50 Best Rock Songs About the Law

Rock Tracks That Tangle With Rules and Rebellion

There’s a certain mood that comes with songs tangled up in law and order. It’s not clean-cut or righteous, it’s messy, full of noise and impulse. You hear a riff that sounds like someone kicking open a courthouse door, or a lyric that feels half confession, half protest. The guitars sound like paperwork catching fire, the drums like an argument that won’t quit. Some of these tracks spill out of that space where authority meets frustration, the same way pop, rock, country, and R&B songs sometimes collide around the same idea. Not every one of them takes the law head-on, but they circle it, poke at it, twist it until it means something else entirely.

It’s that tension that gives them weight. The push-and-pull between order and chaos, between the rulebook and the people who light it up. You can feel the sneer in early punk records that sound like they were recorded in a back alley, or the slow grind of a Southern rock track that’s tired of running. Some songs lean into the fantasy of outlaws and fugitives, others sound like courtroom monologues that no one asked for. Even when they drift away from the literal theme, the attitude stays—defiant, tired, sometimes funny in the way truth slips out mid-rant.

These are the tracks that keep one boot in rebellion and the other in reality. The kind that could soundtrack a bar fight, a protest, or a slow drive past flashing lights. Some are old, some came out last year, all carrying that pulse that won’t settle down. Here are the best rock songs tied to the law that deserve a spot in your playlist.

1. 'Hurricane' by Bob Dylan

2. 'I Fought the Law' by The Clash

3. 'Jailhouse Rock' by Elvis Presley

4. 'I Shot the Sheriff' by Eric Clapton

5. 'Breaking the Law' by Judas Priest

6. 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll' by Bob Dylan

7. 'Lawyers in Love' by Jackson Browne

8. 'Lawyers Guns and Money' by Warren Zevon

9. 'Jailbreak' by AC/DC

10. 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash

11. 'Police Story' by Black Flag

12. 'Chain Gang' by Sam Cooke

13. 'The Mercy Seat' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

14. 'Bankrobber' by The Clash

15. 'Desperado' by Eagles

16. 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads

17. 'Prison Song' by System of a Down

18. 'Wanted Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi

19. 'The Midnight Special' by Creedence Clearwater Revival

20. 'Smuggler's Blues' by Glenn Frey

21. 'Hey Joe' by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

22. 'Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress' by The Hollies

23. 'Criminal' by Fiona Apple

24. 'A Singer Must Die' by Leonard Cohen

25. 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' by AC/DC

26. 'Down by the River' by Neil Young

27. 'The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde' by Georgie Fame

28. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' by The Beatles

29. 'Long Black Veil' by The Band

30. 'The Night Chicago Died' by Paper Lace

31. 'State Trooper' by Bruce Springsteen

32. 'Jenny Was a Friend of Mine' by The Killers

33. 'Billy the Kid' by Charlie Daniels Band

34. 'The Curse of Millhaven' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

35. 'Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero Pt 1)' by Neil Young

36. 'Pretty Boy Floyd' by Woody Guthrie

37. 'Cop Killer' by Body Count

38. 'Run for Your Life' by The Beatles

39. '213' by Slayer

40. 'Delia's Gone' by Johnny Cash

41. 'Slam' by Pendulum

42. 'Will Your Lawyer Talk to God' by Kitty Wells

43. 'I’m Just a Bill' by Schoolhouse Rock

44. 'I Stand Accused' by The Merseybeats

45. 'The Judge' by Twenty One Pilots

46. 'Testify' by Rage Against the Machine

47. 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones

48. 'The Visitors (Crackin' Up)' by ABBA

49. 'Criminal World' by David Bowie

50. 'I Shall Be Released' by Bob Dylan