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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.

• 
  18 and Life Skid Row
• 
  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

• 
  Chain Gang Michael Martin Murphey
• 
  Chain Gang Special Woody Guthrie
• 
  Date Rape Sublime

  They locked him up and threw away the key.
  Well, I can't take pity on men of his kind,
  even though he now takes it in the behind.

• 
  Death Row Bob Seger

  Here I am, oh my time's rolling slowly by
  21 years old, waiting on my turn to die
  Every minute Lord, every minute seems like five
  And if it wasn't for the window,
  I'd wonder if the world outside was alive

• 
  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.

• 
  Jailbreak AC/DC

  Jury found him guilty
  Gave him sixteen years in jail

• 
  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

• 
  Locked Up Akon

  "I'm locked up, they won't let me out.
  Ohhh... they won't let me out.
  Can you please accept my phone calls?
  Cuz I'm locked up, locked up, locked up."

• 
  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"

• 
  Not Even Jail Interpol
• 
  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?

• 
  Prison Sex Tool
• 
  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"

• 
  Radioactive Imagine Dragons
• 
  They Could Put Me in Jail Bellamy Brothers
• 
  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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