Top Five Prison Songs

A little diversion for you this Friday: five of my favorite songs on the topic of prisons and jails. There are plenty of great songs about prison and these were tough choices to make -- I decided to go with five personal favorites from my iTunes library, rather than some classics (like Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock or ACDC’s Jailbreak). In the interest of variety, I’m only including one Johnny Cash song and one hip-hop song.

Here you go:

1>  Johnny Cash: “Starkville City Jail” -- The Man in Black is the dean of music about prisons, and is perhaps best known for his iconic performances at Folsom and San Quentin prisons in California. If you haven't heard these albums, you're missing an American classic.

2>    Neko Case: “Prison Girls” -- a dark meditation on life for women in prison from Neko’s fantastic newest album “Middle Cyclone.”

3>    Mobb Deep: “Up North Trip” -- one of my favorite old-school hip hop groups, Mobb Deep comes from Queens and they are constantly talking about avoiding the trip upstate -- to one of New York’s many maximum-security prison in rural hamlets hours from the big city. I’ve often wondered while listening to them if I might be wrong in my assertion that long prison sentences don’t act as a deterrent. Mobb Deep’s Havoc and Prodigy rhyme nonstop about the exact sentencing implications of their actions. If everyone thought this way before committing a crime, would we have less crime?

4>    Cold War Kids: “St. John” -- These Southern California indie rockers sing with a social conscience, and this song tells the tale of a St. John on death row, who killed a man for threatening his sister. It’s a sad story and a great song. Leerone digs into its meaning on her blog here. You can find the song on itunes, but here’s a cool acoustic version while the band rolls around a Paris warehouse on a wooden cart.

5>    Billy Bragg: “Rotting on Remand” -- Bragg’s a favorite of mine, and injustice is a favorite topic of his. These lyrics say it all:

I said there is no justice
As they led me out of the door
And the Judge said, "This isn't a court of justice, son
This is a court of law."

I looked around a found a couple of others lists out here: this is actually three lists and features artists like Sam Cooke, Merle Haggard and the Killers.

And here’s another list, with Toots and the Maytals and the Kinks.

Have your own favorite prison song? Post them in the comments.