music from prison

william_kent

Well-known member
This is interesting. Did they say why? What about a kazoo? Or a Sitar? Were instruments rejected cos it was deemed that they could be used as a weapon... or to escape perhaps? Or were drums just too annoying. A tantalising glimpse into the bureaucratic mind but one that raises more questions than it answers.

I guess a prisoner could strangle someone with a guitar string, or file a drum stick into a sharp point for stabbing.

oh, @Leo got here before me - you know who the "shot caller" in our "car" is going to be..thinking like a winner

but yeah, guitar, I'm going to garrotte you, drums, you're full of holes, but a synth: infrasound! I will destroy you with low frequency bowel movements! or I just hit you over the head, might be quicker

guitar string + drum stick + some other wood = bow & arrow

kazoo? spend hours whittling, sharpen the bright plastic to a deadly point....
 
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forclosure

Well-known member
I'm definitely interested in how these things come about nowadays in rap and dancehall, what the arrangement is. Never seen anyone explain it, and maybe we'll never know cos it's part of the deal.
raps recorded over prison phones are their own unique little subgenre but alot of them aren't particularly good

X-raided whose now out after 26 years is one of the more infamous examples (including if i remember right sneaking in music equipment to record)
but then again you also have this which was recorded while the then incarcerated Boosie and the still incarcerated C-Murder were both locked up in the infamous Angola prison
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
The Stranglers played a gig at Chelmsford Prison too (with the Pistols playing there, it was almost a stop on the gig circuit)

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blissblogger

Well-known member
Then a bit later the Stranglers got put away themselves - twice

There was the incident in France where they were accused of fomenting a concert riot at Nice University and got thrown in the slammer for a few nights.

And then Hugh Cornwell got done for drugs possession (smack if I recall right) and did actual time - eight weeks in Pentonville.

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I don't think he ever wrote a song about his experiences but he did write a short book, sold through the Stranglers fan club I believe.


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blissblogger

Well-known member
Ah, well this is a big one that I only just remembered - The Stones, "We Love You" - doesn't it start with the sound of the cell door being shut and locked?


William Rees-Mogg's leader in the Times suggesting that the punishment did not fit the crime in the case of Mr. Jagger at least (Mr. Richards got a bigger sentence).

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blissblogger

Well-known member
Songs about prison....

Nick Cave had a fascination for crims (and acted in a film about prison, Ghosts... of the Civil Dead)

 

blissblogger

Well-known member
Remember shout-outs on the pirates to the HMP massive

I'd assumed that's where this Pascal collaborative alias gets its name, but apparently it stands for Hardware Meets Pascal (the accomplice being Thomas Hogan aka Hardware)

 
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