Video: The Prisoner’s Song

‘The Prisoner’s Song’ follows two days in the life of an American prisoner, one during his time incarcerated and one as a free man, providing an observational view of the issues within the American prison system. 

Featuring “The Prisoner’s Song”, written by a prisoner during the mid 1920’s and then stolen by Vernon Dalhart to become the first song in America to sell nearly 1.3 million copies.

Directed by Bilal S. Haider.

Featuring Skeeta Jenkins as the prisoner.

Running time: 12 minutes

Email subscribers may click on the title of this post to watch the video.

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Lyrics

by Guy Massey

Oh, I wish I had some-one to love me 
Some-one to call me their own 
Oh, I wish I had some-one to live with 
‘Cause I’m ti-red of liv-in’ a-lone 

Oh, please meet me to-night in the moon-light 
Please meet me to-night all a-lone 
For I have a sad sto-ry to tell you 
It’s a sto-ry that’s nev-er been told 

I’ll be car-ried to the new jail to-mor-row 
Leav-ing my poor dar-ling all a-lone 
With the cold pris-on bars all a-round me 
And my head on a pil-low of stone 

Now I have a grand ship on the o-cean 
All mount-ed with sil-ver and gold 
And be-fore my poor dar-lin’ would suf-fer 
Oh! that ship would be an-chored and sold 

Now if I had wings like an an-gel 
O-ver these pri-son walls I would fly 
And I’d fly to the arms of my poor dar-lin’ 
And there I’d be wil-ling to die

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