text: Come to the door Ma, and unlock the chain
  I was just passin through and got caught in the rain
  Theres nothing I want, nothin that you need say
  Just let me lie down for a while and Ill be on my way?
  I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen
  With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans
  I fought in the dockyards and with the money I made
  I knew the fight was my home and blood was my trade
  Baton Rouge, Poncitoula, and Lafayette town
  Well they paid me their money Ma I knocked the men down
  I did what I did well it come easily
  Restraint and mercy Ma were always strangers to me
  I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud
  Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood
  In the twelfth I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw
  I stood over him and pounded his bloody body into the floor
  Well the bell rang and rang and still I kept on
  Till I felt my glove leather slip tween his skin and bone
  Then the women and the money came fast and the days I lost track
  The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black
  I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets
  I took my good share Ma, I have no regrets
  Then I took the fix at the state armory with big John McDowell
  From high in the rafters I watched myself fall
  As he raised his arm my stomach twisted and the sky it went black
  I stuffed my bag with their good money and I never looked back
  Understand, in the end Ma every man plays the game
  If you know me one different then speak out his name
  Ma if my voice now you dont recognize
  Then just open the door and look into your dark eyes
  I ask of you nothin, not a kiss not a smile
  Just open the door and let me lie down for a while
  Now the gray rains fallin and my ring fightins done
  So in the work fields and alleys I take all wholl come
  If youre a better man than me then just step to the line
  Now theres nothin I want Ma nothin that you need say
  Just let me lie down for a while and Ill be on my way
  Tonight in the shipyard a man draws a circle in the dirt
  I move to the center and I take off my shirt
  I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain
  Man, nor the time can erase
  I move hard to the left and I strike to the face