“30 Days in the Hole” by Humble Pie

"30 Days in the Hole" came off Smokin', Humble Pie's fifth album, late in 1972, and it's Steve Marriott at full holler: the guitarist and singer wrote it on his own, and his swagger is stamped on every bar. The subject is a drug bust, a rueful roll call of the small stashes that can land a man inside, from cocaine and Durban poison to Red Lebanese and Black Nepalese hash, plus a sly nod to heroin that plenty of listeners mistook for a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale.

As a single it scraped only a little airplay and never charted, with "Sweet Peace and Time" on the American flip. It found its real audience later on album rock and classic rock radio, where it became one of the band's best-known songs. Clem Clempson, the band's other guitarist, has named it among the tracks he'd most like to be remembered for.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.