San Francisco Mable Joy
John Denver 

        For reasons unknown to me John Denver changed the lyrics
        somewhat from the original Mickey Newberry song

     
 Intro D

         D                            G                      D
 	 His daddy was an honest man, just a red dirt Georgia farmer
                                                                A
 	 His mother lived her short life having kids and bailing hay
        D                            G              D
 	 He had fifteen years and he ached inside to wander
                                             A          D
 	 So He jumped a freight in Waycross wound up in L.A.
Verse 2:
             D                  G                     D
 	 cold nights had no pity on a Waycross Georgia farm boy
                                           A
 	 Most days he went hungry, then the summer came
            D                                G            D       
 	 He met a girl known on the strip as San Francisco Mabel Joy
                                       A                   D
 	 Destitutions child born of an L.A. street called shame
Verse 3:
           G                                       D
 	 Growing up came easy in the arms of Mabel Joy
                                                                A
 	 Laughter found their mornings brought a meaning to his life
                 G                                                        
 	 Yes The night before she left sleep came and gave that 
                 D
        Waycross country boy
                                   A               D
 	 a dream of Georgia cotton and a California wife
Verse 4:
               G                                                      
 	 Sunday morning found him standing neath the red light at her 
         D
        door
                                                                       
 	 When A right cross sent him reeling, put him face down on the
         A
        floor
             G                                       D
 	 In place of Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad marine
 	                                              A                        
 	 Who growled your Georgia neck is red, ah but sonny you're 
                     D
        still green
Verse 5:
         D                         G                D 
 	 He turned twenty-one in a grey rock federal prison
                                                          A
 	 The old judge had no mercy for a Waycross country boy
           D                                G                                
 	 Staring at those four grey walls in silence, Lord he just 
         D
        listened
 	                                               A
 	 To the midnight freight he knew could take him back to 

        Mabel Joy
Verse 6:
                G                                                  D
 	 Sunday morning found him lying neath the red light at her door
                                             A
 	 With a bullet in his side he cried, have you seen Mabel Joy
          G                                                        D
 	 Stunned and shaken someone said why she don't live here no more
                                                  A
 	 She left this house four years today they say she’s looking for
                               D
 	 Some Georgia farm boy