Come to the Ma, and unlock the chain I was passin through, I got caught in the rain Theres I want, nothin that you need say Just let me lay for a while and Ill be on my way
I was no more than a kid, you put me on. the Southern Queen the police on my back, I fled all the way down to New Orleans I in the dockyards, and with the money I made I knew the fight was my home, and blood was my
Baton Rouge, Ponchitoula, and town Well, they paid me money Ma, and I knocked the men down I did I did, well it came easily and mercy Ma were always strangers to me
I fought champion Thompson, in a field full of mud The rain poured the canvas tent,and mixed with our blood In the twelfth I slipped my tongue, my broken jaw and I stood over him, I his bloody body, right the floor Well the bell and rang, and still I kept on and on and on Till I felt my glove leather, slip his skin and bone
Then the women and the money came and the days I lost track The women red, the green, but the numbers were black I fought for the men in their silk suits, to lay down bets I my good share Ma, ya see I, I have no regrets
Then I took the fix at the state armory, big John McDowell oh, From high in the rafters, I myself fall As they raised his arm my stomach twisted. and the sky it went I stuffed my bag with their good ma, and I never looked back
So understand, in the end Ma, every man the game If you know me one different, then speak out his Ma, if my voice now, now you recognize Then just open the door, and look your dark eyes I ask of you nothin, not a kiss, not a smile, Just open the and let me lay down for a while
Now the gray is fallin, my ring fightins done So in the work fields and alleys,ya see I, I all who come If youre a better man me, then come on, and step up to the line, step to the line Show me your , and speak out your crime
Now theres nothin I want Ma, nothin you need say let me lay down for a while and Ill be on my way
Tonight in a shipyard, a man a circle in the dirt I to the center, and I take off my shirt I him for the cuts, the scars, the pain, Man no time can I move hard to the left, and I to the face