{"id":461,"date":"2018-12-07T20:17:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.wpcomstaging.com\/?p=461"},"modified":"2018-12-07T20:17:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:17:31","slug":"an-audience-with-micheal-darlow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/?p=461","title":{"rendered":"An audience with Micheal Darlow"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s coming up to the 50th anniversary of the recording of ‘At San Quentin’, the famous concert given by Johnny Cash to inmates of the notorious prison. The man who filmed that documentary came to our prison to give a talk. Click below to see the article as it appears in the ‘Penned Up 2018’ magazine. The full magazine can be found here :\u00a0Penned Up 2018 Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Audience with Michael Darlow<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Audience with Michael Darlow : Text only version<\/p>\n

I have met numerous visitors during my sentence, by and large they shared the same anxious demeanour. They constantly check that they have not strayed from the sanctuary of their escorts\u2014like an errant child at a supermarket. Whereas when I met Michael I noticed that he was utterly at ease. I suppose that a week in San Quentin in 1969 will put a day trip to our sleepy prison into perspective.
\nDespite an illustrious and varied career in the entertainment industry Michael is almost exclusively asked about his involvement in the 1969 Granada documentary featuring Johnny Cash playing live at San Quentin prison, California. At that time Michael was working for Granada TV, and wanted to produce an interview with Cash about the experience. After a positive initial contact with Cash\u2019s management team, the idea was developed and grew until it was suggested that they film a documentary around a concert in San Quentin. Quoting Dostoevsky, Michael told us \u201cA society can measure its degree of civilisation by the way it treats its prisoners. We decided that we could measure the degree of civilisation in American Society\u201d
\nCash was one of the USA\u2019s best loved and best-selling artists, regularly sharing stages with stars like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. But long term abuse of drugs and alcohol almost cost Johnny his life. In 1966, with his career on the wane, he was divorced by his first wife Vivienne. That might have been the end of Johnny Cash but for the intervention of folk singer June Carter. She was Cash\u2019s saviour. She inspired him to go straight and led him back to his faith. Johnny had come from a childhood of abject poverty in 1930\u2019s Arkansas and perhaps this is why he could identify with men in prison. In 1968, with June by his side, Cash\u2019s comeback began with his album, \u2018Live at Folsom Prison\u2019. Cash had occasional nights in jail for petty beefs, but his song lyrics made prisoners believe that he had served hard time (\u201cI shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die\u201d). I asked Michael if Johnny promoted or denied these rumours. \u201cJohnny was a consummate showman. He had a way of endearing himself to his audience. When he played in prison he loved that the men thought that he had served hard time and he played on that. Johnny always knew his audience.\u201d
\nWhen I asked Michael if there was much red tape to be negotiated he shrugged and said, \u201cIt all seemed to be the decision of the Prison Warden. I was never aware of him having to get permission from anybody else.\u201d Having met the Warden of the prison, (who demanded a \u2019brand new radio-gram\u2019 in exchange for his approval) Michael explained, \u201cI was then introduced to the Head Guard who told me that he would not be able to guarantee our safety. Instead, the guard arranged a meeting with the leaders of the main prison gangs. A deal was done that they would get front row seats in return for keeping things in check. According to Michael, \u201cThere was no doubting who was in charge.\u201d Rather than be intimidated, Michael said matter-of-factly, \u201cWe decided to record the various interviews with the prisoners and guards before the gig – we weren\u2019t sure that the protection would last long after the gang leaders had enjoyed their reward.\u201d I asked Michael if that was why Johnny shook hands with some of the prisoners before he came on stage. Michael\u2019s face creased into a smile as he said, \u201cOh Johnny knew exactly who the men in the front row were and the power that they held. They were our protection. He was a showman and he worked his audience.\u201d When asked about the atmosphere in the prison, Michael described \u201c\u2026a sense of simmering, pent up rage\u2026\u201d
\nSan Quentin prison is located on the Northern side of San Francisco Bay. At the time of the concert it held 3,000 of the worst offenders in the US. Michael told us, \u201cAt that time, anybody arriving at San Quentin already had a bit of a reputation. There were 70 men on death row\u2026 and an average of 6-8 murders within the prison every year.\u201d Our first glimpse of those prisoners was eerily familiar. Their comments from a half a century ago mirror those of prisoners today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re [society] hiding us you know. That society out there created a good many of us. I myself feel that the greatest crime a goodly proportion of us in San Quentin are guilty of is one thing \u2013 that we were born poor<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re exposed to a kind of machine like justice that just spews us out because of our mediocrity. We\u2019re of no consequence<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnny Cash was determined to shine a light on the harm that prisons were doing in order to force change. A few days before the concert, Michael asked Johnny if he might write a song about \u2018San Quentin\u2019 like his hit \u2018Folsom Prison Blues\u2019 only to be told to \u201cF*** Off!\u201d But Michael described how Johnny\u2019s wife June came over, placed her hand on his arm and said \u201cDon\u2019t worry, that means he will do it!\u201d The lyrics say all that you need to know about Johnny\u2019s stance on US prisons.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Quentin I hate every inch of you<\/strong>
\nYou\u2019ve cut me and you\u2019ve scarred me through and through<\/strong>
\nAnd I\u2019ll walk away a wiser weaker man<\/strong>
\nMr Congressman you can\u2019t understand<\/strong>
\nSan Quentin what good do you think you do?<\/strong>
\nDo you think I\u2019ll be better when you\u2019re through<\/strong>?\u201d
\nSome of the most poignant interviews relate to Death Row, from both the guards\u2019 and the prisoners\u2019 perspectives. Michael described the Head Guard, \u201cHe was one tough man, he had an aura about him. Put it this way, if I had been
\ndrafted to Vietnam at that time I would have wanted this guy as my platoon sergeant.\u201d But tough as he was, this man struggled to describe his part in strapping men into the gas chamber to carry out death sentences, \u201cThe ones that I\u2019ve witnessed [executions], well, it was very easy. I\u2019ve heard many people describe this in many different ways. But to me, if you watch a man\u2019s hands that\u2019s strapped to a chair [he examines his own hands as he speaks] – when he doesn\u2019t even clench his fist, which would be the first thing that you would see if there was pain involved. I\u2019ve never even seen this happen. So I don\u2019t believe that there is any pain whatsoever connected with it. Most of them [the prisoners] want to go in without any problems, they think it\u2019s important to die like a man.\u201d It is plain to see the anguish in the Head Guard\u2019s face and to hear the doubt in his voice. He is trying to rationalise and justify his part. Michael shared my opinion, \u201cYou can certainly see that he is trying to convince himself that the execution is a kindness of sorts, almost like it\u2019s a mercy killing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not you are a Johnny Cash fan, it is worth watching the documentary. You will gain a perspective on how ineffective prison was at delivering any real rehabilitation. Alarmingly, it also highlights the fact that we are still having the same debates today while very little has actually changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s coming up to the 50th anniversary of the recording<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[219,229,247,263,278,402],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-interview","tag-johnny-cash","tag-life-in-prison","tag-magazine-articles","tag-michael-darlow","tag-san-quentin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}