Lyrics to
The Prisoner

This version of The Prisoner was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1971.

Visit the Gil Scott-Heron Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the The Prisoner lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by Gil Scott-Heron.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Gil Scott-Heron or about the 1970s in general.

Here I am after so many years
Hounded by hatred and trapped by fear
I’m in a box, I’ve got no place to go
If I follow my mind, I know I’ll slaughter my own

Help me, I’m the prisoner won’t you hear my plea?
I need somebody, yeah, to listen to me
I beg you, brothers and sisters
I’m counting on you, yeah

Black babies in the womb are shackled and bound
Chained by the caveman who keeps beauty down
Smacked on the ass when they’re squalling and wet
Heir to a spineless man who never forgets

Never forgets that he’s a prisoner, can’t you hear my plea?
‘Cause I need somebody, Lord knows, to listen to me
I’m a stranger to my son
Who wonders why his daddy runs, yeah

On my way to work in the morning
When I don’t give a damn
Can’t nobody, can’t nobody
Can’t nobody, can’t nobody see just who in hell I am?

Hemmed in by a suit, yes, all choked up in a tie
Ain’t no wonder some times near morning I hear my woman cry
She knows her man is a prisoner, won’t you hear my plea?
Yeah, ’cause I need somebody to listen to me

My woman, she don’t say but she hates
To see her man chained this way, yeah
Help me, I’m the prisoner
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m the prisoner

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Gil Scott-Heron has released many songs over the years besides The Prisoner. Gil Scott-Heron released songs from 1970 to 2005 spanning across albums like Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, Pieces Of A Man, Free Will, Winter In America, The First Minute Of A New Day, It's Your World, From South Africa To South Carolina, Bridges, Secrets, The Mind Of Gil Scott-Heron, 1980, Real Eyes, Reflections, Moving Target, Spirits, and Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Messages (Anthology). Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Gil Scott-Heron.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The Prisoner by Gil Scott-Heron

The lyrics to The Prisoner are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Gil Scott-Heron used when the song was created in 1971. The lyrics to The Prisoner have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Gil Scott-Heron and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to The Prisoner by Gil Scott-Heron. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The Prisoner" means the words set to the music of The Prisoner, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Gil Scott-Heron. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The Prisoner and the lyrics to The Prisoner are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Gil Scott-Heron who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Prisoner, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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