G                      C                         G
Lord His daddy was an honest man, just a red dirt Georgia farmer
        G                                                 D
And his mama lived her short life having kids and bailing hay
G                             C               G
  He had fifteen years and he ached inside to wander
      G                                D             G
So he jumped a freight in Waycross and wound up in L.A.

[Verse 2]
    G                               C                G
The cold nights had no pity on that Waycross Georgia farm boy
G                                             D
Most days he went hungry, and then the summer came
G                                   C              G
He met a girl known on the strip as San Franciscos Mabel Joy
G                               D                  G
  Destitutions child born of an L.A. street called shame

[Verse 3]
C                                             G
 Growing up came quietly in the arms of Mabel Joy
G                                                       D
Laughter found their mornings, brought a meaning to his life
        C                                                        G
And the night before she left, sleep came and left that Waycross country boy
     G                              D          G
With dreams of Georgia cotton and a California wine

[Verse 4]
       C                                                       G
Sunday morning found him standing beneath the red light at her door
       G                                    F                D
When a right cross sent him reeling put him face down on the floor
       C                                                G
And in place of his Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad marine
    G                                      F                  D
Who growled "Your Georgia neck is red, but sonny you're still green"

[Verse 5]
G                    G7     C                 G
  He turned twenty-one in a grey rock federal prison
    G                                                D
The old judge had no mercy on that Waycross country  boy
G                                   C                 G
Staring at those four grey walls in silence,he would listen
       G                                       F             D
To the midnight freight he knew could take him back to Mabel Joy

[Verse 6]
C                                                            G
  Sunday morning found him lyin' 'neath the red light at her door
       G                                  F              D
With a bullet in his side he cried, "Have you seen Mabel Joy
C                                                             G
  Stunned and shaken someone said "Son she don't live here no more.
     G                                F                        D
She left this house four years today,   they say she's looking for
             C         G
Some Georgia farm boy".