Mark Knopfler - Song for Sonny Liston - Live From Shangri-La Studios lyrics

So many mouths to feed on the farm
And Sonny was the second to the last one born
His mamma ran away and his daddy beat him bad
And he grew up wild, good love he never had

He had a left like Henry's hammer
A right like Betty Bamalam
Rode with the muggers in the dark and dread
And all them sluggers went down like lead
Oh yeah

Well he hung with the hoods
He wouldn't stroke the fans
But he had dynamite in both his hands
Boom, bam, like the slammer door
The bell and the can and
The bodies on the floor
Beware, the Bear's in town
Somebody's money says the Bear's going down
Yeah, the Bear never smiles
Sonny's going down for miles and miles
Sonny's going down for miles and miles
Oh yeah

The writers didn't like him
The fight game jocks
With his lowlife backers and
His hands like rocks
They didn't want to have a bogeyman
They didn't like him and he didn't like them
Black Cadillac, Alligator boots
Money in the pockets of his shark skin suit
Some say the Bear took a flop
They couldn't believe it when
They saw him drop

He had a left like Henry's hammer
A right like Betty Bamalam
Rode with the muggers in the dark and dread
And all them sluggers went down like lead
Oh yeah

Joe Louis was his hero
He tried to be the same
But a criminal child wears a ball and chain
And the civil rights people didn't
Want him on his throne
And the hacks and the cops
Wouldn't leave him alone
Beware, the Bear's in town
Somebody's money says the Bear's going down
Yeah, the Bear never smiles
Sonny's going down for miles and miles
Sonny's going down for miles and miles
Oh yeah

At the foot of his bed with
His feet on the floor
His dope in his veins and
A pistol on the drawer
One known investigation as such
He hated needles but he knew too much
Crisscrossed on his back
Scars from his daddy like slavery tracks
The second last child was
The second last King
Never again was it the same in the ring

He had a left like Henry's hammer
A right like Betty Bamalam
Rode with the muggers in the dark and dread
And all them sluggers went down like lead
Oh yeah

Well they never could be sure about
The day he was born
A motherless child set to working on the farm
And they never could be sure
About the day he died
The Bear was the King, they cast aside
Beware, the Bear's in town
Somebody's money says the Bear's going down
Yeah, the Bear never smiles
Sonny's going down for miles and miles
Sonny's going down for miles and miles
Oh yeah