in the red clay georgia hills among the busted whiskey stills lies a wretched school with barb wire stranded high where boys of every age spend their life inside a cage and they never even learn the reason why as the twilight meets the dawn the iron bar jailhouse doors are drawn and the sound of tin cups clangin s in the air but johnny strozier stays behind in his dungeon cell confined unconditional twenty four hour solitar has anybody got an hour of your precious time to spare or will you hide your face pretending that it ain t your place to care are we really all so cruel i guess only time will tell for a georgia boy who s locked up in a lonesome alto cell well he ain t never used a gun and he ain t never hurt no one as he stares out through the cold steel prison bars the life inside his eyes is more empty than the skies when they re drained of all the heavens and the stars now he d like to learn to read out of your pretty books and things but the warden cannot possibly allow for such things to take their place in the facts of johnny s case so nobody s even tried to teach him how has anybody got an hour sure he s taken from your store and yes he s broken through your door so you bound him with your shackle and your chain and you expect this boy to pay forever and a day so what right my friend do you have to complain there s a wealthy man a struttin down that crowded street so fine who makes his money stealin from the helpless and the blind but for a boy whose only crime was bein born without a dime it s forty years inside that prison maybe even a whole lifetime has anybody got an hour 