| July the second, it was nineteen sixty-three
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| I was servin' time for armed robbery
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| Four o’clock in the mornin', I was layin' back in my cell
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| I heard the whistle blow then I heard somebody yell
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| There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on Down in cell block number 9
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| The riot started down in cell block number 4
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| Spread like wild fire across the prison floor
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| Scar-face Jones said, «It's too late to quit»
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| Pass the dynamite 'cause the fuse is lit
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| There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on Down in cell block number 9
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| Y’all gotta stop that stuff goin' on over there
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| If ya don’t stop that riot, y’all gonna get the chair
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| I said, «Hey now boys, get ready to run
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| Here come the warden with an automatic gun»
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| There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on Down in cell block number 9
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| In the forty-seventh hour the tear gas
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| It got our men
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| We are all back in our cells
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| But every now and then
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| There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on There’s a riot goin' on Down in cell block number 9 |