Keepin' it real

It has been said before, but the best lines on Folsom Prison Blues aren't "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die", they are in the moment at the heart of the song, where he imagines the people on the train going past his prison:

"I bet there's rich folks eating in a fancy dining car/ they're probably drinkin' coffee and smoking big cigars."

While the violence that put the character in his current position is remembered in the vaguest of details, this fictional image, summoned purely from the sound of the whistle of the train as it goes around the bend, is as clear as daylight. In Jamesian terms, the image is rendered alive by detail while life in prison remains tragically abstract. And yet, the couplet is crammed with reminders that this is fantasy - "I bet... probably".

Weirdly, it reminds me of a moment in this song: Shhh-it by Oi Polloi, a spirited attack on leading anarcho popstars Chumbawamba, sportingly made available on the tubthumpers' own website. Outraged by the perceived hypocrisy in signing to a major/letting songs be used on adverts/eating honey etc, the Scots noisy gits made this hilarious piece of bellyache. "You're shit... you're shit... you're fucking shit."
Anyway, once again the image that nails it is the most fictional. About a minute and a half through, one of the singers accuses the band of using roadies "while you sip wine backstage". I love that. Sip. Wine. Sellouts.

Folsom
Henry James
You're shit