songs about jail

[ChrisL]

 

[Alan Stallion]

Stripes - Brandy Clark

 

[ChrisL]

 

[Alan Stallion]

Prison Sex - Tool

 

[Alan Stallion]

Date Rape - Sublime

 

[ChrisL]

Summertime (Doin' Time) ~ Sublime

 

[Alan Stallion]

Prisoner - 311

 

[Alan Stallion]

The Prisoner - Howard Jones

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Either figuratively — i.e. the chains of a relationship or spiritual confinement — or literal.

Kick off the party by gettin' a room in this hotel:

You ended this thread with your first post.
Folsom prison is the king of prison songs.
Although I have to give Hoss second place with Tom Dooley.

 

[Alan Stallion]

Trapped - Bruce Springsteen

 

[Alan Stallion]

Prisoner of Society - The Living End

 

[ChrisL]

That last Sublime one I posted is more like the "proverbial" prison, of a crappy relationship. That should count too, I think.

 

[Alan Stallion]

Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies

 

[ChrisL]

 

[ChrisL]

 

[Pogo]

The "father of country music" -- Jimmie Rodgers: In the Jailhouse Now
I used to front for this tune...

​

 

[Pogo]

Leon Russell - Alcatraz
a tune about a prison island, if not actually being in one...

​

 

[Pogo]

Bessie Smith - Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair

​

 

[Pogo]

Sam Collins - Midnight Special Blues (1927) - one of the first recordings of this traditional song... the Midnight Special was a train whose light would take the singing prisoner away to freedom. Later made famous by Leadbelly and others...

​

 

[ChrisL]

Well you wake up in the morning you hear the work bell ring
And they march you to the table to see the same old thing.
Ain't no food upon the table and no pork up in the pan.
But you better not complain boy you get in trouble with the man.

[Chorus]
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a ever loving light on me.

Yonder come miss Rosie, how in the world did you know?
By the way she wears her apron, and the clothes she wore.
Umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand;
She come to see the gov'nor, she wants to free her man.

[Chorus]
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a ever loving light on me.

If you're ever in Houston, well, you better do the right;
You better not gamble, there, you better not fight, at all
Or the sheriff will grab ya and the boys will bring you down.
The next thing you know, boy, Oh! You're prison bound.

[Chorus]
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a ever loving light on me.