San Francisco Mabel Joy Lyrics - Kenny Rogers

His daddy was an honest man, red dirt Georgia farmer 

His mamma lived her short life having kids and baling hay 

He had fifteen years, an ache inside to wander 

He hopped a freight in Waycross, wound up in L.A. 

Lord the cold nights had no pity on a Waycross Georgia farmboy 

Most days he went hungry, then the summer came 

He met a girl known on the strip as San Francisco's Mabel Joy 

Destitutions child born of an L.A. street called shame 

Growing up came quietly in the arms of Mabel Joy 

Laughter found their mornings, brought a meaning to his life 

Yes, 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 of her door 

When a right cross sent him reeling, put him face down on the floor 

In place of Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad merine, he growled that Georgia neck is red, but sonny your still green 

He turned twenty-one in a gray rock federal prison 

The old judge had no mercy for a Waycross Georgia boy 

Starin' at those four gray, in silence he would listen 

That midnight freight he knew would take him back to Mabel Joy 

Sunday morning found him lyin' 'neath the red light of her door 

With a bullet in his side he cried have you seen Mabel Joy 

Stunned and shaken someone said she's not here no more 

She left this house four years today 

They say she's looking for some Georgia farm boy 

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