Joan Baez - San Francisco Mabel Joy lyrics

Lord his Daddy was an honest man
Just a red dirt Georgia farmer
And his momma lived her short life
Having kids and baling hay
He had fifteen years and he
Ached inside to wander
So he jumped a freight at Waycross
And wound up in LA

The cold nights had no pity on that Waycross
Georgia farm boy most days he went hungry
And then the summer came
He met a girl known on the
Strip as San Francisco's Mabel Joy
Destitution's child
Born of an LA street called "Shame"

Growing up came quietly in the
Arms of Mabel Joy
Laughter found their mornings brought a
Meaning to his life
And the night before she left
Sleep came and left thatWaycross
Country boy with dreams of Georgia cotton
And a California wife
Sunday morning found him standing 'neath the
Red light at her door
When a right cross sent him reeling
Put him face down on the floor
And in place of his Mabel Joy
He found a merchant mad marine who growled
"Your Georgia neck is red but
Sonny you're still green"

He turned twenty-one in a
Grey rock federal prison
The old judge had no mercy on that Waycross
Georgia boy
Staring at those four grey walls
In silence he would listen
To the midnight freight he knew would
Take him back to Mabel Joy

Sunday morning found him lying 'neath the
Red light at her door
With a bullet in his side
He cried "Have you seen Mabel Joy!"
Stunned and shaken someone said "Son
She don't live here no more
She left this house four years today
They say she's looking for
Some Georgia farm boy