Music behind bars

BB King Live at Cook County jail is pretty great. As the various jail/court officials are all being introduced, they're booed by inmates. BB also offers some invaluable advice on How to Treat Your Lady.

The King = Jailhouse Rock

leadbelly. he wrote most of his tunes in prison, and recorded some there i think... he's kinda cool...

It's not an album, but Six Finger Satellite's _Live at the A.C.I._ 7" claims to be a performance at a correctional institute. I don't have it in front of me, but I remember that there was a facsimile of a letter saying that the performance was part of some public service obligation or something like that. I would say something like "The only crime they're guilty of is ROCKIN' HARD, WOOOO!!" but I won't.

CAPONE PHONE HOME!!

Fugazi playing at the Lorton Correctional Facility in "Instrument" is good, but they're pretty much shown up by the inmate who starts playing Brendan Canty's drums afterwards... That would probably never happen to The Cash.

Ol'Dirty Bastard to thread!

Manson recorded a couple of albums in prison, right? He's serving the longest sentance of all these wannabe hoods. (That's Charles, not Marilyn).

And of course, everyones favourite Norsk backstabber Varg Vikernes made two horrible (horrible!) synthesizer neo-classical/folk albums in jail. His announcement two years ago that he would record no more music ever was the best news I've heard in years.

Of course, Burzum-boy's continued activity has to result in a change of nomenclature: Black Metal will henceforth be known as High- Visibility-Fluorescent-Orange-Jumpsuit Metal.

Or maybe they don't wear those in Norway...

On the Bad Brains' magnificent I AGAINST I, lead singer H.R. sings the lyrics to "Sacred Love" down the phone, after being incarcerated for some odd crime or another.

Songs about prison: Sham 69's "Borstal Breakout", Flat Duo Jets' "Riot in Cell Block #9"...although I'm relatively sure that's a cover, Cop Shoot Cop's "3am Incident", Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak", AC/DC's "Jailbreak".

After seeing Slam again today, the prison rap scene between Saul and an actual inmate was pretty striking (think it's on the soundtrack).

the prison rap scene

So admittedly I initially thought you forgot an 'e' there. But that would have been Oz instead of Slam...

Tom's Country/CNN thread prompted me to dig out Vol. 4 of the Harry Smith anthology - it includes 'Parchman Farm Blues' by the great Bukka White, who served a spell in Parchman Farm and was recorded there by Alan Lomax.

Emma gave me the 'new' ODB album for my birthday. It sounded pretty good but I left it at Isabel's house when I got back from holiday. He cut a forlorn figure in that Guardian interview a while back.

I believe The Lifers Group's material was cut in prison. Belly Of The Beast was terrific.

Songs about prison: Asian Dub Foundation - Free Satpal Ram; Bobby Bare/Tom Jones - Green Green Grass of Home; Coasters/Richard Berry - Riot in Cell Block Number 9; Black Uhuru - General Penitentiary; Billy Bragg - Rotting On Remand; Wynona Carr - Please Mr Jailer; loads by Johnny Cash, obv; Rev Julius Cheeks - Get My Child Out Of Jail; Sam Cooke - Chain Gang; Dead Kennedys - Life Sentence; Extreme Noise Terror - Punishment Solitude; Grand Daddy IU - Behind Bars; Gunshot - Lockdown; Merle Haggard - Life in Prison; Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Servin' Time; John Lee Hooker - Prison Bound; D.A. Hunt - Lonesome Ol' Jail; Hurricane Harry - The Last Meal; Randy Irwin (and others) - In the Jailhouse Now; Gregory Isaacs - Jailer or Jailer Jailer or Jailhouse; Blind Lemon Jefferson - Prison Cell Blues; Calvin Levi - Cummings Prison Farm or Nine Pound Steel; Lo-Fidelity Allstars - Until I Get Out Of Jail; Lonesome Sundown - My Home is a Prison; Big Maceo - County Jail Blues; Magic Sam - 21 Days In Jail; Willie Nix - Prison Bound Blues; Primal Scream - Jailbird; Prisonaires - A Prisoner's Prayer; Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces; Mighty Sam - I Came To Get My Baby (Out Of Jail); Big Mama Thornton - Jail or Ball 'n' Chain; Tommy Tucker - Shackles And Chains; Gene Vincent - Poor Man's Prison; Was (Not Was) - Dad I'm In Jail; Dinah Washington - Jailhouse Blues; Muddy Waters - County Jail.