Yes! I was going to comment about that. It’s them at the Napa State Hospital and it all looks like it’s shot exclusively on security cameras. Classic. The perfect venue for the Godfathers (and godmother) of psychobilly.
@@daBEAGLE1017 Yes! They even let one of them sing a few notes! It’s great because there are fleeting moments when it’s difficult to distinguish the patients from the band.
@@attentiondeficitsquirrel7660 i wouldnt have called what she was doing as singing. More like wailing. I mustve watched that show 10X already and everytime it makes me happy.
I think Johnny Cash definitely fits within the niche of being accessible to an old and modern mainstream audience while using a what wouldn't be considered mainstream sound in modern day. Truly one of the most important figures in music.
Another one for the How Not To list: Queen's of the Stone Age got tossed from their 2007 show at an inpatient rehab clinic before the end of their first song, Feel Good Hit of the Summer. "“Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol… c-c-c-c-c-cocaine”.
"Ironically, the song is used by the Colorado Police Department as the soundtrack to their instructional videos demonstrating the consequences of drink driving."
Johnny Cash playing San Quinten in 1959 is what inspired Merle Haggard to try to become a country singer after his release, leading to him becoming a close friend of Johnny Cash
Seeing that Cramps concert footage really warms my heart. Having a punk band go crazy on stage and displaying a lot of "aberrant behaviour" likely vindicated a lot of the patients feelings about not being outsiders and gave them a space where they can just be cool chaotic weirdoes and vibe with the band, like all of their audiences would. They probably saved a few lives just by giving these people this moment. Its beautiful.
I've been on a psych ward before. A good three quarters of the people in there are normal enough to present as "normal enough", until they aren't. In an alternate timeline, a schizophrenic thought the lead singer was mocking him, so bit him in the neck or stabbed him with a pen he stole from a nurse and broke at an angle. We are in there as dangers to ourselves and/or others. So yeah, we'll all look like we're jamming until we're not. We'd all sit and watch the TV like some strange happy-family until an advert that triggered some kid would come on and we couldn't change the channel because entire TV monitor was stored in a transparent safe. I bet being at this concert was so liberating for a short few moments, and it's equal parts benevolent and stupid that they performed there! But then the moment is gone, and these people (like myself) have issues with their very neurological structures, so a single concert isn't the gap between living and suicide lol. Bit disrespectful to the general human condition to say "omg they probably saved lives!" no, everyone still lives with their condition whether they listened to a band or not.
@@AdamOwenBrowning I've been in a psych ward too and while I can't speak for everyone's experience, the one I was in was the most alienating and inhumane environment - but in lots of lowkey ways. The place I was in felt like it discouraged any kind of human expression and that is kinda the antithesis of how I deal with my own issues. I thrive off music and art, as it gives me space to feel free to "be myself". I know what you mean when you say people live with these issues their entire lives, but sometimes it only takes one experience or one piece of art to flip your entire way of thinking and it doesn't have to be much. I don't think that's disrespectful to the human condition, and I'm not saying these people's issues sudddenly went away or got better afterwards. I'm just happy that in such a rigid conformist time, some people were given the freedom to feel like they weren't ostracized and could actually engage with something.
@@AdamOwenBrowning: You’ve clearly been though some shit, so I want to make it clear I’m not judging your experience in institutions or your walk in life generally. But to be fair, EVERYONE is normal enough until they aren’t. Everyone has a point that when they’re pushed past it they’ll be a danger to themselves or to others. Again, I’m not naive enough to think there aren’t people whose issues don’t warrant being separated from society because clearly there are. Just out of curiosity, your "three quarters" assessment, is that based on your personal experience or is there any research to back it up, because I haven’t been able to find anything about it online?
That's one of my favorite things ever! It was so natural and seeing everyone including the Cramps having such a good time made me tear up. It was the perfect music for the occasion too.The first time I saw it was on 120 Minutes on MTV, I thought I imagined it until I could look it up on the internet many years later.
In the late 70s, our 3 piece rock band was invited to play at The Chino State Prison ( Chino, California ) We took the gig because we just liked to play live for any audience. The prisoners met us in the yard and help set up all our gear ( P.A. System, amps, drums, etc. ) We played our set of about 15 songs and then the same guys in the audience helped us pack up our gear and load it into our van & pick-up truck and we drove right out the gates from the yard with a minimal security check on our vehicles. It was a very surreal experience.
Saying that Bear was the GD's "sound man" who "also manufactured LSD" is akin to saying Albert Einstein was a patent clerk who also dabbled in physics...
@@electromancer2645 Einstein worked in a patent office for a few years, then went on to become the biggest thing to happen to physics since Newton. Bear built the wall of sound and worked as GD's audio engineer for a few years, and became the biggest thing to happen to LSD since Hoffmann.
I think he was implying that it was a bad idea in general because if your own band were to do the same thing you're risking your careers just to drop acid
@@angel-q that's just a gross misinterpretation. The author meant that it's pretty miraculous the mental hospital didn't notice and have an issue with it, which they had all the right to do. That's why this footage is pretty unlikely and we're lucky we've got it
I love the Cramps set because they treated it like a regular concert which echoes because they're treating the patients like regular people. Great video.
One for the yes category, especially off the back of Bonnie Tyler's video stunt, is Metallica's trip to San Quentin. They filmed the video for St. Anger in the prison, where the inmates you see in the video are actual inmates at San Quentin. And before they left they played a full 10 song set for the inmates as a real concert outside of the the video shoot
the cramps one almost made me cry. being stuck in that kind of place even as a child sucks. youre treated so differently and you have no control. its nice that the Cramps treated them with respect, like a normal concert. it must have been great for the people there to have something to change up the monotony of everyday being the same and to be treated like theyre just "normal" people
@@kirjianlet's just say a normal person would feel like absolute shit if they were in a mental institution, let alone someone who is mentally ill. They aren't there to help the mentally ill, they're there to separate them from the rest of society.
@@kirjian I was in the criminal ward at the one I went to so I was in with people who had done crazy shit, I saw extreme violence from the patients against each other, from the staff against the patients (forced injections to calm them when they freaked out,etc.) and a lot of sexual violence stuff aimed at each other and me but I cliqued up with another kid that was there for an evaluation like me and we avoided that shit luckily. Probably a lot like prison but with even more unstable unpredictable people.
I wish more entertainers were willing to perform for female inmates. When I was locked up in Harris County the men had more available to them. (Barbers, education, art classes, etc.) When I heard Kanye came I was pissed that the women were pretty much forgotten about. Edit: I apologize. It turns out indeed Kanye performed for a small group of women. However, performances are historically/currently performed mostly for men, and the men are given more opportunities when it comes to education and rec.
I did a comedy show at a local jail for low custody prisoners. I was part of a group where we each did five minutes. Terrifying but fucking rewarding after the first laugh.
@@picahudsoniaunflocked5426 I used regular material but tried to make it the best material for the moment. I did ad lib one joke about how they must go hard in the paint (we were doing the show on the jail basketball court) because the paint had been rubbed off the court
I used to serve low security prisoners at my first job, because the guards would take them out on errands as they got close to the end of their sentence. I never thought anything of it tbh.
The Cramps.....the most persistently rocking-wild great band that never got their due. But that didn't stop them from making fabulous music outside of the usual established channels.
