Bruce Springsteen – The Hitter (Guitar)

Key
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Chords

3/4 | G / / | G / / | G / /| G / / |
G                               C        G
Come to the door, Ma, and unlock the chain

                                                  C
I was just passin' through and got caught in the rain

                                               G
There's nothin' I want, nothin' that you need say

                                          D         G
Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way

           G                                    C        G 
I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen

                                             C
With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans

                                                G
I fought in the dockyards and with the money I made

                                  D             G
I knew the fight was my home and blood was my trade

G                            C         G
Baton Rouge, Poncitoula, and Lafayette town

                                                      C
Well they paid me their money, Ma, I knocked the men down

                                   G
I did what I did well it come easily

                                         D         G |
Restraint and mercy, Ma, were always strangers to me
HARP SOLO | G | G | G | C |C | Em | Em | G | C | C | C | G | G | G | G
          G                          C             G
I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud

                                                               C
Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood

                                                   G
In the twelfth I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw

                                                        C
I stood over him and pounded his bloody body into the floor

                                              G
Well the bell rang and rang and still I kept on

                                       D                G
'Till I felt my glove leather slip 'tween his skin and bone

          G                                    C           G
Then the women and the money came fast and the days I lost track

                                                       C
The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black

                                                            G
I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets

                             D           G
I took my good share, Ma, I have no regrets

                 G                           C          G
Then I took the fix at the state armory with big John McDowell

                                          C
From high in the rafters I watched myself fall

                                                            G 
As he raised his arm my stomach twisted and the sky it went black

                                              D             G
I stuffed my bag with their good money and I never looked back

      C                                          G
Understand, in the end, Ma, every man plays the game

                                   D              G
If you know me one different then speak out his name

 C
Ma if my voice now you don't recognize

            G                      D              G
Then just open the door and look into your dark eyes

   C
I ask of you nothin', not a kiss not a smile, 

      G                            D           G
Just open the door and let me lie down for a while

         G                              C         G
Now the gray rain's fallin' and my ring fightin's done

                                                    C
So in the work fields and alleys I take all who'll come

                                                      G
If you're a better man than me then just step to the line

                                       C
Show me your money and speak out your crime

                                                       G
Now there's nothin' I want, Ma, nothin' that you need say

                                          D         G
Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way

     G
Tonight in the shipyard a man draws a circle in the dirt

                                        C
I move to the center and I take off my shirt

                                                                  G
I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain, Man, nor time can erase

                              D            C    G
I move hard to the left and I strike to the face