songs about inprisonment & immigration brainstorm

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
This song wouldn't fit in with what you want to cover. It's more along the lines of Lord Of The Rings-type immigration, the whole hammer of the Gods will drive our ship to new lands thing.
eh, Lord of the Rings??? it's about the Vikings!
Thus the reason I said -type. I'm not all into that Dungeons & Dragons/18-sided die shit.
 
Sir Mix-A-Lot's "One Time's Got No Case". I thought the way Mix-A-Lot said "boots" in the song would have become one of hip-hop's biggest trends.
 
John Prine - Christmas in Prison

It was Christmas in prison and the food was real good.
We had turkey and pistols carved out of wood.
And I dream of her always even when I don't dream.
Her name's on my tongue and her blood's in my stream.

Wait a while eternity;
Old mother nature's got nothing on me.
Come to me, run to me, come to me now.
We're rolling, my sweetheart, we're flowing, by God!

She reminds me of a chess game with someone I admire,
Or a picnic in the rain after a prairie fire.
Her heart is as big as this whole goddamn jail.
And she's sweeter than saccharine at a drug store sale.

Wait a while eternity;
Old mother nature's got nothing on me.
Come to me, run to me, come to me now.
We're rolling, my sweetheart, we're flowing, by God!

The search light in the big yard swings round with the gun,
And spotlights the snowflakes like the dust in the sun.
It's Christmas in prison, there'll be music tonight:
I'll probably get homesick. I love you. Goodnight.

Wait a while eternity;
Old mother nature's got nothing on me.
Come to me, run to me, come to me now.
We're rolling, my sweetheart, we're flowing, by God!
 
John Prine - Christmas in Prison

It was Christmas in prison and the food was real good.
We had turkey and pistols carved out of wood.
And I dream of her always even when I don't dream.
Her name's on my tongue and her blood's in my stream.

Wait a while eternity;
Old mother nature's got nothing on me.
Come to me, run to me, come to me now.
We're rolling, my sweetheart, we're flowing, by God!

She reminds me of a chess game with someone I admire,
Or a picnic in the rain after a prairie fire.
Her heart is as big as this whole goddamn jail.
And she's sweeter than saccharine at a drug store sale.

Wait a while eternity;
Old mother nature's got nothing on me.
Come to me, run to me, come to me now.
We're rolling, my sweetheart, we're flowing, by God!

The search light in the big yard swings round with the gun,
And spotlights the snowflakes like the dust in the sun.
It's Christmas in prison, there'll be music tonight:
I'll probably get homesick. I love you. Goodnight.

Wait a while eternity;
Old mother nature's got nothing on me.
Come to me, run to me, come to me now.
We're rolling, my sweetheart, we're flowing, by God!

I never ever ever ever ever thought I would see someone quote John Prine on this board. wow. just fucking wow. hahahaha. My dad used to play the hell out of his Bruised Orange 8 track when I was little.
 
Bob Nesta Marley "Burning and Looting"





This morning I woke up in a curfew;


O god, I was a prisoner, too - yeah!


Could not recognize the faces standing over me;


They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality. eh!





How many rivers do we have to cross,


Before we can talk to the boss? eh!


All that we got, it seems we have lost;


We must have really paid the cost.





(that???s why we gonna be)


Burnin??? and a-lootin??? tonight;


(say we gonna burn and loot)


Burnin??? and a-lootin??? tonight;


(one more thing)


Burnin??? all pollution tonight;


(oh, yeah, yeah)


Burnin??? all illusion tonight.





Oh, stop them!





Give me the food and let me grow;


Let the roots man take a blow.


All them drugs gonna make you slow now;


It???s not the music of the ghetto. eh!





Weeping and a-wailin??? tonight;


(who can stop the tears? )


Weeping and a-wailin??? tonight;


(we???ve been suffering these long, long-a years!)


Weeping and a-wailin??? tonight


(will you say cheer? )


Weeping and a-wailin??? tonight


(but where? )





Give me the food and let me grow;


Let the roots man take a blow.


I must say: all them - all them drugs gonna make you slow;


It???s not the music of the ghetto.





We gonna be burning and a-looting tonight;


(to survive, yeah!)


Burning and a-looting tonight;


(save your baby lives)


Burning all pollution tonight;


(pollution, yeah, yeah!)


Burning all illusion tonight


(lord-a, lord-a, lord-a, lord!)





Burning and a-looting tonight;


Burning and a-looting tonight;


Burning all pollution tonight. /fadeout/


 
WAIT!!!!
I just remembered, IMO, the best prison song EVAR!!!!:

ARKANSAS STATE PRISON-Bobby Womack

Folsom County Blues-anyone

No More Prisons-various hip hop dudes collabo against prison complex

25 Ta Life-D Nice

Death Row (?)-Intelligent Hoodlum (great Adderley sample)

Johnny Cash shiz

Peace
T.N.



 
MERLE HAGGARD

MerleHaggard.jpg


Mama Tried

Sing Me Back Home
 

Billy Bragg - Waiting On Remand

I stood before the judge that day
As he refused me bail
And I knew that I would spend my time
Awaiting trial in jail
I said there is no justice
As they led me out the door
And the judge said, "This isn't a court of justice son
This is a court of law."
They first sent me to Windsor
And then to Stoke on Trent
In a holding cell in Liverpool
Three days and nights I spent
My solicitor can't find me
And my family doesn't know
I keep telling them that I'm innocent
They just say, "Come on son, in you go."
I was picked up on suspicion of something I haven't done
Here I sit in 'F' wing waiting for my trial to come
It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands
Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand

I ended up in this jail
Built in 1882
When one man to one prison cell
Was a Victorian value
Now three of us are squeezed in here
And you can't escape the smell
Of that bucket in the corner
And we eat in here as well
They let me out of this cage
To slop that bucket out
To get my food and bring it back
And if I'm lucky, get a shower
Apart from one hours exercise
I'm locked in here all day
You don't turn criminals into citizens
By treating them this way
Is the price of law and order the stench of Wormwood Scrubs
With judges quick to sentence sending more down from above
It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands
Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand
 
Blind Lemon Jefferson: "Prison Cell Blues"
Bukka White: "Parchman Farm"
Julius Daniels: "99 Year Blues" from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
 
those are all good jail ones - what about immigration ones?
I'm at work right now and can't think of too many other than the Burning Spear I put up earlier. I'll check some records tonight.

They may not be country to country immigration, more like displacement - is that OK, too?
 
MERLE HAGGARD

MerleHaggard.jpg


Mama Tried

Sing Me Back Home
this dude rules.


billy bragg also has a song about the japanese internment camps. i cant remember the name of the song, but i can sing it for you if you like. i know that's no help.

id also like to point out that i cant stand "spoken word" poetry or whatever theyre calling it these days. but that mike ladd track on the unbound project is one major exception. that shit is dope.
 
I'm making a mix CD for a non-profit that deals with immigration & the criminal justice system in the US.
is this some sort of benefit for something? like, are you selling it and giving the proceeds to some non-profit or some such? if so, rock on.