Songs about being in or going to prison

[PeterG]

I forgot about Sing Me Back Home, which was reportedly inspired by a death row inmate asking Merle to sing one last song for him.

Wow!!! Shit, reading that hurts my skin the goosebumps are so intense.

[Trane]

The 17-mins Angola from Dr John's third album Remedies is not about the country, but a jail he spent time in for one of his many drug bust

Riot in Cell #9 by Johnny Winter

[UnephenStephen]

Inside Looking Out - Grand Funk

[Rufus]

Chain Gang - Sam Cooke
Holloway Jail - The Kinks

[viukkis]

Time to Live - Uriah Heep

[Scott Bails]

No, but based on posts #5 & #6 it seemed to work out.

I totally didn't follow that. Silly me.

Holloway Jail - The Kinks

Holloway Girl - Marillion

[Trane]

Originally Posted by JKL2000
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs (The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice that people walked over on their way to prison. From the bridge they had their last view of the outside world before being locked up.)

I never knew that. Cool.

Me either. Love the song, but never knew that.

Steve Sly

And Trower's song is about that (never thought about deciphering the lyrics in that superb tune).... or is it about the honeymoon cliché sold to tourists

============


oooohhh!!! Good one with Inside Looking Out (though It's an Animals tune first... not sure THEY wrote, though)

[ItalProgRules]

I have a good one!

Banco - Canto Nomade Per Un Prigioniero Politico

[markinottawa]

Blodwyn Pig - The Change Song



Johnny winter - Riot Going on



10cc - Rubber Bullets

[Garden Dreamer]

[willyswing]

5 Years, 4 Months, 3 Days-Brian Setzer

[davis]

Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs (The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice that people walked over on their way to prison. From the bridge they had their last view of the outside world before being locked up.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_Sighs

[davis]

[davis]

How about a song FROM prison.

[Ozricale]

Ain't Living Long Like This - Rodney Crowell
Devil's Right Hand - Steve Earle

[Lopez]

Inside Looking Out - Grand Funk

When I was in high school, I couldn't stand Grand Funk. But now I find them fascinating; maybe it's the same as caviar: it tastes so bad it must be good. That video for some reason is captivating.

Just thought of another: Back on the Chain Gang - The Pretenders

[GuitarGeek]

Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs (The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice that people walked over on their way to prison. From the bridge they had their last view of the outside world before being locked up.)

Except that you can't see much from the Bridge Of Sighs because the whole thing is boxed in, and the windows are covered with a grill thingie, so the inmates didn't get to see much from that vantage point.

[Digital_Man]

Rush-time stands still (ok not sure what it's about but it could be about doing time)

Probably a million rap songs too.

Any song about killing someone although not directly.

[Rufus]

Probably the most famous is Green Green Grass of Home !

[spellbound]

[davis]

I hate to do this, but...

[progeezer]

IIRC, both Green Green Grass and Yellow Ribbon were about returning military rather than returning inmates.

The line "I've served my time" applies to returning soldiers/sailors as much as to inmates.

[GuitarGeek]

IIRC, both Green Green Grass and Yellow Ribbon were about returning military rather than returning inmates.

The line "I've served my time" applies to returning soldiers/sailors as much as to inmates.

Quoth Wikipedia:
A man returns to his childhood home; it seems that this is his first visit home since leaving in his youth. When he steps down from the train, his parents are there to greet him, and his beloved, Mary, comes running to join them. All is welcome and peace; all come to meet him with "arms reaching, smiling sweetly." With Mary the man strolls at ease among the monuments of his childhood, including "the old oak tree that I used to play on." It is "good to touch the green, green grass of home." Yet the music and the words are full of foreshadowing, strongly suggestive of mourning.

Abruptly, the man switches from song to speech as he awakens in prison: "Then I awake and look around me, at four grey walls that surround me. And I realize that I was only dreaming." He is, indeed, on death row. As the singing resumes, we learn that the man is waking on the day of his scheduled execution[2] ("there's a guard, and there's a sad old padre, arm in arm, we'll walk at daybreak"), and he will return home only to be buried: "Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home."

[progeezer]

OK then. Glad I started with IIRC. I was half right.

[mogrooves]

"Parchman Farm" (Mose Allison, among others)