I’m a hug Johnny Cash fan, and I just wanted to thank you for doing the Man in Black justice. You very easily could’ve not done any research and just mention him, but you actually looked into so thank you for making my day! Fun Fact: Merle Haggard was actually an inmate at San Quentin when Cash preformed there
In terms of further listening, I HIGHLY recommend BB King’s Nobody Loves Me Like My Mother, live from San Quentin (1990). I grew up listening to that song & album, the energy BB King, the band, and the audience brings is incredible.
@@jacktorrance2633 There's a funny moment at the beginning of the Cook County Jail record when some woman with a high pitched church-lady voice tells the audience of prisoners to clap their hands for Warden Smith or whatever his name was (presumably for bringing BB in to play), and they all boo loudly!
Back in 1974 I was playing saxophone in a little jazz quintet w/ a female singer. We took a government paid gig playing a concert at McNeil Island State Penitentiary in Washington state. The short story is the gig was great, they really loved our female singer of course. Lots of hoots, whistles and “commentary” at the end of each song. We brought the house down, the concert ended and they filed out assisted by the guards. Except for one guy about three-quarters of the way back in the center section of the prison theater. His head sloughed to the side as if he was sleeping, but he was dead. He had a shank shoved down the back of his neck. They locked down the prison and rushed us and our instruments into a prison bus and down to the waiting ferry dock. By the way, there is a longer story, interacting with some of the more well-behaved inmates and such, but maybe some other time. Cheers ✌️
I miss hiking on a trail next to the outer fences of folsom prison and putting Folsom Prison Blues on blast on my speaker thinking the inmates could hear it lol
I can't even imagine the levels of happiness the prisoners had getting to go to a free live concert during what is probably the worst part of their lives where they are most likely locked in one small room for probably 22-23 hours a day (depending on the security level). The jail I was at I was in one of the low risk blocks of the jail where they open the cells at 7am and we can walk around our tier and watch TV and play cards and chess make calls and shower. Depending on the inmates that are in the same tier it really isn't too bad. The only thing I could never get used to was the food it was absolutely horrible. You can literally make a better meal by going to the store with a budget of 2$. It's so bad that idk where they even get the ingredients. So bad that I swear they have a laboratory with an evil scientist who's job is to make the food as tasteless and as bland as possible. If you're lucky you'll get 1 or two things a day thats edible. But most of the time you just have to hold your nose and swallow things as quick as you can so the taste doesn't linger in your mouth. I'm a picky eater and it drove my mom crazy but I'd take my most hated meal that she. Would make over 99% of the fool they served at that particular jail.
People who haven't been, have no idea how bad food can get. I live in one of the richest counties in the country, and they spend the least per meal in their jail. Like 16 cents a meal I think. Its almost inedible. One hot meal a day pre pandemic (then it went to zero hot meals). How are you going to call a sandwich of stale bread, thick sweaty bologna, a piece of unmountable cheese, and 4 stale knock off Oreos dinner? And they serve it at 4:00 p.m., so you don't need for another 12 hours. Like, I know jail is punishment but that shit is torture. Let me ever get 9 to 12 months in jail again, I will stand up and call the judge a c*nt in front of the whole Court to catch that contempt of court charge and hopefully just get sent to prison instead for 14 months.
@@cakesodomy4358 "Let me ever get 9 to 12 months in jail again".... and you don't see a problem with that statement??? How about don't commit crimes and you won't have to worry about the shit food... I swear people's mentality nowadays is too fucked for us to last as a species.
@@marikasdaughter6263 How about how dare you judge? You have zero idea what charge that person was facing or under what circumstances. Laws vary between jurisdictions, plenty of innocent people plead out or take the rap for others or are charged with unjust laws or unenforceable laws designed to punish vulnerable groups, & people convicted of crimes are not necessarily bad people who will harm or keep harming others. This person didn't bring up their charge or circumstances or try to justify anything, but commented in response to another person bc they could relate to each others' experience. They apparently served time. They were already judged. How about you get back on your high horse & take your self-righteous shame-mongering boss-babe self back to Karentown & leave these folks in peace, Ma'am.
I learned to play guitar during a 7 year sentence in the UK & was in 2 of the prison bands in the open prison for over a year before my release. We used to go out playing gigs in the local town for community centres etc. The screw, prison officer in charge of us even bought us a case of beer to share at one gig....whilst we were being filmed for a BBC TV show also. We also did 2 gigs at a womens prison Cookham Wood in Kent which is now a male prison......it was a great time as we built a recording studio in the prison too.
At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin are my all time favorite live albums. I always thought prison concerts were just a one off thing that Johnny Cash did. Didn't realize it was a thing a lot of people did.
I think if you're having a prison concert it ought to be because you want to share some music with people who may be in deep need of something to look forward to and celebrate in their lives. Doing it so you can wave it around in the free world and say "look at what a kind and generous person I am!" is just scummy.
Live At Soledad Prison I had no knowledge of before seeing this video, And I’ve been a John Lee Hooker devotee my whole life. Now in my opinion, it is probably one of the greatest live blues albums ever recorded
My current band mate was in high security prison for gang activities when he was younger. They had a music program including danceclasses and band. He had been playing a bit of guitar before but got incredibly good at prison, practicing with a band twice a week and himself every day in his room. They had monthly gigs for the prison, and also performed in the nearby town at bigger events (with security present). he also learned car repair in prison, then switched to boat building when he was allowed to leave the prison during the day in his last year. Now he is building boats near the local harbour.
In the early 1980s, the relative of a friend got my hardcore punk band a gig at Agnews Developmental Center (originally called Agnews Insane Asylum) in Santa Clara, CA (near San Jose). By the time we played there, the mental patients were gone and only the developmently disabled were housed there. The gig itself was very much like the Cramps at Napa show and also like the Fugazi show. The audience was enthusiastic to be hear a live band, but they didn't want to hear our songs, they wanted to hear songs they knew. I remember a lot of requests for Elvis. (By the way, 12 years later Green Day recorded the music video for its 1994 song "Basket Case" at Agnews. Agnews Developmental Center is now closed and it's part of an Oracle Software campus now.)
Always figured that there were some crash-and-burn Johnny Cash-wannabe copycats. Great video summarizing those that tried!! Will definitely check out the John Lee Hooker record. P.s. Small typo -- Lorton, VA
This is an interesting video, but the assumptions you made about the bands and their intentions is odd. Fugazi's insistence on all ages gigs that were less than $5 was part of ensuring that their audience was made up of people from all kinds of social classes wherever they performed. The fact that blues musicians played prisons so often is that in the 20's and 30's a lot of them were incarcerated. Big Joe Williams for example was first recorded in prison and he was in there for stabbing someone. Leadbelly also served time. In fact there is a fantastic footage of B.B King performing in (I think it was Joliet) prison and one of the members of his band had just gotten out. Are you familiar with Angela Davis and her book 'Are prisons obsolete'? For a lot of these musos, performing in institutions such as prisons or mental hospitals was about empathizing with the people within them and the existence of these concerts from the 60's on is typically about resistance to the existence of the prison industrial complex. I know the video is "How not to do" but a bit of deeper research could easily be done to understand these peoples actions instead of making assumptions. Thank you for this video, I really love the work you do. The Silver Apples and Fela Kuti one in particular are favourites of mine.
Correction: it was at Sing Sing, David Hoffman filmed the whole thing and there's a fantastic video of King performing The Thrill is Gone with some excellent banter at the beginning..
