Tom: D
D C G Bb D
[Verse]
D G D
His Daddy was a simple man, just a red dirt Georgia farmer,
A
His Momma spent her shorter life, havin' kids and balin' hay.
D G D
He had fifteen years, and an ache inside to wander,
A
So he hopped a freight in Waycross, and wound up in L.A.
[Verse]
D G D
Cold nights had no pity, for a Waycross, Georgia farm boy,
A
So most days he went hungry, then the summer came.
D A D
And he met a girl known on the strip, as 'Francisco's Mabel Joy,
C A
Destitutions child, born of an L.A. street called Shame.
[Verse]
D G D
So growin' up came quietly, in the arms of Mabel Joy,
A
Laughter found their mornings, brought meaning to his life.
D G D
The night before she left, sleep came and left that Waycross, country boy,
C A
With dreams of Georgia cotton and a, California wife.
[Refrain]
G D
Sunday morning found him standin' 'neath the red light at her door,
A
When a right cross sent him reelin', put him face down on the floor.
G D
In the place of Mabel Joy, he found a merchant mad marine,
C A
Who growled, "Your Georgia neck is red but, sonny, you're still green".
[Verse]
D G D
He turned twenty-one, in a gray rock fed'ral prison,
A
That old judge had no mercy for a, Waycross Georgia boy.
D G D
Starin' at those four gray walls, in silence he would listen,
C A
To that midnight freight he knew would take him, back to Mabel Joy.
[End Refrain]
G D
Mornin' found him standin' 'neath the red light at her door,
C A
With a bullet in his side, he cried, "Have you seen Mabel Joy?"
G D
Stunned and shaken someone said, "Why, she's not here no more,
C A
She left this house four years today, they say she's lookin' for,
D D D D
Some Georgia farm boy."
