From '' Rockabilly Tribute To AC/DC ''
Label: CMH Records – CMH-8881
Format: CD
Country: US
Released: 2004
Tracklist
01. Highway To Hell
02. Rock'N'Roll Damnation
03. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
04. Short Down In Flames
05. Rocker
06. You Shook Me All Night Long
07. Jailbreak
08. Ride On
09. Heatseeker
10. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
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\"Jailbreak\" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC.
It is the ninth and final track of their third Australian album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, released in September 1976.
It was written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott, at the Grafton Basketball stadium in the northern New South Wales town of Grafton during a soundcheck in 1975.
Releases
It was first released as a single in Australia and the UK in mid-1976, with the non-album track \"Fling Thing\" as its B-side.
The single was re-issued in the UK in 1980 with a picture sleeve.
As \"Jailbreak\" was only included on the Australian version of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, and not on its international counterpart, it did not see a release in the United States, Canada, and Japan until October 1984 as part of the international '74 Jailbreak EP.
\A promo-only single, with \"Show Business\" as its B-side, was released to radio stations in the US at the time.
Live recordings
\"Jailbreak\" was included on the 1992 AC/DC live album Live: 2 CD Collector's Edition, sung by Scott's replacement Brian Johnson.
This live recording also features extended guitar solos by Angus Young.
Another version, recorded in Dallas in 1985 and also sung by Johnson, was released on the 2009 Backtracks album.
The version from the show featured on Live at Donington is included in the AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack.
Music video
The music video for \"Jailbreak\" was filmed in March 1976 for the Australian music programme Countdown, and was directed by Paul Drane.
It was filmed in a quarry in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray and featured the band's then-current lineup. Phil Rudd and Bon Scott dressed as prisoners (blue uniform covered with typical Australian Broad Arrow), Mark Evans and Malcolm Young as guards, and Angus Young dressed in what he later described as \"little convict pajamas\".
The Young brothers, Evans and Rudd all appeared while playing their instruments, while Scott sang.
This video was featured on AC/DC's Family Jewels DVD.
\"Jailbreak\" is one of the first videos to make the use of explosives and fake blood.
Paul Drane, the director of the video, is quoted saying, \"We didn't really know how much [explosive] we were going to need to make the doors fly open, and I had a couple of guys from props with sticks, trying to push the doors apart, so the hinges are not really there ...\" \"It was the first time we'd had access to anything like this, these exploding blood packs.\"
Additionally, the band acts out the section of the song that details the protagonist's escape from prison.
The film shows the prisoners (Scott, A. Young and Rudd) doing hard labour under watch of the prison guards (Malcolm and Evans).
Later it shows the prisoners manage to blow open the gates to the prison. Rudd and Angus are able to escape.
Scott, portraying the protagonist, is shot by Malcolm Young and Evans as he attempts to escape. The video is dubbed with the studio track from the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album.
An alternate video, which features the band simply playing on a stage, was also filmed which is available in the Backtracks box set.
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Lyrics
There was a friend of mine on murder
And the judge's gavel fell.
Jury found him guilty
Gave him sixteen years in hell.
''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
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
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.
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.