Hey there, I appreciate the kind words & thoughtful comment, but I take issue with one thing you said -- "a bit of deeper research could easily be done to understand these peoples actions instead of making assumptions." I stand by my research and do not believe I've portrayed anyone inaccurately. With Fugazi I very deliberately pointed out their strong punk ethos & said verbatim "they did it for the right reasons." As far as BB King, I actually included a clip from that concert and mentioned how it was one of several 70s prison concerts that have become famous & well-regarded. I don't think any assumptions were made there. It sounds like you might be getting hung up on the title, "How Not To Run a Prison Concert" although I specifically say in the intro that it would "explore all the ways that you *should, and should not* run a prison concert." In other words, this was never intended to be a roundup of prison concert failures, but rather a nuanced look at prison concerts over the years (at least, as nuanced as one can get with 120 years of history in 13 minutes.)
@@Bandsplaining hey, sorry for insinuating you don't do enough research. The hard work you do is readily apparent in all of your work, that comment was more about things you said that seemed to be a jump in your argument that didn't readily make sense to me. I didn't recognise the b.b king footage you used as Hoffman's, his work is fascinating. I look forward to your next!
Don't forget the pistols, they also played at a Chelmsford Prison in '76 before they released their songs on record (Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols) so this was before they were really big but the attitude of the band and their lower class upbringing definitely let them connect with the inmates
This made my day! I clicked expecting somebody to trash various musicians, ended up with a half dozen positive reviews, five of which I never heard of.
I did a prison show once. Warkworth Correctional Facility, in Ontario Canada. As I was setting up my drums, from the audience, I heard a voice call my name. I turned around to see the smilin face of a childhood friend. "Heyy Bruce, izzat you"? We had a chance to hang out, face to face...talked about many things in the short time we had together that day...and had a bite to eat. It is a moment that I will never forget. Rest your soul Wayne B. Didju.
Im sitting here watching this and saw I was subbed already and wondered what I had seen before and bam it's the dude who put me onto zamrock fuckin A love this guy
john lee hookers soledad gig is honestly one of my favorite live concerts, my favorite songs being “Lucille”, “Serve Me Right To Suffer”, and “Bang Bang Bang Bang”, don’t know why, but it just hits in the feels, never been to prison, hopefully never will.
Never knew about the Fugazi and Cramps concerts, always cool to see Punk and Experimental bands really step out of their comfort zones and doing something like that. Here is all I can share related to this topic. czcams.com/video/zpiq4sBXkBk/video.html As usual, thanks for the video!
I think most Punk/outsider musicians have more experience than most interacting with people who suffer with mental and physical disabilities, PTSD and all manner of other differently abled brains. Many of these folks, self included, spent some amount of their life living on the streets, in squats, on couches, in group homes, generally sleeping rough. And in these places you find people as mentioned above, Your compatriots. There are people who get you they become your family, there are people who want to hurt you, fu(k you and steal from you. But those folks all leave an impression. Seeing bands want to give back to those that have been hospitalized or imprisoned is to me the mark of a true artist, that understands the balm of music, and the elixir of art and wants to share it with some people in our world that need it the most.
@@Bandsplaining This is all I got on the topic (from an interview with the lead singer) In 1987 we played in a prison, located in Yablonevka. I still remember this concert. This performance was arranged by a photographer who, unfortunately, has already died. He himself once sat in this prison. He was arrested for pornography charges. His wife worked in the Leningrad circus, and one night he decided to shoot a naked card ballet in the arena. He was then caught and given six years. After his release, he agreed with the prison's political officer about our concert. We played at an asphalt-covered parade ground. The scenery was very dark, nothing but a gigantic parade ground and rows of benches. After the concert, we went into Lenin's room to change. Back then we used to perform with makeup on. Anyway, so we are washing off the makeup and then we are told that the "political officer wants to talk to you". He came and began to give us a lecture that on the whole everything was fine, but “here, here and here it was necessary to sing not like this, but like this” This has never happened with us. We have always been in your face about not carrying, and someone's opinion was meaningless. We only cared about our own enjoyment of the music. We did not recognize nor respect the opinions of the authorities, maybe it saved us. Those who did not like our work, we just told to piss off. But here is a person who expresses his opinion towards us, and we do not object to him because there is a feeling that we can easily be left in this prison. Fuck knows ... You also have to know what kind of faces we had at that time, and the kind of music we played in front of the prisoners, god knows what was all that. The program was from “Everything is calm in Baghdad” (the album from 1989). I don´t know if the prisoners really needed all this. We asked who was sitting in the audience, We were told: "Drug addicts, murderers, burglars." In general, these are the typical prisoners. No political prisoners were at the concert. Interviewer: - So you haven't got any fans in the criminal underworld? What fans? They perceived us as degenerates. It was like waving a red rag in front of a bull. They are sitting, and here we go! There was such infantile freedom in our faces back then, I think this was unpleasant for them. We even had the idea that the commander did it on purpose in order to annoy the prisoners. Like - "look at what freaks are free to roam the streets nowadays".
@@nikitalane5543 Wow, that's incredible on so many levels. "Look at what freaks are free to roam the streets nowadays." 😂 Thanks so much for digging that up and (presumably) translating it too. Do you happen to have a link to that interview as well?
Love your videos.. how you dive into obscure parts of music history.. any reason why you don't upload as often? I'd love to see a video on the obsession with blues in the '50s and '60s that lead to the British Invasion; why were the British more obsessed with American music than Americans themselves?
Haha it actually just takes a really long time to make one of these. Because I never talk straight into the camera, and instead show archival footage/photographs, it takes a long time to edit. It's also completely a 1-man operation still. But I reckon that could change in the near future. I like that idea. Always really enjoyed Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker & the like, and have been meaning to find more topics about electric blues. Appreciate the comment!
The simple answer is after ww2 europe was poor and shattered and america was the richest country in the world som teenagers started eating up american culture first with blues and country and by the late 50s rock n roll
@@jonastomsson4479 an adjacent answer is that during the early years of the Industrial Revolution in England, the government basically banned public performance of traditional folk music that contained any hint of labor struggles or class warfare ( same as they tried to ban speaking Gaelic), and so a lot of traditional music of the British Isles was largely forgotten ---- but when record company scouts and so-called "songcatchers" started venturing out to isolated areas of the US with portable record cutting machines, they discovered old traditional songs that had come to the US with irish and Scottish immigrants and had survived in the Appalachias through the oral tradition! This eventually spurred music fans and musicologists to rediscover their roots and search dusty libraries for the Childe ballads and so on.
Crazy how much you underestimate how much work it takes to make a video like this. I suggest you do the research and make your own video and keep track of your hours
here in Argentina there's a hugely popular band called Intoxicados. Some years back the lead singer was put behind bars cause he killed a guy. Anyways, there's this famous quote. He was playing at the prison he was in and at one point he said "one more song and I'm leaving" leaving what my dude? leaving the yard to go to your cell?💀
Correction, he never spent more than a night in jail AT A TIME. In total, he was arrested about 7 or so times, and remember, he was arrested in drug smuggling charges at one point.
I remember my friend was well connected to the music scene and was like ‘dude, Macklemore is going to film a music video on top of the dicks in Seattle’ (only 20 min away from us). We waited for like 2 hours, a crowd arrived and seemed like it was going to be cool. Then he just started doing the same part of the song over and over again. People would start cheering, then it would stop, big groan from the crowd, we’d wait 10 minutes, rinse and repeat. Definitely not worth seeing, but I partially blame myself and the crowd because that’s just how music videos are made, we got our hopes up too high. In reality if you hear some big artist is filming a video near you, all you should take from that is you might need ti adjust your route ti work so you don’t hit traffic.
