The Hitter

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