No Man Stands Alone - the Ballad of Barney Ross

CHORUS No man stands alone in the street, the ring or the combat zone some lay in the gutter some sit on a throne but no man stands alone At the age of fourteen he had a dream to become a rabbi Chicago 1924 then his dad was killed by men who tried to rob the family store his brothers and sisters were sent away to an orphanage where they would stay and though his faith was blown away he vowed to bring them home someday To God and man revenge he swore he walked with gamblers, hoods and whores he fit right in then on a whim he walked into a boxing gym he fought Canzoneri in ‘33 for the lightweight title victory he made up with God and finally he could reclaim his family Those McLarnon fights were the stuff of lore the only man to ever put him on the floor he won two out of three, then in the Armstrong bout he nearly died but was never knocked out then in 1941 the Japanese pulled a sneaky one so he joined the marines and he got a gun and he sailed into the rising sun On Guadalcanal, he fought so brave overmatched like old King Dave he put twenty attackers in an early grave for the one marine whose life he saved in a hospital bed for months and days they kept him in a morphine haze then sent him home strung out and beat to the pushers on the mean, mean street Hollywood was very keen to put his story on the silver screen but they focused on the drug abuse he tried to sue but what’s the use? Barney Ross was brave and strong they couldn’t keep him down for long his rabbi said that he must try to be a model Jew in the public eye but from the public eye he slipped like a phantom radar blip they say he hunted Nazi criminals and he ran some guns to Israel Barney Ross was brave and strong I thought that he deserved a song he did some bad he did some good and he saved the world the best he could