I think that's probably the quality it was shot in, considering it was 1978 on a consumer-level video camera. The label that released the tape also released a DVD in 2004. But based on the reviews of the DVD, I don't think it's any different -- "Fuzzy, blured, grainy, out of focus, one mike sound, superb" www.amazon.com/Cramps-Live-State-Mental-Hospital/dp/B00018D5RQ#customerReviews
I got to play Cummins prison in Arkansas about 1990. Scary as hell at first. Unintentionally, our set included "I shot the sheriff", "jail break"-ACDC, Funky ass "Fire" by the Ohio players in which a BIG black Cat named "Frenchy" stepped up and preformed! It Was fucking biblical!
Playing a prison show can be such a good way to give something back as a popular band. People in prisons are thought of as being less than those who have never been convicted of a crime by many. But that's just wrong, they deserve some entertainment just like anyone else. To be in prison means you'll never get to see a show until you get out, unless they come to you. I just think that is so brilliant and a beautiful way to show inmates they matter. Just don't turn it into a video. Trying to profit off of it just makes the whole thing seem gimmicky and wrong to me. A few exceptions to that of course. But you're not Johnny Cash and you're not going to make the next big prison album. Just be kind, show the people there that you care about them having a good time and do it for them.
@@JustAdude291 While my knowledge is limited, I feel like the rights of patients was very limited "decades" prior to 1984. It wasn't until the 70's that patient rights were really even addressed. Even then it wasn't directly about their privacy and more about their care and more about being made aware of what was going on.
How could I have gone this long without hearing "Live at Soledad Prison"? Thanks! PS Cramps at Napa is perhaps the greatest rock event ever committed to videotape
@@nineinchrails3361 think you may have misinterpreted what I meant. I didn't approve of the thumbs down for the Dead. It's rare that adverse reactions to LSD last more than a few hours (with reasonable doses, although the Dead were anything but reasonable) so I think the nurses would've been fine.
taking notes for when my nonexistent band finally makes it big enough to THEN warrant giving a prison concert.
You can never be too prepared
You will do awesome at anything you do.😊
Play some death metal at Alcatraz 😂😂
You guys should all rob a bank just to go to prison together.
@@MrKillervincent Alcatraz isn’t an operating prison.
Johnny Cash is the textbook definition to Prison gigs: Respectful, relatable, cool, he cared about them on a realistic level, not for business.
The cramps mental institution gig is legendary!
Id recommend watching it to anyone who hasnt seen it.
Yes! I was going to comment about that. It’s them at the Napa State Hospital and it all looks like it’s shot exclusively on security cameras. Classic. The perfect venue for the Godfathers (and godmother) of psychobilly.
@@attentiondeficitsquirrel7660 Lux seemed like he had a great time dancin with the institutionalized.
@@daBEAGLE1017 Yes! They even let one of them sing a few notes! It’s great because there are fleeting moments when it’s difficult to distinguish the patients from the band.
@@attentiondeficitsquirrel7660 i wouldnt have called what she was doing as singing. More like wailing.
I mustve watched that show 10X already and everytime it makes me happy.
Johnny Cash is the ONLY performance artist to play USO shows for free. Even if you don't like his music, you gotta respect the legend.
Anyone who doesn't like Johnny Cash is dead inside, and incapable of feeling anything but sadness and despair.
@@slappy8941ironically, Thats what most of his music is about
I think Johnny Cash definitely fits within the niche of being accessible to an old and modern mainstream audience while using a what wouldn't be considered mainstream sound in modern day.
Truly one of the most important figures in music.
If you don’t like Johnny cash aren’t you even human?
No I don't got to respect the most overrated garbage ever! I don't respect any scumbag that puts on a concert for criminals
Johnny Cash was the real deal. His music speaks volumes about society. Greatest musician ever.
He doesn't mind stooping to the common people
I genuinely wish I cared about the message songs carried more, I'm just too focused on how it sounds.
and yet we live in one
Lame.
I agree with what you're saying but man "greatest musician?" Come on
Another one for the How Not To list: Queen's of the Stone Age got tossed from their 2007 show at an inpatient rehab clinic before the end of their first song, Feel Good Hit of the Summer. "“Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol… c-c-c-c-c-cocaine”.
oh my god thats gold
"Ironically, the song is used by the Colorado Police Department as the soundtrack to their instructional videos demonstrating the consequences of drink driving."
@@thc_freebaser Our D.A.R.E. people used "Because I Got High" when I was in first grade. Obviously they only played the first verse.
@@G_FRE I wonder how many kids looked up the full thing after
Johnny Cash playing San Quinten in 1959 is what inspired Merle Haggard to try to become a country singer after his release, leading to him becoming a close friend of Johnny Cash
Seeing that Cramps concert footage really warms my heart. Having a punk band go crazy on stage and displaying a lot of "aberrant behaviour" likely vindicated a lot of the patients feelings about not being outsiders and gave them a space where they can just be cool chaotic weirdoes and vibe with the band, like all of their audiences would. They probably saved a few lives just by giving these people this moment. Its beautiful.
They were in there for a reason, deemed a danger to others. There's a line between being quirky and being dangerous.
I've been on a psych ward before. A good three quarters of the people in there are normal enough to present as "normal enough", until they aren't. In an alternate timeline, a schizophrenic thought the lead singer was mocking him, so bit him in the neck or stabbed him with a pen he stole from a nurse and broke at an angle. We are in there as dangers to ourselves and/or others.
So yeah, we'll all look like we're jamming until we're not. We'd all sit and watch the TV like some strange happy-family until an advert that triggered some kid would come on and we couldn't change the channel because entire TV monitor was stored in a transparent safe. I bet being at this concert was so liberating for a short few moments, and it's equal parts benevolent and stupid that they performed there!
But then the moment is gone, and these people (like myself) have issues with their very neurological structures, so a single concert isn't the gap between living and suicide lol. Bit disrespectful to the general human condition to say "omg they probably saved lives!" no, everyone still lives with their condition whether they listened to a band or not.
@@AdamOwenBrowning I've been in a psych ward too and while I can't speak for everyone's experience, the one I was in was the most alienating and inhumane environment - but in lots of lowkey ways. The place I was in felt like it discouraged any kind of human expression and that is kinda the antithesis of how I deal with my own issues. I thrive off music and art, as it gives me space to feel free to "be myself".
I know what you mean when you say people live with these issues their entire lives, but sometimes it only takes one experience or one piece of art to flip your entire way of thinking and it doesn't have to be much. I don't think that's disrespectful to the human condition, and I'm not saying these people's issues sudddenly went away or got better afterwards.
I'm just happy that in such a rigid conformist time, some people were given the freedom to feel like they weren't ostracized and could actually engage with something.
@@AdamOwenBrowning: You’ve clearly been though some shit, so I want to make it clear I’m not judging your experience in institutions or your walk in life generally. But to be fair, EVERYONE is normal enough until they aren’t. Everyone has a point that when they’re pushed past it they’ll be a danger to themselves or to others. Again, I’m not naive enough to think there aren’t people whose issues don’t warrant being separated from society because clearly there are. Just out of curiosity, your "three quarters" assessment, is that based on your personal experience or is there any research to back it up, because I haven’t been able to find anything about it online?
