Randall Knife Composer(s): Guy Clark Performer(s): Guy Clark and multiple other artists
My father had a Randall knife My mother gave it to him When he went off to World War Two To save us all from ruin
Now if you've ever held a Randall knife You know my father well If a better blade was ever made It was probably forged in hell
My father was a good man He was a lawyer by his trade And only once did I ever see Him misuse the blade
Well, it almost cut his thumb off When he took it for a tool Ah, the knife was made for darker things And you could not bend the rules
Well, he let me take it camping once On a Boy Scout jamboree I broke a half an inch off Tryin' to stick it in a tree
Well I hid it from him for a while But the knife and he were one He put it in his bottom drawer Without a hard word one
There it slept and there it stayed For twenty some odd years Sort of like Excalibur Except waiting for a tear
My father died when I was forty And I couldn't find a way to cry Not because I didn't love him Not because he didn't try
Oh, I'd cried for every lesser thing Whiskey, pain and beauty But he deserved a better tear And I was not quite ready
So we took his ashes out to sea And poured 'em off the stern Then threw the roses in the wake Of everything we'd learned
And when we got back to the house They asked me what I wanted Not the law books, not the watch I need the things haunted
My hand burned for the Randall knife There in the bottom drawer I found a tear for my father's life And all that it stood for
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