Everybody wants to take and nobody likes giving
I wish I’s back in Memphis, back home with my Mama
The only clothes I got left that ain't rags is my pajamas
No brotherly love, and no help, and no danger
Just a great big town full of cold hearted strangers
I went hungry in New York; Chicago was no better
But today, my dear mother wrote and told me in a letter
Said, “Come on back to Memphis and live here with your Mama.
You can walk down Beale Street, honey, wearing your pajamas.
You know folks down here, they let you do just what you want to,
And I born you and raised you right here on the corner.”
I'm going to get up in the morning, goin’ to the bus station
I've got just enough money to reach my destination
I'm going back to Memphis, back home with my Mama
I’m gonna ride that bus barefooted in pajamas
Back home in Memphis, no moaning and a-groaning
I know everything will be all right in the morning