Written by Humble Pie lead singer Steve Marriott, this song is about getting busted for drugs and getting sent to jail. Marriott got the idea after playing a show in Kentucky, where he learned that getting caught with drugs earned you 30 days in jail. He was also thinking about a friend of the band's who had been sent to jail for having a joint.
Marriott was making the point that drugs were a part of culture (just as alcohol was a generation earlier) and there was nothing wrong with it. In many ways, the song is a call for legalization.
Marriott has said that inspiration for the title came from a Humphrey Bogart/James Cagney movie he saw on TV, where Bogart plays a prisoner who gets sent to "30 days in the hole."
Marriott may have been referring to the 1938 movie Angels With Dirty Faces, although that line is never uttered in the film. It's also possible that the film was Somebody Up There Likes Me, a 1956 movie where Paul Newman is threatened with the "30 days in the hole."
All right all right all right all right, yeah
Chicago Green, talkin' 'bout Black Lebanese
A dirty room and a silver coke spoon
Give me my release, come on
Black Nepalese, it's got you weak in your knees
Sneeze some dust that you got buzzed on
You know it's hard to believe
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
That's what they give you
30 days in the hole
I know
Newcastle Brown, I'm tellin' you, it can sure smack you down
Take a greasy whore and a rollin' dance floor
It's got your head spinnin' round
If you live on the road, well there's a new highway code
You take the urban noise with some dirt with poison
It's gonna lessen your load
30 days in the hole
That's what they give you now
30 days in the hole
Oh, yeah
30 days in the hole
All right, all right
30 days in the hole
What you doin' boy?
You here for 30 days
Get, get, get your long hair cut
And cut out your ways
Black Nepalese, it got you weak in your knees
Gonna sneeze some dust that you got busted on
You know it's so hard to please
Newcastle Brown can sure smack you down
You take a greasy whore and a rollin' dance floor
You know you're jailhouse-bound
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
Oh, yeah
30 days in the hole
30 days, 30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
Songwriters: Steve Marriott
30 Days in the Hole lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group