Friday, August 29, 2025

"Riot in Cell Block No. 9"

A couple days ago, I was thinking about songs that deal with prison and realized that to some degree, the regularity of a recurring rhyme scheme represents the constraining nature of a prison itself.  This is true of the Beach Boys' version of "Riot in Cell Block No. 9" (recorded during the sessions for Beach Boys' Party!).  Although the lyrics recount a riot, the verses have a uniform poetic structure (AABB), demonstrating a sort of captivity.  The narrator is bound by this form.  Of course, the last verse departs from this (with just AA), but - as I wrote last month - this shortening also illustrates a type of constraint.