The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169940 Message #4109200
Posted By: Steve Gardham
07-Jun-21 - 01:15 PM
Thread Name: When did prison songs fade out?
Subject: RE: When did prison songs fade out?
No, Joe, just songs about prison life, mostly based on the well-known patterns. At six o clock the screw comes in etc, much like the bothy ballads tell about various farms, these complain about conditions in various prisons. They do tell about the work they are made to do but not out working in the countryside. Some are variants of American prison songs like '21 Years' and some even use the word 'Penitentiary' which isn't an English idiom.