View source for Prison Songs

{{Infobox
|name = Infobox/doc
|bodystyle = width:30em;
|headerstyle = background:#ccf;
|labelstyle = background:#ddf;
|header1 = Series
|header3 = Original Broadcast Date
|header5 = Cast
|header7 = Format
|label10  = Preceded by: 
|label11 = Followed by: 
|data8 = 59 minutes
|data4  = 10/31/[[:Category:1999|1999]]
|title = [https://www.joefrank.com/shop/prison-songs Prison Songs][https://www.joefrank.com/streaming/shows/?jfsearch=Prison%20Songs]
|data6  = Joe Frank
|data10 = [[No Angel]]
|data11 = [[The Box]]
|data2  = [[The Other Side (Series)|The Other Side]]
|
}}

''It was a particularly hot day of a sweltering summer in Manhattan.''

'''Prison Songs''' is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series [[The Other Side (Series)|The Other Side]]. It was originally broadcast on October 31, [[:Category:1999|1999]].

== Synopsis ==

Joe tells of when he was a child, went to the beach with his mother.
She forgot towels so she buys a newspaper to use as one.  A
policeman cites her for littering.  She does something to get him to
tear up the ticket.

2:10: Billy Friedman and Joe, when they were 14, jump over an air
shaft about 10 stories up, their favorite sport.  One day they see a
couple making love through an open window.  Joe goes to get a broom
and mirror so they can watch more easily.  While fetching the broom
Joe takes a dump; it gets dark and cold suddenly, and a strong wind
tries to suck Joe off the toilet.  He has to cling to the seat and
push against the windowsill to hold on.  When he gets back to the air
shaft, Billy's dead at the bottom.

5:00: A Russian immigrant tells of when he was 16, wanted to go to JFK
High<ref>in Riverside, NYC</ref> to be with Karen - but he has no
English.  He takes a course at Yeshiva<ref>because he's Jewish</ref>,
but it's mostly Jewish history and Hebrew.  Further, since all the
students are Russian, therefore speak in Russian outside of class, he
doesn't learn English.  An administrator tries to bribe him to get
circumcised with a $30 Panasonic tape recorder.  He demurs.

16:10: A fellow who's having a hard time making it as a performer
takes a job selling religious supplies to
priests.  It's a terrible job, cold-calling priests on straight
commission.  One callee shows an interest in a Burning Bush, a $3,500
chalice, for which his commission would be about $900, so the guy
rushes over.<ref>I can't find any information on this chalice.</ref>
The priest is looking for a pickup.  In a struggle over a $5-bill the
priest shoves in his shirt pocket, that he doesn't want, he drops the
chalice.  He can't afford to pay to fix it.  The priest insists on
paying in installments, which the guy has to pick up, which seem like
creepy dates to him.

23:20: Joe recounts his breakup with Darlene, the awful things they
did to each other.  Joe imagines dismembering Darlene, making
ornaments from her body parts.

26:20: Joe lists people who need love.

27:50: Joe lists analogies for love, how necessary and irreplaceable
it is.  He addresses Darlene, how much he misses her.

35:00: The Russian guy recalls living in Boston, that there are
successful Russians and wasters.  The wildest guy is a weaver who
drinks and drugs, dances on tables, whacks his large penis on
tables&hellip; A dealer gives him an advance.  He weaves rugs and
tapestries for a year, has a show, makes a lot of money, buys a new
car, the preserving of which makes him dull with responsibility.  An
accident frees him.  Now he lives in Alaska, married, with children,
hunts mountain goats.

44:20: A guy explains how he got into trouble.  He couldn't get an
honest job so kept on committing crimes.

45:30: Joe recounts walking along the ocean, coming upon an orchestra,
dressed-up people dancing, waiters, champagne.  A helicopter lands,
lets out a man in top hat and tails who comes to the microphone,
explodes, killing everyone but Joe.  Joe returns to his hotel, pours a
shot of scotch, pours it out into the pool.

47:40: Joe recalls Socrates's death.<ref>wrongly</ref>

48:20: Joe thinks about finding eternity. 

49:00: Joe recalls his father being killed in a factory accident when
he was 5, reduced to paste.

49:50: Joe recalls his piano lesson when he was 10.  He was a poor
student; the teacher struck him when he made a mistake.  He developed
migraines as a result.  Years later he started therapy with a
psychiatrist.  She and Joe fell in love, made a suicide pact, which
she honored but Joe did not.

51:30: Joe recounts when he was a cabbie in Manhattan, the couple he
drove to Atlantic City and back.

54:00: Joe recalls meeting Sol at Lutece.

55:20: Joe recounts bursting into Bludstein's office; Bludstein was
having an affair with Darlene.  Bludstein pisses out the window.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%; overflow:auto;">
<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy Synopsis</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

Narrator and mother on the beach. Peeping at a naked woman, friend falls to his death.  Man's story of coming to USA as a boy and wanting a girl but winds up learning about being Jewish.  Prison song. Struggling performer meets with a priest becomes a salesman for priest's materials ends in a strange relationship.  Narrator recalls losing a girlfriend like an amputation.  "Needs Love" diatribe. Russian immigrant describes person who lost his joy once he became successful.  Song.  A guy describes being in and out of prison for 18 years.  Narrator and an lavish party where a man explodes.  Narrator describes his father killed in a grinder when he was five, piano lessons when ten, therapist who dies. Driving a cab for foreign, arguing couple.  Contemplations of purpose and success.
</div></div>
== Music == 
{{Angel Dust (DJ Cam)}} [Intro]
{{Whoa Buck (C.B.)}} [12:31]
{{Rosie (C.B. And Ten Others With Axes)}} [41:27]<!--also "How I Got In The Penitentiary" (Bama) [44:26] -->

== Miscellanea ==
*The prison songs which appear here and in several other programs are from a compilation of field recording made in 1947 by and released in the 50s on the album "Negro Prison Songs."  The album has been re-released, along with previously unpublished material from the same source tapes, on two CDs by Rounder:

* Prison Songs: Historical Recordings from Parchman Farm 1947-48 Volume 1: Murderous Home (Alan Lomax, Rounder CD 1714, 1997, #ASIN: B0000002UV)

* Prison Songs: Historical Recordings from Parchman Farm 1947-48 Volume 2. Don'tcha Hear Poor Mother Calling? (Alan Lomax,  Rounder CD 1715, 1997, #ASIN: B0000002UW)


Joe re-uses 25 minutes of this episode in [[Love Prisoner]].

== Footnotes ==

[[Category:Narrative_Monologue]]
[[Category:Absurd_Monologue]]
[[Category:The Other Side]][[Category:1999]]
[[Category:Show]]
[[Category:Show_by_date|19991031]]	{{Airdate|airdate=1999-10-31}}
{{Series|series=The Other Side}}{{Cast|cast=Joe Frank}}