So many mouths
To feed on the farm.
Sonny was the second
To the last one born.
His mamma ran away
And his daddy beat him bad.
He grew up wild.
Good love he never had.

He had a left
Like Henry's hammer.
A right like Betty Bamalam.
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread.
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead.

Well he hung with the hoods,
He wouldn't stroke the fans.
But he had dynamite
In both his hands.
Boom bam
Like the slammer door.
The bell and the can
And the bodies on the floor.

Beware the Bear's in town.
Somebody's money says
The Bear's going down.
Yeah, the Bear never smiles.
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles.
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles.

The writers didn't like him,
Nor the fight game jocks.
With his lowlife backers
And his hands like rocks.
They didn't want to have
A bogey man.
They didn't like him
And he didn't like them.

Black Cadillac,
Alligator boots,
Money in the pockets
Of his sharkskin suits.
Some say the Bear
Took a flop.
They couldn't believe it
When they saw him drop.

He had a left
Like Henry's hammer.
A right like Betty Bamalam.
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread.
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead.

Joe Louis was his hero.
He tried to be the same.
But a criminal child
Wears a ball and chain.
So the civil rights people
Didn't want him on the throne.
And the hacks and the cops
Wouldn't leave him alone.

Beware, the Bear's in town.
Somebody's money says
The Bear's going down.
Yeah, the Bear never smiles.
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles.
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles.

At the foot of his bed
With his feet on the floor.
There was dope in his veins
And a pistol on the drawer.
There was no investigation
As such.
He hated needles
But he knew too much.

Criss-crossed
On his back.
Scars from his daddy
Like slavery tracks.
The second-last child
Was the second-last king.
Never again was it the same
In the ring.

He had a left
Like Henry's hammer.
A right like Betty Bamalam.
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread.
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead.

They never could be sure
About the day he was born.
A motherless child
Set to working on the farm.
And they never could be sure
About the day he died.
The Bear was the king
They cast aside.

Beware the Bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The Bear's going down.
Yeah, the Bear never smiles.
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles.