Key: D
Introduction:
G
Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter
C G D
Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name
D
Busted on a drunken charge
D
Driving someone else's car
D G
The local midnight sheriff's claim to fame
G
In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale, how
C G D
Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded
D
Knowing they'd remain the boss
D
Knowing he would pay the cost
D G
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
Am D
Don't mess with me, just take me home
Em D
Come and lay, help us lay
G
young Billy down
G
Luna was a Mexican the law calls an alien
C G D
For coming across the border with a baby and a wife
D
Though the clothes upon his back were wet
D
Still he thought that he could get
D G
Some money and things to start a life
G
It hadn't been too very long when it seemed like everything went wrong
C G D
They didn't even have the time to find themselves a home
D
This foreigner, a brown-skin male
D
Thrown inside a Texas jail
D G
It left the wife and baby quite alone
Em D
He eased the pain inside him
Em D
With a needle in his arm
Em D
But the dope just crucified him
Am D
He died to no one's great alarm
Em D
Come and lay, help us lay
G
Young Luna down
Em D
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons
G
To the ground
G C
Kilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay alive
G D
And leave the joint and walk the streets again
D
As the time he was to leave drew near
D
He suffered all the joy and fear
D G
Of leaving 35 years in the pen
G
And on the day of his release he was approached by the police
C G D
Who took him to the warden walking slowly by his side
D
The warden said "You won't remain here
D
But it seems a state retainer
D G
Claims another 10 years of your life."
Em D
He stepped out in the Texas sunlight
Em D
The cops all stood around
Em D
Old Kilowatt ran 50 yards
Am D
Then threw himself down on the ground
Em D
They might as well just have laid
G
The old man down
Em D
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons
G
To the ground
Em D
Help us raze, raze the prisons
G
To the ground