His mama was a midnight woman His daddy was a drifter drummer One night they put it together Nine months later came the little black bummer He was a laid back lump in the cradle Chewing the paint chips that fell from the ceiling Whenever he cried he got a fist in his face So he learned not to show his feelings He was a pig-tail puller in grammer school Left back twice by the seventh grade Sniffing glue in Junior High And the first one in school to get laid He was a weed-speed pusher at fifteen He was mainlining skag a year later He'd started pimping when they put him away In jail he changed from a junkie to a hater And just like the man from the precinct said: "Put him away, you better kill him instead. A bummer like that is better of dead Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head." They threw him back on the street, he robbed an A