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Come to the door, Ma, and unlock the chain |
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I was just passin' through and got caught in the rain |
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There's nothin' I want, nothin' that you need say |
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Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way |
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I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen |
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With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans |
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I fought in the dockyards and with the money I made |
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I knew the fight was my home and blood was my trade |
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Baton Rouge, Ponchatoula, and Lafayette town |
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Well they paid me their money, Ma, I knocked the men down |
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I did what I did well it come easily |
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Restraint and mercy, Ma, were always strangers to me |
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I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud |
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Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood |
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In the twelfth I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw |
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I stood over him and pounded his bloody body into the floor |
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Well the bell rang and rang and still I kept on |
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'Till I felt my glove leather slip 'tween his skin and bone |
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Then the women and the money came fast and the days I lost track |
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The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black |
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I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets |
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I took my good share, Ma, I have no regrets |
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Then I took the fix at the state armory with big John McDowell |
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From high in the rafters I watched myself fall |
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As they raised his arm my stomach twisted and the sky it went black |
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I stuffed my bag with their good money and I never looked back |
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Understand, in the end, Ma, every man plays the game |
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If you know me one different then speak out his name |
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Ma, if my voice now you don't recognize |
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Then just open the door and look into your dark eyes |
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I ask of you nothin', not a kiss not a smile, |
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Just open the door and let me lie down for a while |
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Now the gray rain's fallin' and my ring fightin's done |
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So in the work fields and alleys I take all who'll come |
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If you're a better man than me then just step to the line |
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Show me your money and speak out your crime |
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Now there's nothin' I want, Ma, nothin' that you need say |
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Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way |
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Tonight in the shipyard a man draws a circle in the dirt |
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I move to the center and I take off my shirt |
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I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain, |
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Man, nor time can erase |
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I move hard to the left and I strike to the face |
