C	F	C
	His daddy was a honest	man, a red dirt Georgia	farmer

	G
His mama lived a short life having kids and bailing	hay

	C	F	C
He had	fifteen years of ache	inside to	wander

	G	C
He jumped a freight in Waycross and	wound up in	L.A.

	C	F	C
The	cold nights had no pity on that	Waycross Georgia farm	boy

	G
Most days he went hungry,then the summer	came

	C	F	C
He	met a girl known on the strip as	San Francisco Mabel	Joy

	G	C
Destitutions child born on an	L.A. street called	shame

	F	C
	Growing up came quietly in the arms of Mabel	Joy

	G
Laughter found their mornings it brought new meaning to his	life

	F	C
The	night before she left sleep came and found that Waycross country	boy

	G	C
With dreams of Georgia cotton and	California	wine

	F	C
	Sunday morning found him beneath the red light at her	door

	G
A right cross sent him reeling and put him face down on the	floor

	F	C
In	place of Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad	marine

	G
He said your Georgia neck is red, but	sonny you're still green

	C	F	C
He	turned twenty-one in	grey rock federal	prison

	G
The judge had no mercy on this Waycross,Georgia	boy

	C	F	C
	Staring at those four grey wall in	silence,Lord he	listened

	G
To the midnight freight he knew could take him	back to Mabel Joy

	F	C
	Sunday morning found him beneath the red light at her	door

	G
With a bullet in his side he cried,	have you seen Mabel Joy

	F	C
	Stunned and shaken someone said she don't live here no	more

	G
She left this house four years ago	she was looking for

	F
Some Georgia	farm boy