“At San Quentin” (Johnny Cash)
Strangely enough, I just was listening to Johnny Cash's song about Starkville's anti-flower picking agenda recently, on the expanded Live at San Quentin album. Apparently, the tale was true, and Starkville, Mississippi, just came to their senses, four decades later.
Pitchfork: Johnny Cash Pardoned for Picking Flowers!?!:
After holding a 42-year grudge, the city will soon issue a posthumous pardon to Cash for the night of public drunkenness he had there on May 11, 1965, according to an AP report.
Cash documented the night in jail in the song “Starkville City Jail”, which points to his flower-picking and curfew-breaking as the reason for the arrest. There are plenty of other versions of the story, but the point is, the city of Starkville is posthumously pardoning Johnny freakin' Cash for a petty crime he committed over 40 years ago!
Here's the tale (but not the song itself).
Technorati Tags: music_history, YouTube
