The Hitter - Bruce Springsteen

Come to the door ma and unlock the chain

Well I was just passing through and got caught in the rain

There’s nothing that I want, nothing that you need say

Just let me lie down a while and I’ll 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

Well I fought in the dockyards for the money that I made

And the fight was my home and any blood was my trade

Baton Rouge, Ponchatoula and Lafayette town

They payed me the moon, ma, to knock the man down

Well I did what I did, yeah it come easily

For as know ma, restraint and mercy were always strangers to me

I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud

Rain poured through the tent canvas and mixed with our blood

In the twelfth, slipped my tongue over my broken jaw

And I still pounded his bloodied body into the floor

Well the bell rang and rang and still I kept on

Until I felt my glove leather slip between his skin and bone

And 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

Well I took my good share, ma, I have no regrets

I took the fixed staid hombre with big diamond don

Well from high in the rafters I watched myself fall

He raised his arms, stomach twisted, and the sky it went black

I stuffed my bag with their good money, ma, and never looked back

Understand me and my, every man plays the game

Well if you know anyone different then speak out his name

My life, my face, now you don’t recognize

Well just open the door and look into your dark eyes

I ask of you nothing, not a kiss not a smile

Just open the door and let me lie down for a while

Now the gray rain is falling and my ring fightin’s done

So in the work fields and alleys, I take them who’ll come

If you’re a better man than me then just step to the line

Show me your money and speak out your crime

There’s nothing I want, ma, nothing that you need say

Just let me lie for a while and I’ll be on my way

Well tonight in shipyard, a man draws a circle in the dirt

I move to the center and take off my shirt

I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain, man nor time can erase

I move hard to the left and I strike to the face