Songs about Jail or Prison
Why is this such a popular music subject? Have that many musicians cooled their heels in the clink? Moreover, are there that many listeners in the audience who are going to identify with the song? "Hey, put 'Folsom Prison Blues' on, I want to fondly reminisce about the good old days when I was serving twenty in the state pen!"
Anyway, being locked up makes a great topic for blues music, which is what most of these songs are. You won't find any jail songs in the Hot Dance Singles charts. Nope, these are hard times songs, with lots of wailing harmonica and hang-dog regret for the decisions in life that led one to this position. Except for the occasional gangsta rap song, where jail time is just dismissed as an occupational hazard.
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38 Years Old Tragically Hip, The
Same pattern on the table
Same clock on the wall
Been one seat empty, eighteen years in all
Freezing slow time away from the world -
Back on the Chain Gang Pretenders, The
We've been cast out of? oh oh oh oh
Now we're back in the fight
We're back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang -
Band on the Run Paul McCartney
Stuck inside these four walls, sent inside forever,
Never seeing no one nice again like you,
Mama you, mama you.
If I ever get out of here -
Behind Bars Slick Rick
In the slammer kid but I'm innocent
Lord played witty wasn't having any pity
Now in Razor Blade City -
Chain Gang Sam Cooke
That's the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, ga-ang
That's the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, gang -
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Folsom Prison Blues Johnny Cash
And I ain't seen the sunshine,
Since, I don't know when,
I'm stuck in Folsom Prison,
And time keeps draggin' on, -
Green, Green Grass of Home Curly Putman
Then I awake and look around me,
at four grey wall surround me
and I realize that I was only dreaming. -
Green, Green Grass of Home Tom Jones
Then I awake and look around me,
at four grey wall surround me
and I realize that I was only dreaming. -
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Jailbreak Thin Lizzy
Tonight there's gonna be trouble
Some of us won't survive
See the boys and me mean business
Bustin' out dead or alive -
Jailhouse Rock Elvis Presley
The warden threw a party in the county jail.
The prison band was there and they began to wail.
The band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing.
You should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing. -
Life in Prison Byrds, The
And I'll do life in prison for the wrongs I've done
And I pray every night for death to come
My life will be a burden every day
If I could die, my pain might go away -
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Mr Bojangles Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The
"I met him in a cell in New Orleans, I was down and out.
He looked to me to be the eyes of age as the smoke ran out" -
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Prison Blues SOJA
Those bars lockin' down a cell block
Warden's yellin' down the hall
Was you gonna make my prison thicker?
Higher, sharper wall? -
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Prison Song System of a Down
They’re trying to build a prison
(for you and me to live in)
Another prison system -
Prisoner's Song Sonny James
I'll be carried to the new jail tomorrow
Leaving my poor darling all alone
With the cold prison bars all around me
And my head on a pillow of stone -
Prisoners Regina Spektor
"All of the prisoners serving life sentences
Wait for the earth to suddenly shake
For the walls to somehow suddenly come crumbling, tumbling and
For the bars to somehow magically break" -
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Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree Tony Orlando and Dawn
I'm comin' home, I've done my time
Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine
If you received my letter telling you I'd soon be free
Then you'll know just what to do -
Unchained Melody Righteous Brothers
I've hungered for your touch a long.. lonely time
Time goes by so slowly -
Wichita Jail Charlie Daniels
'Cause in 30 more days
I'm goin' back home,
to see that gal of mine,
but the Wichita Jail
is a long long way
from the Tupelo County line,
I gotta do my time
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