That's one of my favorite things ever! It was so natural and seeing everyone including the Cramps having such a good time made me tear up. It was the perfect music for the occasion too.The first time I saw it was on 120 Minutes on MTV, I thought I imagined it until I could look it up on the internet many years later.
I wonder how a prison crowd would react to an ambient music gig or if it's ever been done before. I think it would be a good fit.
Maybe we can lobby to get Music For Airports played in its entirety
This sounds like it could be pushing into “unreasonable punishment” type territory
@@mack9225 depends on the style! pick something with a bit of noise or edge to it, nothing too easy-listening
@@lachlancampbell5679 nah I was playin I actually personally love ambient music hahaha but I know a lot of people that get annoyed by it super quick
@@mack9225 oh it's definitely a hard sell for many! My friends won't give it five seconds
BB King's live at Cook County jail is one of the greatest Blues albums of all time. Js
Preach it!
I bought youuuuu and a brand new Ford.....
@@GAFloppa you said you wanted a Cadillac.. I gave you seven children, and now you want to give them back
Oh yeah. No doubt. If you have not heard it, go listen to it...and listen good.
@@lagartogrande1908 "lets have a warm welcome for Warden Smith" ,( or whatever his name was). Inmates: "Booooo! Boooo!"
In the late 70s, our 3 piece rock band was invited to play at The Chino State Prison ( Chino, California ) We took the gig because we just liked to play live for any audience. The prisoners met us in the yard and help set up all our gear ( P.A. System, amps, drums, etc. ) We played our set of about 15 songs and then the same guys in the audience helped us pack up our gear and load it into our van & pick-up truck and we drove right out the gates from the yard with a minimal security check on our vehicles. It was a very surreal experience.
Chino atleast used to be the lowest of low security prisons, it's got an interesting history
Saying that Bear was the GD's "sound man" who "also manufactured LSD" is akin to saying Albert Einstein was a patent clerk who also dabbled in physics...
He was though. You just described Einstein perfectly
@@electromancer2645 Einstein worked in a patent office for a few years, then went on to become the biggest thing to happen to physics since Newton.
Bear built the wall of sound and worked as GD's audio engineer for a few years, and became the biggest thing to happen to LSD since Hoffmann.
@@d3adc0ps Einstein was a plagiarist and a fraud who depended on compiling other's works and having his actual genius wife do all the real math.
@@d3adc0ps he was purposely left out of the Manhattan project upon request by people who were actually geniuses because they knew he was a fraud.
@@electromancer2645 exceptionally smooth-brained take
Why'd you dislike the sneaking in LSD that's the most Grateful Dead thing possible
⬛
I think he was implying that it was a bad idea in general because if your own band were to do the same thing you're risking your careers just to drop acid
Cuz this dudes a narc! Same with the cramps thing about the patient doctor confidentiality, like, who cares??
I came here to comment the same thing lol, nowadays hell no but back than I could see it happening easy
@@angel-q that's just a gross misinterpretation. The author meant that it's pretty miraculous the mental hospital didn't notice and have an issue with it, which they had all the right to do. That's why this footage is pretty unlikely and we're lucky we've got it
Imagine if Metallica was playing St. Anger in front of the people they got locked up for using Napster lmao.
How 2 get stabbed 101
Then they get out right after for serving their time and having to listen to that album.
All 3 people
they only filmed saint anger, they played the classics
@@pyro7358 They'd get stabbed just for playing St. Anger.
I love the Cramps set because they treated it like a regular concert which echoes because they're treating the patients like regular people. Great video.
One for the yes category, especially off the back of Bonnie Tyler's video stunt, is Metallica's trip to San Quentin. They filmed the video for St. Anger in the prison, where the inmates you see in the video are actual inmates at San Quentin. And before they left they played a full 10 song set for the inmates as a real concert outside of the the video shoot
I was a looking for the Metallica comment :)
St. Anger huh...
Imagine being in prison and then getting forced to listen to St. Anger. Pretty sure that qualifies as "cruel and unusual"
the cramps one almost made me cry. being stuck in that kind of place even as a child sucks. youre treated so differently and you have no control. its nice that the Cramps treated them with respect, like a normal concert. it must have been great for the people there to have something to change up the monotony of everyday being the same and to be treated like theyre just "normal" people
Folsom Prison is my favorite live album ever. I listen from time to time and always end up crying at the sincerity of the performance.
yeah i think as far as life albums go there’s no touching folsom prison or 98.12.28
If you don't have the box set, get it. It's great!
I've done time in mental institutions, jail, and Iraq. The mental institution was by far the scariest. That's really badass they did a show for them.
Your first 2 sentences are electrifying. I feel like I should be able to turn a page; I just want to keep reading to see where it goes.
What did you see in mental institutions?
@@kirjianlet's just say a normal person would feel like absolute shit if they were in a mental institution, let alone someone who is mentally ill.
They aren't there to help the mentally ill, they're there to separate them from the rest of society.
@@kirjian I was in the criminal ward at the one I went to so I was in with people who had done crazy shit, I saw extreme violence from the patients against each other, from the staff against the patients (forced injections to calm them when they freaked out,etc.) and a lot of sexual violence stuff aimed at each other and me but I cliqued up with another kid that was there for an evaluation like me and we avoided that shit luckily. Probably a lot like prison but with even more unstable unpredictable people.
BB Kings live at cook county jail will always be my favorite live “prison” album. The energy of the band and the inmates is legendary
I love the inmates loudly booing the Warden! That record is better than BB King Live at the Regal in my opinion.
I wish more entertainers were willing to perform for female inmates. When I was locked up in Harris County the men had more available to them. (Barbers, education, art classes, etc.) When I heard Kanye came I was pissed that the women were pretty much forgotten about.
Edit: I apologize. It turns out indeed Kanye performed for a small group of women. However, performances are historically/currently performed mostly for men, and the men are given more opportunities when it comes to education and rec.
What did you do?
And also I agree with the comment
@@mcfcfan1870
I got caught up in the War on Drugs. Probably the most common thread amongst those I was locked up with. 😕
I'm pretty sure he preformed for the women too
@@misstekhead you might enjoy the comedy of amy oppy (amy oppy comedy), she did 20 years for $20 of crack. I hope you are doing great now
I did a comedy show at a local jail for low custody prisoners. I was part of a group where we each did five minutes. Terrifying but fucking rewarding after the first laugh.
Did you do regular set material or try to tailor it more? Did you get feedback?
@@picahudsoniaunflocked5426 I used regular material but tried to make it the best material for the moment. I did ad lib one joke about how they must go hard in the paint (we were doing the show on the jail basketball court) because the paint had been rubbed off the court
I used to serve low security prisoners at my first job, because the guards would take them out on errands as they got close to the end of their sentence. I never thought anything of it tbh.
The Cramps.....the most persistently rocking-wild great band that never got their due. But that didn't stop them from making fabulous music outside of the usual established channels.
I’m a hug Johnny Cash fan, and I just wanted to thank you for doing the Man in Black justice. You very easily could’ve not done any research and just mention him, but you actually looked into so thank you for making my day!
Fun Fact: Merle Haggard was actually an inmate at San Quentin when Cash preformed there
Did not know that last bit so thanks.
In terms of further listening, I HIGHLY recommend BB King’s Nobody Loves Me Like My Mother, live from San Quentin (1990). I grew up listening to that song & album, the energy BB King, the band, and the audience brings is incredible.
"BB King Live At Cook County Jail" is another great record.
