"Riot In Cell Block #9" is a classic and pervasive R&B song composed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The best known version is The Robins' song from 1954, which hit #1 in the R&B charts.
In this song, a man is serving his sentence in federal prison for armed robbery. At 4:00 AM on July 2, 1953, he wakes up to a rather alarming disturbance: a jail riot! It started in cell block #4 and continued through the prison hall from cell to cell. The jailhouse warden, armed with a gun, threatens to electrocute all the prisoners if the riot doesn't stop soon, but one of them, Scarface Jones, retaliates by carrying dynamite. Forty-seven hours later, 3:00 AM on July 4, 1953, the prison security let loose tear gas on the inmates and they return to their cells.
The song has been covered by many cross-genre artists such as The Grateful Dead, The Beach Boys, Wanda Jackson, Johnny Winter, Dr. Feelgood, The Blues Brothers, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Johnny Cash, The Coasters, and Flat Duo Jets.
It was also translated and performed in French by Michel Pagliaro as "Emeute dans la prison" (riot in the prison). In his version it was July 13, 1968 at 4:00am and originated in cell block #3. It was later covered by Eric Lapointe.
Famous quotes containing the words riot in, riot, cell, block and/or number:
“Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama;
Aged in wrong, the empires are declining,
And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence.
What shall I say to the young on such a morning?—
Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?—
No; my little ones lean not toward revolt.”
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)
“So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.””
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 27:24.
“I turn and turn in my cell like a fly that doesn’t know where to die.”
—Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)
“Painting consumes labour not disproportionate to its effect; but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The quality of moral behaviour varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)