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Prison Trilogy Billy Rose Tab

by Joan Baez


Capo 1


                           
Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter 
                                                  
  Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name 

Busted on a drunken charge 

Driving someone else's car 
                                     
The local midnight sheriff's claim to fame 

                            
In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale, how 
                                                
Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded 

Knowing they'd remain the boss 

Knowing he would pay the cost 
                              
They saw he was severely reprimanded 

                       
In the blackest cell on A Block 
                   
He hanged himself at dawn 
                       
With a note stuck to the bunk head 
                               
Don't mess with me, just take me home 

                                 
Come and lay, help us lay 
            
young Billy down 

                      
Luna was a Mexican the law calls an alien 
                                             
For coming across the border with a baby and a wife 
           
Though the clothes upon his back were wet 

Still he thought that he could get 
                                
Some money and things to start a life 

                                     
It hadn't been too very long when it seemed like everything went wrong 
                                                  
They didn't even have the time to find themselves a home 
       
This foreigner, a brown-skin male 

Thrown inside a Texas jail 
                                 
It left the wife and baby quite alone 

                   
He eased the pain inside him 
                   
With a needle in his arm 
                     
But the dope just crucified him 
                         
He died to no one's great alarm 

                    
Come and lay, help us lay 
           
Young Luna down 
                             
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons 
       
To the ground 

                                                    
Kilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay alive 
                                        
And leave the joint and walk the streets again 
                        
As the time he was to leave drew near 
   
He suffered all the joy and fear 
                          
Of leaving 35 years in the pen 

                                
And on the day of his release he was approached by the police 
                                               
Who took him to the warden walking slowly by his side 
    
The warden said "You won't remain here 

But it seems a state retainer 
                               
Claims another 10 years of your life." 

                          
He stepped out in the Texas sunlight 
                  
The cops all stood around 
               
Old Kilowatt ran 50 yards 
                             
Then threw himself down on the ground 

                           
They might as well just have laid 
            
The old man down 
                              
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons 
       
To the ground 
                     
Help us raze, raze the prisons 
       
To the ground

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