My daddy was an honest man
just a red dirt Georgia farm boy
My mama spent her young life
raisin' kids and bailin' hay
Now I was just fifteen when I
ached inside to wander
So hopped a freight in Waycross and I
rode it to LA
I met a girl known on the Strip as San
Francisco's Mabel Joy
Destitution's child born on an LA
street called Shame
The sleep came and left this little
Waycross country boy
Mabel Joy was gone Lord I'd
never see her again
Growin' up came quietly in the
arms of Mabel Joy
Laughter found the mornings
brought the meaning to my life
I woke up one day Lord
finding I was by myself
With dreams of Georgia cotton
and a California wife
Lord the cold nights had no pity on a
Waycross Georgia farm boy
Most days he went hungry and
then the summer came
Sunday morning found me standin'
neath the red light at her door
Right cross sent me reelin'
put my face down on the floor
In place of my Mabel Joy he found
a merchant mad marine
Who said your Georgia neck is red but
Sonny you're still green
But I turned twenty one
in a grey rock Federal prison
The judge had no mercy for this
Waycross Georgia boy
Sometimes at night in silence
Lord I'd listen
That midnight freight to take
me back to Mabel Joy
The cold nights had no pity on this
Waycross Georgia farm boy
Springtime turned to summer
and then the winter came
Starin' at those four grey walls in
silence Lord I'd listen
Somewhere's in the distance to
the whistle of a train
Sunday morning found me lying
neath the red light at her door
With a bullet in my side I cried
have you seen Mabel Joy
Stunned and shaken someone said
son she don't live here anymore
She left this town ten years ago
I heard she's looking for
Some Georgia farm boy