San Francisco Mabel Joy Lyrics - Kenny Price

His daddy was a simple man just a red dirt Georgia farmer 

And his mama spent her young life havin' kids and bailin' hay 

He had fifteen years and an ache inside to wander 

So he hopped a freight in Waycross and wound up in LA 

Lord the cold nights had no pity on a 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 

Growin' up came quietly in the arms of Mabel Joy 

Laughter found the mornings brought meaning to his life 

Yes the night before she left sleep came and left that Waycross Georgia boy 

With dreams of Georgia cotton and a California wife 

Sunday morning found him standin' neath the red light at her door 

When a right cross sent him reelin' put him face down on the floor 

In place of Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad marine 

Who groaned 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 for a Waycross Georgia boy 

Starin' at those four grey walls in silnce he would listen 

To that midnight freight he knew would take him back to Mabel Joy 

Sunday morning found him lyin' 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 why son she don't live here anymore 

She left this house four years today and they say she's lookin' for 

Some Georgia farm boy