Albany Jail

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, one gets arrested, The other goes bail, That's what you get At the Albany Jail. The coffee's like tobacco-juice, The bread is hard and stale; That's what you get At the Albany jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 229, "Albany Jail" (1 short text)
Roud #6587
NOTES [42 words]: Thompson says almost nothing about this song, and his text is too short to identify with other songs, but I rather suspect it's built from a "Birmingham Jail"/"Down in the Valley" variant; it fits that tune well, if you ignore Thompson's line breaks. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY229

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