Dm                                G                 Dm
I'm a guard in the grey iron prison, at least I was 'till now
       G              Bb              Dm
It was never a picnic social, never a day
                                    G                           Dm
They never come in laughing and you know they never taught them how
       G                       Bb                   Dm
It was damn hard work, and you wouldn't believe the pay


[Verse 2]
                                     G                Dm
It was early in the morning, lord, I wasn't but half awake
         G                   Bb            Dm
When the cons went nuts, and took us by surprise
                                   G                Dm
I never was one for shaking, but I found it hard to stand
       G                   Bb              Dm
With a six-inch blade held right before my eyes


[Verse 3]
                               G                  Dm
We could hear a siren blowing, somebody yelled in pain
        G                       Bb               Dm
Then it got so quiet, you could hear a bird walk by
                                            G                     Dm
They all had masks on their faces, and they spoke with a voice of Cain
         G                          Bb                   Dm
"If they come in shooting, then you know you're bound to die"


[Verse 4]
                                          G                    Dm
I turned to a buddy named Willie, I said "Willie, it'll be all right
        G                        Bb               Dm
If they meant to kill us we'd be half way down to Hell

See, they high-jacked a plane in the desert
        G                       Dm
And the government screamed and cried
       G                     Bb                 Dm
But to save some lives, they opened up a prison cell"


[Verse 5]
                                   G                   Dm
So the days kept coming and going, tension was getting high
      G                     Bb                 Dm
But I wasn't too worried, I figured I knew the score
                                       G                         Dm
I knew they were talking to someone, I knew they were willing to try
     G                        Bb                     Dm
So I figured my freedom was a matter of a day or two more


[Verse 6]
                                    G                      Dm
But, Jesus, early this morning, the whirlybird dropped the gas
   G                   Bb               Dm
It made me puke and it brought me to my knees
                                    G                    Dm
The bullets came like hailstones, I heard the first ones pass
          G                         Bb                Dm
Then they cut down Willie, and they got Jim Kelly and me


[Verse 7]
                                            G                  Dm
They come in yelling curses, like they were crossing the River Rhine
G               Bb                   Dm
Shot down every goddamned thing they saw
                                 G                      Dm
And while I lay there wounded, I took another one in my spine
G                    Bb                Dm
Poor Jim Kelly took another one in his jaw


[Verse 8]
                                     G                 Dm
They say we had our throats cut by a band of desperate men
G                 Bb                 Dm
Say they saved as many of us as they could
                                            G                  Dm
Well, the governor he should know it, but I think I'll say it again
         G               Bb                   Dm
That the governor cut my throat and he cut it good


[Verse 9]
                                 G                   Dm
Let them take the governor, hold him for a couple of days
G               Bb                  Dm
See who goes in shooting to set him free
                                                    G                  Dm
Hell, they'd open every jail in the country, they'd send them on their way
       G           Bb                            Dm
They'd never do to him what the governor done to me