Grandfather's Clock Lyrics
(Johnny Cash)
Way down South, down along a dusty road, there's an old ramshackle house that nobody lives in anymore. And if you walk down the hall and look, you'll see an old Grandfather's Clock that don't run anymore. It's silent now and it's covered up with spider webs. That was my Grandfather's Clock and this song is the story of that clock:
My Grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf
So it stood ninety years on the floor
It was taller by half than the old man himself
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more
It was bought on the morn' of the day that he was born
And was always his treasure and pride
But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died
And my Grandfather said, that of those he could hire
Not a servant, so faithful, he found
For it wasted no time and it had but one desire
At the close of each week to be wound
And it kept in its place not a frown upon its face
And its hands never hung by its side
But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died
Ninety years without slumbering (ticktock - ticktock)
His life second's numbering (ticktock - ticktock)
It stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died
Well, it rang an alarm in the still of the night
An alarm that for years had been dumb
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight
That his hour for departure had come
Still the clock kept the time with a soft and muffled chime
As we silently stood by his side
But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died
Ninety years without slumbering (ticktock - ticktock)
His life second's numbering (ticktock - ticktock)
It stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died
And I've been thinkin' that some day, I'm goin' down to my Grandfather's old house and I'm goin' to get that old clock and I'm goin' to shine it up and I'm goin' to oil it up good, and get it fixed up pretty and it'll keep time for me just like it did for Grandpa
