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Prison Trilogy Paroles

Joan Baez

Album Other

Paroles de Prison Trilogy

Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighterBilly Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own nameBusted on a drunken chargeDriving someone else's carThe local midnight sheriff's claim to fameIn an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale howBilly fought the sergeant for some milk that he demandedKnowing they'd remain the bossKnowing he would pay the costThey saw he was severely reprimandedIn the blackest cell on "A" BlockHe hanged himself at dawnWith a note stuck to the bunk headDon't mess with me, just take me homeCome and lay, help us layyoung Billy downLuna was a Mexican the law called an alienFor coming across the border with a baby and a wifeThough the clothes upon his back were wetStill he thought that he could getSome money and things to start a lifeIt hadn't been too very long when it seemed like everything went wrongThey didn't even have the time to find themselves a homeThis foreigner, a brown-skin maleThrown into a Texas jailIt left the wife and baby quite aloneHe eased the pain inside himWith a needle in his armBut the dope just crucified himHe died to no one's great alarmCome and lay, help us layYoung Luna downAnd we're gonna raze, raze the prisonsTo the groundKilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay aliveAnd leave the joint and walk the streets againAs the time he was to leave drew nearHe suffered all the joy and fearOf leaving 35 years in the penAnd on the day of his release he was approached by the policeWho took him to the warden walking slowly by his sideThe warden said "You won't remain hereBut it seems a state retainerClaims another 10 years of your life."He stepped out in the Texas sunlightThe cops all stood aroundOld Kilowatt ran 50 yardsThen threw himself down on the groundThey might as well just have laidThe old man downAnd we're gonna raze, raze the prisonsTo the groundHelp us raze, raze the prisonsTo the ground