There was a friend of mine on murder
And the judge's gavel fell
Jury found him guilty
Gave him sixteen years in hell
He said "I ain't spending my life here
I ain't living alone
Ain't breaking no rocks on the chain gang
I'm breakin' out and headin' home
Gonna make a jailbreak
And I'm lookin' towards the sky
I'm gonna make a jailbreak
Oh, how I wish that I could fly
All in the name of liberty
All in the name of liberty
Got to be free
Jailbreak, let me out of here
Jailbreak, sixteen years
Jailbreak, had more than I can take
Jailbreak, yeah"
He said he'd seen his lady being fooled with
By another man
She was down and he was up
He had a gun in his hand
Bullets started flying everywhere
And people started to scream
Big man lying on the ground
With a hole in his body
Where his life had been
But it was -
All in the name of liberty
All in the name of liberty
I got to be free
Jailbreak, jailbreak
I got to break out
Out of here
Heartbeats they were racin'
Freedom he was chasin'
Spotlights, sirens, rifles firing
But he made it out
With a bullet in his back
And the judge's gavel fell
Jury found him guilty
Gave him sixteen years in hell
He said "I ain't spending my life here
I ain't living alone
Ain't breaking no rocks on the chain gang
I'm breakin' out and headin' home
And I'm lookin' towards the sky
I'm gonna make a jailbreak
Oh, how I wish that I could fly
All in the name of liberty
Got to be free
Jailbreak, sixteen years
Jailbreak, had more than I can take
Jailbreak, yeah"
By another man
She was down and he was up
He had a gun in his hand
Bullets started flying everywhere
And people started to scream
Big man lying on the ground
With a hole in his body
Where his life had been
But it was -
All in the name of liberty
I got to be free
I got to break out
Out of here
Freedom he was chasin'
Spotlights, sirens, rifles firing
But he made it out
With a bullet in his back
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I have to agree with keithangus... I love that ... this is an underated bon scott masterpeice... as always you gotta love the guitar
Great song. The pause between "he made it out" and "with a bullet in his back" is pure genius. Another all-time classic by the Thunder from Down Under.
I think that the subject did escape "But he made it out With a bullet in his back" indicates that he did in fact "Make it out" with a souvenier.
If you watch the video for this song you will see the "subject" was shot and killed.
If you watch the video for this song you will see the "subject" was shot and killed.
From what I can remember, Bon read the story in a newspaper, showed the other guys, who loved the idea of writing a song about a jailbreak, et voila. I think so at least. Great song! And the pause is indeed one of the best pauses in music history!
This is a good song.
I always wondered if the subject in the song died or actually escaped....another great classic AC?DC song pure Bon genius!
This song is fucking awesome. AC/DC is one of my favority bands of all time, and this song is one of their best.
by Keith Angus Page on 05-10-2004 @ 07:51:35 PM Great song. The pause between "he made it out" and "with a bullet in his back" is pure genius.
Indeed. When I used to hear this on a Seattle radio station, they would sometimes put something in that gap to make it funny. One time, it was from a Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoon with them saying "the rabbit kicked the bucket".
Anyone else ever noticed the similarites between the music on this song and the music on "Gloria' by Van Morrisson?
Now that you mention it, I can see a similarity in the guitar riff or the rhythm.