I was born and raised the only son of a lawyer   till I was approximately the age of four or perhaps five   I lost both my mother and my father   Killed in a fire way up on the fourteenth floor   Struck down by the time I was ten by an illness    which robbed me of the sight of the morning sun   And that ain't all      A homeless child for the next five years   with my dog Clown by my side and my only friend    Yeah, yeah, yeah.   I fought my way through school   Sound and touch the thing on which I could depend   And you know what the, the, the kids    down my street weren't too playful   And right then it seemed like the whole world picked on me   And ah yeah      I worked my fingers to the bone   Stretchin' hide for a boot man in Jersey Town   But then, but then I lost the last thing I had   When fate reared its ugly head and took my dog Clown   I wandered way up north found a girl that loved like a woman   Sixteen years old and felt like a woman    But, but, but, but, but what I'm trying to say is    God please don't take her away from me      I lost everything that I ever had    you kicked my name into the dirt   Tread my name into the dirt yeah      I lost everything that I ever had    you kicked my name into the dirt   What could I do       I never knew how much love could hurt me   But it never ever come my way before   No, no, no, no, no    I never knew how much love could hurt me   Good God it ain't never come my way before   Oh but, but you know what I'm trying to say   really what I'm trying to say is   God please don't take her away from me      Ah turn it down      I lost everything that I ever had    you kicked my name into the dirt      You got a lotta lotta lost everything    that I ever had ever had