Rock of Les Misérables

It’s struck me this week how a good number of songs by great rockers are deeply sympathetic to the plight of the down-and-out, the beaten up, the oppressed, those suffering bad luck or systemic injustice. In particular, a number of songs have been on my mind lately that tell of the recently, currently, or hopefully not incarcerated.

So from this week’s heavy rotation (and elsewhere in my collection), a few entries from the rock of les misérables that I’ve been pondering:

• The Band — “The Shape I’m In”
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — “Don’t Pull Me Over”
• Johnny Cash — “Folsom Prison Blues”, of course, but also “Give My Love to Rose” and one of my favorites, “Man in Black”