnny that his entire audience was not Christian and the movie would not reach everyone. He was right and the media criticized Gospel
Road. Saul began weighing the pros and cons of quitting Johnny. In July of 1973, Saul went for a jog and stopped by Johnny’s house, but he was unaware that he would quit that day. June criticized Saul for being absent whenever Johnny appeared for free with the Billy Graham Crusade and asked if he had something against Jesus and if he was only interested in the money. Saul accused her of being anti-Semitic and told her that he did not have to attend performances that he did not arrange (Holiff, 2013). This prompted him to give his five months notice and resign.
After Saul’s resignation, Johnny’s career went downhill and he only had one major single in the next ten years. Columbia Records dropped him in 1986. The falling of Johnny’s career showed Saul’s positive impact on his life.
“When Saul decided he’d had enough of show business, he retired to live a happy life. He made many of the most significant moves of my career, and I owe him a lot. I don’t think I wore him out--nobody did; he just had no need to keep working, so he didn’t. But I certainly wasn’t the easiest of clients. Saul stayed pretty well insulated from the fallout, though. When I did something that left a mess - things broken, people abused, money squandered, laws broken, jail cells visited - his technique was simply to disappear, either back home to Ontario or out of touch, unavailable even by telephone” (Cash, 1997, p.157).
Saul did handle the “messes” that Johnny made but probably not in the most convenient way. He handled the after mass but was not available for Johnny during some of the dilemmas. Johnny was grateful for Saul for all good decisions he made for his career. It seemed as if their differences in religion, as Saul was Jewish, was what caused the end of their relationship. Overall, their relationship was complicated but Saul made smart decisions and helped Johnny to succeed.
Saul also managed Tommy Hunter and the Statler Brothers but was not as successful or involved as he was with Johnny. Saul committed rational suicide in March 2005 after his health declined for years. After his death, his son, Jonathan Holiff found his storage locker containing all his records of his time with Johnny Cash. Jonathan brought this information to the public eye through his documentary, My Father and the Man in Black. This documentary is where most of the information about Saul and Johnny’s 13 year long relationship is revealed.