@@goodun2974 I was hoping to find this comment!👍
@@jacktorrance2633 There's a funny moment at the beginning of the Cook County Jail record when some woman with a high pitched church-lady voice tells the audience of prisoners to clap their hands for Warden Smith or whatever his name was (presumably for bringing BB in to play), and they all boo loudly!
Live at folsom is one of country musics best albums of all time.
A John Lee Hooker concert at a prison would be something to make one's life complete to have witnessed.
Back in 1974 I was playing saxophone in a little jazz quintet w/ a female singer. We took a government paid gig playing a concert at McNeil Island State Penitentiary in Washington state. The short story is the gig was great, they really loved our female singer of course. Lots of hoots, whistles and “commentary” at the end of each song. We brought the house down, the concert ended and they filed out assisted by the guards. Except for one guy about three-quarters of the way back in the center section of the prison theater. His head sloughed to the side as if he was sleeping, but he was dead. He had a shank shoved down the back of his neck. They locked down the prison and rushed us and our instruments into a prison bus and down to the waiting ferry dock.
By the way, there is a longer story, interacting with some of the more well-behaved inmates and such, but maybe some other time. Cheers ✌️
nice story
So it was like the arsenio audience
If you’d find the time now it would be nice to hear the longer story
The Steely Dan song "Kid Charlamagne" is about Owsley Stanley the Grateful Dead Chemist/Soundman.
Danheads unite
Kid Charlemagne is such a great song. I love steely dan
Interesting
i did not realise
and the band's name is a reference to a dildo. makes you think.....
I miss hiking on a trail next to the outer fences of folsom prison and putting Folsom Prison Blues on blast on my speaker thinking the inmates could hear it lol
I can't even imagine the levels of happiness the prisoners had getting to go to a free live concert during what is probably the worst part of their lives where they are most likely locked in one small room for probably 22-23 hours a day (depending on the security level). The jail I was at I was in one of the low risk blocks of the jail where they open the cells at 7am and we can walk around our tier and watch TV and play cards and chess make calls and shower. Depending on the inmates that are in the same tier it really isn't too bad. The only thing I could never get used to was the food it was absolutely horrible. You can literally make a better meal by going to the store with a budget of 2$. It's so bad that idk where they even get the ingredients. So bad that I swear they have a laboratory with an evil scientist who's job is to make the food as tasteless and as bland as possible. If you're lucky you'll get 1 or two things a day thats edible. But most of the time you just have to hold your nose and swallow things as quick as you can so the taste doesn't linger in your mouth. I'm a picky eater and it drove my mom crazy but I'd take my most hated meal that she. Would make over 99% of the fool they served at that particular jail.
People who haven't been, have no idea how bad food can get. I live in one of the richest counties in the country, and they spend the least per meal in their jail. Like 16 cents a meal I think. Its almost inedible. One hot meal a day pre pandemic (then it went to zero hot meals). How are you going to call a sandwich of stale bread, thick sweaty bologna, a piece of unmountable cheese, and 4 stale knock off Oreos dinner? And they serve it at 4:00 p.m., so you don't need for another 12 hours. Like, I know jail is punishment but that shit is torture. Let me ever get 9 to 12 months in jail again, I will stand up and call the judge a c*nt in front of the whole Court to catch that contempt of court charge and hopefully just get sent to prison instead for 14 months.
I only went to juvenile, but the food there was basically the same shit they fed in school cafeterias.
@@cakesodomy4358 "Let me ever get 9 to 12 months in jail again".... and you don't see a problem with that statement??? How about don't commit crimes and you won't have to worry about the shit food... I swear people's mentality nowadays is too fucked for us to last as a species.
@@marikasdaughter6263 How about how dare you judge? You have zero idea what charge that person was facing or under what circumstances. Laws vary between jurisdictions, plenty of innocent people plead out or take the rap for others or are charged with unjust laws or unenforceable laws designed to punish vulnerable groups, & people convicted of crimes are not necessarily bad people who will harm or keep harming others. This person didn't bring up their charge or circumstances or try to justify anything, but commented in response to another person bc they could relate to each others' experience. They apparently served time. They were already judged. How about you get back on your high horse & take your self-righteous shame-mongering boss-babe self back to Karentown & leave these folks in peace, Ma'am.
Leonard Cohen LIVE from 1969 was recorded at a mental hospital. According to his bio, he did a lot of them and everyone felt deeply connected
BB King live at the Cook County Jail is easily the greatest recorded concert at a jail and set
I learned to play guitar during a 7 year sentence in the UK & was in 2 of the prison bands in the open prison for over a year before my release. We used to go out playing gigs in the local town for community centres etc. The screw, prison officer in charge of us even bought us a case of beer to share at one gig....whilst we were being filmed for a BBC TV show also. We also did 2 gigs at a womens prison Cookham Wood in Kent which is now a male prison......it was a great time as we built a recording studio in the prison too.
"Top 40? Why?" Class act right there.
i didn't know fugazi did a show at lorton! nice~
and someone requested rare essence lol. i would love to hear fugazi attempting to play go-go.
I have played a prison concert. Went smoothly. It’s an honor and privilege to have an audience.
At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin are my all time favorite live albums. I always thought prison concerts were just a one off thing that Johnny Cash did. Didn't realize it was a thing a lot of people did.
I think if you're having a prison concert it ought to be because you want to share some music with people who may be in deep need of something to look forward to and celebrate in their lives. Doing it so you can wave it around in the free world and say "look at what a kind and generous person I am!" is just scummy.
Well done. This was a subject I’ve never seen researched before!
Steve Earle did a prison show as part of a deal to get him out. Was badass lol
when I first read that, I thought--"I never knew the croc hunter did time"
It's a real treat when Bandsplaining uploads, he's epitomising quality>quantity. Only fifteen videos deep and already has over 140k subs.
Live At Soledad Prison I had no knowledge of before seeing this video, And I’ve been a John Lee Hooker devotee my whole life. Now in my opinion, it is probably one of the greatest live blues albums ever recorded
My current band mate was in high security prison for gang activities when he was younger. They had a music program including danceclasses and band. He had been playing a bit of guitar before but got incredibly good at prison, practicing with a band twice a week and himself every day in his room. They had monthly gigs for the prison, and also performed in the nearby town at bigger events (with security present).
he also learned car repair in prison, then switched to boat building when he was allowed to leave the prison during the day in his last year. Now he is building boats near the local harbour.
The footage from the mental facility is absolutely well, mental lol it’s so cool that someone was able to capture that moment on film.
In the early 1980s, the relative of a friend got my hardcore punk band a gig at Agnews Developmental Center (originally called Agnews Insane Asylum) in Santa Clara, CA (near San Jose). By the time we played there, the mental patients were gone and only the developmently disabled were housed there.
The gig itself was very much like the Cramps at Napa show and also like the Fugazi show. The audience was enthusiastic to be hear a live band, but they didn't want to hear our songs, they wanted to hear songs they knew. I remember a lot of requests for Elvis.
(By the way, 12 years later Green Day recorded the music video for its 1994 song "Basket Case" at Agnews.
Agnews Developmental Center is now closed and it's part of an Oracle Software campus now.)
Fun fact mattalica playing saint anger in a prison was later denounced by the un as a form of torture
Always figured that there were some crash-and-burn Johnny Cash-wannabe copycats. Great video summarizing those that tried!! Will definitely check out the John Lee Hooker record.
P.s. Small typo -- Lorton, VA
THE CRAMPS AND FUGAZI ? ? ? THAT MADE MY NIGHT ! SOOOO FUCKKKING SICKKK SEEING THOSE 4 dudes dancing to repeater !
