Prison Trilogy Billy Rose chords by Joan Baez

Chords with lyrics

Prison Trilogy (Billy Rose)

Joan Baez


 G+G             G/BG/B

Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter

 A minorAm       C majorC        B minorBm        D MajorD

Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name

 A minorAm

Busted on a drunken charge

 C majorC

Driving someone else's car

   C minorCm                G+G

The local midnight sheriff's claim to fame

G+G          G/BG/B

In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale, how

 A minorAm        C majorC        B minorBm       D MajorD

Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded

A minorAm

Knowing they'd remain the boss

C majorC

Knowing he would pay the cost

   C minorCm            G+G

They saw he was severely reprimanded


    E minorEm        B minorBm

In the blackest cell on A augmentedA Block

  E minorEm        B minorBm

He hanged himself at dawn

    E minorEm        B minorBm

With a note stuck to the bunk head

    A minorAm             D MajorD

Don't mess with me, just take me home

     E minorEm      D MajorD

Come and lay, help us lay

       G+G

young Billy down


 G+G           G/BG/B

Luna was a Mexican the law calls an alien


   A minorAm        C majorC      B minorBm     D MajorD

For coming across the border with a baby and a wife

 A minorAm

Though the clothes upon his back were wet

 C majorC

Still he thought that he could get

   C minorCm             G+G

Some money and things to start a life


  G+G                 G/BG/B

It hadn't been too very long when it seemed like everything went wrong

   A minorAm      C majorC        B minorBm        D MajorD

They didn't even have the time to find themselves a home

   A minorAm

This foreigner, a brown-skin male

 C majorC

Thrown inside a Texas jail

  C minorCm              G+G

It left the wife and baby quite alone


  E minorEm        B minorBm

He eased the pain inside him

    E minorEm      B minorBm

With a needle in his arm

     E minorEm       B minorBm

But the dope just crucified him

  A minorAm           D MajorD

He died to no one's great alarm


     E minorEm      D MajorD

Come and lay, help us lay

      G+G

Young Luna down

         E minorEm       D MajorD

And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons

     G+G

To the ground


 G+G              G/BG/B            A minorAm

Kilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay alive

   C majorC         B minorBm        D MajorD

And leave the joint and walk the streets again


A minorAm

As the time he was to leave drew near

  C majorC

He suffered all the joy and fear

  C minorCm           G+G

Of leaving 35 years in the pen


  G+G              G/BG/B

And on the day of his release he was approached by the police

   A minorAm       C majorC       B minorBm      D MajorD

Who took him to the warden walking slowly by his side

   A minorAm

The warden said "You won't remain here

C majorC

But it seems a state retainer

C minorCm                G+G

Claims another 10 years of your life."


   E minorEm           B minorBm

He stepped out in the Texas sunlight

  E minorEm       B minorBm

The cops all stood around

   E minorEm     B minorBm

Old Kilowatt ran 50 yards

   A minorAm             D MajorD

Then threw himself down on the ground


        E minorEm       D MajorD

They might as well just have laid

       G+G

The old man down

         E minorEm       D MajorD

And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons

     G+G

To the ground

     E minorEm       D MajorD

Help us raze, raze the prisons

    G+G

To the ground