Lyrics Starkville City Jail - Live at San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, CA - February 1969 - Johnny Cash

Wrote a song yesterday. I try
It takes a lot of imagination to write a sometimes to write a song
And to really, to really put something into it
Where somebody else can understand it and feel it
Well we've been in several prisons
San Quentin, and Folsom prison, and the Starkville Mississippi jail
An El Paso jail. And uh
You wouldn't believe it, one night I got in jail in Starkville Mississippi
For picking flowers.
I was walking down the street. I may sing heaven for you a little bit later
I was walking down the street... what?
Excuse me I couldn't hear you I was talking
I was walking down the street, and uh
You know, going to get me some cigarettes or something
'Bout two clock in the morning, after a show. I think it was
Anyway, I reached down and picked a dandelion here and a daisy there as I went along
And this car pulls up.
Said, get it the hell in here boy, what are you doing?
Said, I'm just picking flowers
Well, thirty six dollars for picking flowers and a night in jail (goddamn)
You can't hardly win can ya, goddamn
No telling what they'd do if you pull an apple or something
Well I'd like to do this song on behalf of all you guys in San Quentin
To kinda get back at whoever you want to out there
In my case, I'd like to get back at the fella down in Starkville Mississippi
That still has my thirty six dollars
Well, I left my motel room, down at the Starkville Motel
The town had gone to sleep and I was feelin' fairly well
I strolled along the sidewalk 'neath the sweet magnolia trees
I was whistlin', pickin' flowers, swayin' in the southern breeze
I found myself surrounded; one policeman said: "That's him
Come along, wild flower child. Don't you know that it's two a.m."
They're bound to get you
'Cause they got a curfew
And you go to the Starkville City jail
Well, they threw me in the car and started driving into town
I said: "What the hell did I do?"
And he said: "Shut up and sit down."
Well, they emptied out my pockets, took my pills and guitar picks
I said: "Wait, my name is..." "Ah, shut up."
Well, I sure was in a fix.
The sergeant put me in a cell, then he went home for the night
I said: "Come back here, you so and so;
I ain't bein' treated right."
Well, they're bound to get you.
'Cause they got a curfew.
And you go to the Starkville City jail.
I started pacin' back and forth, and now and then I'd yell
And kick my forty dollar shoes against the steel floor of my cell
I'd walk awhile and kick awhile, and all night nobody came
Then I sadly remembered that they didn't even take my name
At 8 a.m. they let me out, I said: "Gimme them things of mine!"
They gave me a sneer and a guitar pick, and a yellow dandelion
They're bound to get you
'Cause they got a curfew
And you go to the Starkville City jail
And you go to the Starkville City jail