Mickey Newbury - "San Francisco Mable Joy" lyrics

San Francisco Mabel Joy

Lord his Daddy was an honest man
Just a red dirt Georgia farmer
His Momma lived a short life
Havin' kids and bailin' hay

He had fifteen years
And he ached inside to wander
He jumped a freight in Waycross
Wound up in L.A.

The cold nights had no pity
On that Waycross Georgia farm boy
Most days he went hungry
Then the summer came

He met a girl known on the strip
As San Franciscos Mabel Joy
Destitutions child
Born of an L.A. street called shame

Growing up came quietly
In the arms of Mable Joy
Laughter found their mornings
It brought a meaning to his life

Lord on the night before she left
Sleep came and left that Waycross country boy
With dreams of Georgia cotton
And a California wife

Sunday morning found him standing
'Neath the red light at her door
Right cross sent him reeling
Put him face down on the floor

In place of his Mable Joy
He found a Merchant mad Marine
Who growled, "Your Georgia neck is red
But Sonny, you're still green"

He turned 21, in a grey rock
Federal Prison
The ole Judge had no mercy
On that Waycross Georgia boy

Staring at those four grey walls
In silence Lord, he'd just listen
To that midnight freight
He knew could take him back
To Mabel Joy

Sunday mornin' 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 shes lookin' for
Some Georgia Farm Boy".