# What \*exactly\* was Elvis singing about in "Jailhouse Rock"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-was-elvis-singing-about-in-jailhouse-rock/124150>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 16, 2002, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-was-elvis-singing-about-in-jailhouse-rock/124150 "2002-08-16T04:25:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-was-elvis-singing-about-in-jailhouse-rock/124150/21 "2002-08-18T18:51:19Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by grendel72 \*  
> \*\*Elvis was cool no matter how the lyrics are interpreted, it just sounds to me like the songwriters tried to slip a little subversive content in. The Deck Us All With Boston Charlie song from Pogo was supposedly based on prison slang according to a Pogo book I can’t find right now (it reprinted the McCarthy parody strips if anyone can help)- the line “Nora’s sleepin on the trolley” in that song supposedly refers to the same thing. That was done in the 50s, I don’t see why Leiber and Stoler couldn’t have done the same thing. \*\*

That would be _The Pogo Papers_ (by Walt Kelly, in case anybody doesn’t know), copyright 1952/1953. The copy I have is from the first printing, and was disintegrating when I got it many years ago. I don’t see any explanation of the lyrics there, but it might be missing from my copy, or have been added in the editions that Simon and Schuster released in the 1970s.

“Here, good folk, is a fine cheap book for the burning. ($1.00)”

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-was-elvis-singing-about-in-jailhouse-rock/124150/22 "2002-08-20T14:17:33Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Joe K \*  
> \*\*[slight hijack] Funny how you don’t seem to see women in jail on television (I mean women in a county jail, NOT prison 😃 ). \*\*

I guess the holding cell on “Barney Miller” doesn’t count.

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**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2002, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-was-elvis-singing-about-in-jailhouse-rock/124150/23 "2002-08-20T19:55:42Z")

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Wait, i forgot “Barney Miller”…I stand corrected…Whew…

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