Prison-Themed Top Ten: Illegal Smile (#10)

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Along with John’s suggestion of songs with prison or jail in the title I’m adding a list of songs that are explicitly or implicitly set in jail. You know me: get all the mileage you can out of a suggestion! In this case, I got five countdowns out of one suggestion! So let’s line up in cell block A with this song to get us started. #10: Illegal Smile - John Prine A moment of silence for the man. Prine said repeatedly that this song was not about the devil’s weed, but it’s so easy to understand how that could be interpreted from the lyrics (“you may see me tonight with an illegal smile, it don’t cost very much but it lasts a long while”). The thought behind the title, Prine contended, was that if you walked around with a smile on your face people assumed you were doing something illegal. I can see that: even today, if you smile at people they wonder what’s wrong with you. (Of course, with the masks they can’t see you smiling....) However, when you lose a staring contest to a bowl of oatmeal, you just might need a little wacky tobacky to make it through the day. So enjoy this classic from the late Mr. Prine...and tell the man he didn’t kill anyone! Illegal Smile Written by John Prine Recorded by John Prine From John Prine, 1971 The judge’s name was Hoffman: