David Allan Coe – San Francisco Mabel Joy (Guitar)

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My daddy was an honest man, just a redneck Georgia farm boy

                                                       A
My momma spent her short life raisin' kids and bailin' hay

    D                  G                       D
And I was just fifteen, when I ached inside to wonder

                                        C    B       A
So I hoped a freight in Waycross, and I rode it to L.A.

D                                    G                          D
Well, I met a girl known on the strip, as San Francisco's Mabel Joy

                                                  A
Destitution's child, born on a L.A. street called Shane

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And sleep came and left, this little Waycross, Georgia country boy

                             C         B   A
Mabel Joy was gone Lord, I'd never see her again

G                                            D
Growin' up came quietly in the arms of Mabel Joy

                                                        A
Laughter found our morning's, brought new meaning to my life

G                                           D
I woke up one day, Lord, to find that I was by myself

                             A                D
With dreams of Georgia cotton, and California wine

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Sunday mornin' found me standin' 'neath the red-light of her door

                                                      A
Right cross sent me reelin', laid me face down on the floor

   G                                         D
In place of Mabel Joy I found a merchant mad marine

                                                   C      B     A
Who said, "your Georgia neck is red, but, son here you're still green."

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Well, I turned twenty-one, in Grey Rock federal prison

                                   C  B              A
The judge, he had no mercy on this Waycross, Georgia boy

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Sometimes at night, in silence Lord I'd listen

                                 A             D
That same old freight to take me back to Mabel Joy

G                                                 D
Cold nights had no pity on this Waycross, Georgia farm boy

                                                 A
Springtime turned to summer, and then the winter came

G                                                     D
Starin' at those four grey walls in silence Lord, I'd listen

                                                A
Somewhere in the distance to the whistle of the train

G                                                      D
Sunday mornin' found me standin' 'neath the red-light of her door

                                                      A
With a bullet in my side I cried "have you seen Mabel Joy

G                                                          D
Stunned and shaken someone said, "son, she don't live here no more"

                                  C             B       A
She left this town ten years ago, I heard she's lookin' for

             G         D G D      
Some Georgia farm boy.