This is an interesting video, but the assumptions you made about the bands and their intentions is odd. Fugazi's insistence on all ages gigs that were less than $5 was part of ensuring that their audience was made up of people from all kinds of social classes wherever they performed.
The fact that blues musicians played prisons so often is that in the 20's and 30's a lot of them were incarcerated. Big Joe Williams for example was first recorded in prison and he was in there for stabbing someone. Leadbelly also served time. In fact there is a fantastic footage of B.B King performing in (I think it was Joliet) prison and one of the members of his band had just gotten out.
Are you familiar with Angela Davis and her book 'Are prisons obsolete'? For a lot of these musos, performing in institutions such as prisons or mental hospitals was about empathizing with the people within them and the existence of these concerts from the 60's on is typically about resistance to the existence of the prison industrial complex.
I know the video is "How not to do" but a bit of deeper research could easily be done to understand these peoples actions instead of making assumptions.
Thank you for this video, I really love the work you do. The Silver Apples and Fela Kuti one in particular are favourites of mine.
Correction: it was at Sing Sing, David Hoffman filmed the whole thing and there's a fantastic video of King performing The Thrill is Gone with some excellent banter at the beginning..
Hey there, I appreciate the kind words & thoughtful comment, but I take issue with one thing you said -- "a bit of deeper research could easily be done to understand these peoples actions instead of making assumptions."
I stand by my research and do not believe I've portrayed anyone inaccurately. With Fugazi I very deliberately pointed out their strong punk ethos & said verbatim "they did it for the right reasons." As far as BB King, I actually included a clip from that concert and mentioned how it was one of several 70s prison concerts that have become famous & well-regarded. I don't think any assumptions were made there.
It sounds like you might be getting hung up on the title, "How Not To Run a Prison Concert" although I specifically say in the intro that it would "explore all the ways that you *should, and should not* run a prison concert." In other words, this was never intended to be a roundup of prison concert failures, but rather a nuanced look at prison concerts over the years (at least, as nuanced as one can get with 120 years of history in 13 minutes.)
@@Bandsplaining hey, sorry for insinuating you don't do enough research. The hard work you do is readily apparent in all of your work, that comment was more about things you said that seemed to be a jump in your argument that didn't readily make sense to me. I didn't recognise the b.b king footage you used as Hoffman's, his work is fascinating.
I look forward to your next!
@@rossamundbrennan7248 fax fax, but imma call u gay cause it’s the internet.
Angela Davis should pay a visit to Portlaoise Prison and realise the people in there should not be on the streets
Dude! This is so well made and put together, incredible work and storytelling. Already falling down the rabbit hole of quality video explorations 🔥✨
I think the sneaking in of LSD should also be a thumbs up giving the Dead two thumbs up!
This is the kind of fascinating, niche topic video I love this channel for. Great stuff.
Don't forget the pistols, they also played at a Chelmsford Prison in '76 before they released their songs on record (Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols) so this was before they were really big but the attitude of the band and their lower class upbringing definitely let them connect with the inmates
I have an LP with Johnny cash playing at a Swedish prison - live at Österåker.
True legend
This is really taking a captive audience to heart, like they actually can’t leave.
Why not?
This made my day! I clicked expecting somebody to trash various musicians, ended up with a half dozen positive reviews, five of which I never heard of.
I did a prison show once. Warkworth Correctional Facility, in Ontario Canada. As I was setting up my drums, from the audience, I heard a voice call my name. I turned around to see the smilin face of a childhood friend. "Heyy Bruce, izzat you"? We had a chance to hang out, face to face...talked about many things in the short time we had together that day...and had a bite to eat. It is a moment that I will never forget. Rest your soul Wayne B. Didju.
Fuck yeah dude, new bandsplaining
Im sitting here watching this and saw I was subbed already and wondered what I had seen before and bam it's the dude who put me onto zamrock fuckin A love this guy
Thanks for including the Cramps Napa State Mental Hospital show. They were the greatest live rock and roll band I ever saw.
Narrator sounds just like Josh Gates of Exploration Unknown. This is a complement. Good video, thank you from Ontario Canada
john lee hookers soledad gig is honestly one of my favorite live concerts, my favorite songs being “Lucille”, “Serve Me Right To Suffer”, and “Bang Bang Bang Bang”, don’t know why, but it just hits in the feels, never been to prison, hopefully never will.
My favorite was the Cramps' performance at a mental hospital: "They say that you guys are crazy, but you seem pretty cool to me."
Best thing about a prison show is that you have a captive audience. :)
Never knew about the Fugazi and Cramps concerts, always cool to see Punk and Experimental bands really step out of their comfort zones and doing something like that. Here is all I can share related to this topic.
czcams.com/video/zpiq4sBXkBk/video.html
As usual, thanks for the video!
I think most Punk/outsider musicians have more experience than most interacting with people who suffer with mental and physical disabilities, PTSD and all manner of other differently abled brains. Many of these folks, self included, spent some amount of their life living on the streets, in squats, on couches, in group homes, generally sleeping rough. And in these places you find people as mentioned above, Your compatriots. There are people who get you they become your family, there are people who want to hurt you, fu(k you and steal from you. But those folks all leave an impression. Seeing bands want to give back to those that have been hospitalized or imprisoned is to me the mark of a true artist, that understands the balm of music, and the elixir of art and wants to share it with some people in our world that need it the most.
In those days anything could go down at the punk shows so I'm sure it wasn't much difference of a comfort zone
That Aukstyon footage is wild... do you know if there's any more backstory? Pretty crazy they did that in '88
@@Bandsplaining This is all I got on the topic (from an interview with the lead singer)
In 1987 we played in a prison, located in Yablonevka. I still remember this concert. This performance was arranged by a photographer who, unfortunately, has already died. He himself once sat in this prison. He was arrested for pornography charges. His wife worked in the Leningrad circus, and one night he decided to shoot a naked card ballet in the arena. He was then caught and given six years. After his release, he agreed with the prison's political officer about our concert.
We played at an asphalt-covered parade ground. The scenery was very dark, nothing but a gigantic parade ground and rows of benches. After the concert, we went into Lenin's room to change. Back then we used to perform with makeup on. Anyway, so we are washing off the makeup and then we are told that the "political officer wants to talk to you". He came and began to give us a lecture that on the whole everything was fine, but “here, here and here it was necessary to sing not like this, but like this”
This has never happened with us. We have always been in your face about not carrying, and someone's opinion was meaningless. We only cared about our own enjoyment of the music.
We did not recognize nor respect the opinions of the authorities, maybe it saved us. Those who did not like our work, we just told to piss off. But here is a person who expresses his opinion towards us, and we do not object to him because there is a feeling that we can easily be left in this prison. Fuck knows ... You also have to know what kind of faces we had at that time, and the kind of music we played in front of the prisoners, god knows what was all that. The program was from “Everything is calm in Baghdad” (the album from 1989). I don´t know if the prisoners really needed all this.
We asked who was sitting in the audience, We were told: "Drug addicts, murderers, burglars." In general, these are the typical prisoners. No political prisoners were at the concert.
Interviewer:
- So you haven't got any fans in the criminal underworld?
What fans?
They perceived us as degenerates. It was like waving a red rag in front of a bull. They are sitting, and here we go! There was such infantile freedom in our faces back then, I think this was unpleasant for them. We even had the idea that the commander did it on purpose in order to annoy the prisoners. Like - "look at what freaks are free to roam the streets nowadays".
