Lyr/Chords ADD: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)

Subject: Folk Song 'Billy Rose'? PLEASE!!!
From:
Date: 26 May 99 - 10:22 AM

Hi, my names aditya ...... 5 yrs ago we did this song billy rose in choir in school..... i wanna learn how to play it now ..... even the lyrics will do , but if u have the tab (guitar) or know someone who ndoes please mail it to me at the above adress or at [e-mail]

thanks a lot....

Subject: RE: Folk Song 'Billy Rose'? PLEASE!!!
From: Dale Rose
Date: 27 May 99 - 09:48 AM

Never heard of it, nor could I find anything about it. The problem is that it's also a person's name, highly complicating a search. Now you might wonder why I even bothered to reply at all, but your request was the very bottom one on the page, so this brings it to the top again, where someone who knows might see it!

Subject: RE: Folk Song 'Billy Rose'? PLEASE!!!
From: Pete peterson
Date: 27 May 99 - 10:38 AM

the song isn't BABY rose by any chance? I know that onw. No help on BILLY rose, sorry PETE

Subject: RE: Folk Song 'Billy Rose'? PLEASE!!!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 27 May 99 - 10:49 AM

could it be this song?:

PRISON TRILOGY
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

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

if so, you find more at http://baez.woz.org/Lyrics/pristrilogy.html.

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr Add: PRISON TRILOGY (Joan Baez)
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 27 May 99 - 12:34 PM

PRISON TRILOGY
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

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 into 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 poor Luna down
And we'll 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

Then 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 that old man down
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons to the ground
Help us raze, raze the prisons to the ground

© 1971, 1972 Chandos Music (ASCAP)

I thought we might post it here in hopes it will enter the DT. Joan's website is mighty nice, but you never know when these damn links will die.

Enjoy the music!

Roger in Baltimore

---

Note from Joe Offer: the lyrics above are a good transcription of this Joan Baez recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0sXNmKhGKo

Subject: RE: Folk Song 'Billy Rose'? PLEASE!!!
From:
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:54 AM

Can someone help me find the chords to the Prison Trilogy? Thanks! Email them to me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Folk Song 'Billy Rose'? PLEASE!!!
From:
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 12:56 PM

if anybody does have chords or tabs for this song could you email me as well, i've been searching for them for a while

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)
From: GUEST,Alice Johnston
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 12:54 PM

Also looking for the chords
if someone could send them to
[e-mail] it would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez
From: GUEST,Champange Carole's Secret Santa
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 07:44 AM

I looked and looked and could not find ANY tabs or chords to this song...and when and if I do, I'll email you all. I spent three freakin' hours on this one day. I amassed a big document with about 110 OTHER songs...chords and tabs...but not THIS one. Sorry. Not like I didn't give it the old college try.

Any gentle mudcatter generous enough to at least annote the chords over the lyrics for us? It ain't as if we haven't looked on our own. We ain't lazy. It isn't in any in print Baez Guitar books neither. At least none that I could find and I looked at about 12 titles plus some out of print ones.

Have we sufferd enough to deserve deliverence? Please help us.

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: PRISON TRILOGY (Joan Baez)
From: GUEST,Roger in Baltimore
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 08:23 AM

Prison Trilogy
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

G                            Bm
Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter
C                G                Bm               D
Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name
Am
Busted on a drunken charge
C
Driving someone else's car
G                   Bm                D
The local midnight sheriff's claim to fame
G                   Bm
In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale how
C                  G                Bm          D
Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded
Am
Knowing they'd remain the boss
C
Knowing he would pay the cost
G                D
They saw he was severely reprimanded

         Em             D
In the blackest cell on "A" Block
Em                     D
He hanged himself at dawn
Em                      D
With a note stuck to the bunk head
C                     D
Don't mess with me, just take me home
          G            D               G
Come and lay, help us lay young Billy down


I have not heard Joan doing this song for over a decade. From my memory of the tune, the above chords fit fairly well.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 04:34 PM

Oh wow, thanks...i've been looking for it too. :0)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez
From: GUEST,God Bless Roger in Baltimore
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 11:07 PM

Thank you SO much Roger!

You have no idea how badly abused some kids can get when asking on various forums for the tabs or lyrics to a folk song. Some kid started asking for this one over a year ago on various Yahoo groups and we found him the lyrics Ok but then he meekly came back and said..gee howsabout the chords and tabs and he got SLAMMED up side the figurative head by people who claimed they were so easy to find and that any lazy idiot could find them blah blah blah..

So, just to see if that was true..I looked. and looked..and looked. Nada. Not a ring-ding thing. Lots of pages that showed up on searches that had it listed as having the Tabs but when you went there..it was just the lyrics.

Then I saw a similar thread here and tried again. Nothing.

I was surprised not to find it in my own chord notes from Highschool but it wasn't there. I also couldn't really recall the tune all that well.

I'll now go back and see if any of those email addys are still valid. Over the year, I accumualted a list of some 30 people that wanted this.

Roger, you are a fine man.

May your SS bring you lots of pressies for being such a kind Mudcatter and for not telling us all we'd not done enough research to deserve an answer!

I ran through it briefly and I'd have to say they are probably right if I could remember the darned song. You'd think this one would have stuck better given that it was so popular when it was first recorded.

Well, we are all in your debt Roger from Baltimore.

Have I fawned all over you enough? If not, let us know and I'll post another gushing bit of gratitude.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)
From: GUEST,Roger in Baltimore
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 09:54 AM

Aw, geez, thanks! I'm blushing. Actually, this site has given me so much joy and pleasure, so much help with songs, and so many good friends, that whatever I give back doesn't seem like enough.

As I played this again, I think the D's after the Em's should probably be a Bm's. Sounds better.

Merry Christmas to all!

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez
From: Bassic
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 10:58 AM

Found this from a 2001 thread.

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Subject: RE: Chords req 'Prison Trilogy (Billy Rose)'
From: IvanB - PM
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 01:13 PM

Well, thank God for the capo! I had that flash of insight and put one on the first fret, intending to move it up until I established a key for the song. As luck would have it, it sounds in the key of Ab on my CD, which meant that playing in G with the capo on the first fret, I was able to play along with the song. Much to my surprise, the chord progression is very straightforward:

G
Billy Rose was a low rider;
Em
Billy Rose was a night fighter
C                               D7
Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name
C          D7
Busted on a drunken charge
C               D7
Drivin' someone else's car
    C             D7                G
The local midnight sheriff's claim to fame
G                            Em
In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale how
C                                  D7
Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded.
C                D7
Knowing they'd remain the boss
C                D7
Knowing he would pay the cost
C                D7          G
They saw he was severely reprimanded
       Em                D7          Em                D7
In the blackest cell on "A" Block he hanged himself at dawn
       Em                D7
With a note stuck to the bunk head
       C                         D7
Don't mess with me, just take me home.
          G            D7             G
Come and lay, help us lay young Billy down.



I'm sure I've missed some passing chords in the process, but this progression scans pretty well.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Hope it helps

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Chords Req: Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 08:45 PM

Just yesterday I was buying some Joan Baez tunes on iTunes and I was pleasantly surprised to see Billy Rose on the list of available songs. I clicked on it, listened and it was the correct song so I bought it.

If anyone happens upon this thread again looking to find the song, just go over to iTunes and search on Joan Baez. i believe it comes up as Prison Trilogy/Billy Rose