@@nikitalane5543 Wow, that's incredible on so many levels. "Look at what freaks are free to roam the streets nowadays." 😂
Thanks so much for digging that up and (presumably) translating it too. Do you happen to have a link to that interview as well?
Best music channel on CZcams. The viewer enters knowing nothing and you always end up so entertained and so knowledgable by the end.
I'd say Live at Brixton Prison EP by Cable deserves a mention and looking up. Such an underappreciated band too
Huge respect for all those artists and prisoners, especially the bluesmen and the garage rockers.
Grateful Dead is the best!! And Owsley is a hero!
those guys going mad at the Fugazi show put a huge smile on my face... as did the awkward stage banter!
Love your videos.. how you dive into obscure parts of music history.. any reason why you don't upload as often? I'd love to see a video on the obsession with blues in the '50s and '60s that lead to the British Invasion; why were the British more obsessed with American music than Americans themselves?
Haha it actually just takes a really long time to make one of these. Because I never talk straight into the camera, and instead show archival footage/photographs, it takes a long time to edit. It's also completely a 1-man operation still. But I reckon that could change in the near future.
I like that idea. Always really enjoyed Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker & the like, and have been meaning to find more topics about electric blues. Appreciate the comment!
The simple answer is after ww2 europe was poor and shattered and america was the richest country in the world som teenagers started eating up american culture first with blues and country and by the late 50s rock n roll
@@jonastomsson4479 an adjacent answer is that during the early years of the Industrial Revolution in England, the government basically banned public performance of traditional folk music that contained any hint of labor struggles or class warfare ( same as they tried to ban speaking Gaelic), and so a lot of traditional music of the British Isles was largely forgotten ---- but when record company scouts and so-called "songcatchers" started venturing out to isolated areas of the US with portable record cutting machines, they discovered old traditional songs that had come to the US with irish and Scottish immigrants and had survived in the Appalachias through the oral tradition! This eventually spurred music fans and musicologists to rediscover their roots and search dusty libraries for the Childe ballads and so on.
Crazy how much you underestimate how much work it takes to make a video like this. I suggest you do the research and make your own video and keep track of your hours
Fulsome Prison is by far the most iconic prison concert.
Guess you could say *I’d kill to be there*
here in Argentina there's a hugely popular band called Intoxicados. Some years back the lead singer was put behind bars cause he killed a guy. Anyways, there's this famous quote. He was playing at the prison he was in and at one point he said "one more song and I'm leaving" leaving what my dude? leaving the yard to go to your cell?💀
Correction, he never spent more than a night in jail AT A TIME. In total, he was arrested about 7 or so times, and remember, he was arrested in drug smuggling charges at one point.
I remember my friend was well connected to the music scene and was like ‘dude, Macklemore is going to film a music video on top of the dicks in Seattle’ (only 20 min away from us). We waited for like 2 hours, a crowd arrived and seemed like it was going to be cool. Then he just started doing the same part of the song over and over again. People would start cheering, then it would stop, big groan from the crowd, we’d wait 10 minutes, rinse and repeat. Definitely not worth seeing, but I partially blame myself and the crowd because that’s just how music videos are made, we got our hopes up too high. In reality if you hear some big artist is filming a video near you, all you should take from that is you might need ti adjust your route ti work so you don’t hit traffic.
I was not expecting to learn something new about Fugazi in this video. well done.
Is there a way to find the Cramps footage in high quality?
I've always wondered who owns the original.
I think that's probably the quality it was shot in, considering it was 1978 on a consumer-level video camera. The label that released the tape also released a DVD in 2004. But based on the reviews of the DVD, I don't think it's any different -- "Fuzzy, blured, grainy, out of focus, one mike sound, superb" www.amazon.com/Cramps-Live-State-Mental-Hospital/dp/B00018D5RQ#customerReviews
I just wanna thank my recommended for this showing up. Great video man.
I got to play Cummins prison in Arkansas about 1990. Scary as hell at first. Unintentionally, our set included "I shot the sheriff", "jail break"-ACDC, Funky ass "Fire" by the Ohio players in which a BIG black Cat named "Frenchy" stepped up and
preformed! It Was fucking biblical!
Jerry Garcia and John Khan. Portland Penetentiary ,1982! Instant Classic!!!!!
Left out the most important when The Lone Rangers recorded live from prison.
The Lone Rangers, the first band to play a show while in prison
Did not know about the Fugazi prison concert, did not expect that. Dope video.
The best thing you can do is break HIPAA, for the sake of the people it's supposed to help. Big thumbs up for that.
BB King live at Cook County jail is amazing recording. Some echos off the walls made it especially cool.
"The Grateful Dead were on psychedelics." Duh.
@The return of Mr. Tickles I saw them in concert 17 times. They are the greatest rock band ever. So there.
You know you blew your prison concert when the inmates willingly get up and return to their cells 😂
This court finds you guilty, you are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Or you can attend a Bonnie Tyler concert. I'll taken the ten years, thanks!
Oh yeah ten years for me 👍
Thank you for making this video. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I have every single Johnny cash album lol 🙋🏼♀️
so what I'm hearing is that no band has ever given a concert while being imprisoned....
Really cool concept for a vid, Bandsplaining - another classic one for ya!
Playing a prison show can be such a good way to give something back as a popular band. People in prisons are thought of as being less than those who have never been convicted of a crime by many. But that's just wrong, they deserve some entertainment just like anyone else. To be in prison means you'll never get to see a show until you get out, unless they come to you. I just think that is so brilliant and a beautiful way to show inmates they matter. Just don't turn it into a video. Trying to profit off of it just makes the whole thing seem gimmicky and wrong to me. A few exceptions to that of course. But you're not Johnny Cash and you're not going to make the next big prison album. Just be kind, show the people there that you care about them having a good time and do it for them.
B.B. live at Cooke County Jail is still one of my favorite recordings.
You should do 'how not to see a prison concert'.
my god I love that you ended it with a clip of In My Eyes by Minor Threat
That show was filmed in 1984, people didn't have the rights like they do now. HIPAA didn't get signed into effect until 1996.
HIPAA didn't get signed until 96 but patient privacy laws have still been in place for decades before that
@@JustAdude291 While my knowledge is limited, I feel like the rights of patients was very limited "decades" prior to 1984. It wasn't until the 70's that patient rights were really even addressed. Even then it wasn't directly about their privacy and more about their care and more about being made aware of what was going on.
How could I have gone this long without hearing "Live at Soledad Prison"? Thanks! PS Cramps at Napa is perhaps the greatest rock event ever committed to videotape
Giving a thumbs down to the Dead for handing out psyches in a prison is very not heady of you brother.
Yeah, nurses probably had a lot to deal with for a couple days after the dead left.
@@nineinchrails3361 think you may have misinterpreted what I meant. I didn't approve of the thumbs down for the Dead.
It's rare that adverse reactions to LSD last more than a few hours (with reasonable doses, although the Dead were anything but reasonable) so I think the nurses would've been fine.
Go give it a whirl then and let us know how it works out 😂
@@Bandsplaining prison or LSD?
the cramps set at the mental institution kinda moves me , cool af haha
10:51
You could literally mute that shot and just by the hands/make of the guitar I could tell that it’s Ian Mackaye.
Man what a video its such a unique and captivating style! Usually i just let videos play in the backround but this one was really fun to watch