Lyr ADD The Randall Knife (Guy Clark)

24 Jun 99 - 01:09 AM (#89265)
Subject: Need Guy Clark Lyrics
From: [e-mail]

I've looked every hwere for the lyrics to a Guy Clark Clark song called "The Randall Knife" or "Randall Knife." Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, [e-mail]

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24 Jun 99 - 01:54 AM (#89272)
Subject: RE: Need Guy Clark Lyrics
From: Barbara

This was posted in a thread recently (last few months) but isn't in the subject line. The topic was something like Best ghost stories, or favorite songs, someone posted this and another Guy Clark song together.
Anyone remember or have it marked?
Blessings,
Barbara

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24 Jun 99 - 03:41 AM (#89291)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE RANDALL KNIFE (Guy Clark)
From: darkriver

Wow! I actually get to contribute something--finally.

From the G.C. album Better Days:
THE RANDALL KNIFE

My father had a Randall knife
My mother gave it to him
When he went off to WWII
To save us all from ruin
If you've ever held a Randall knife
Then you know my father well
If a better blade was ever made
It was probably forged in hell

My father was a good man
A lawyer by his trade
And only once did I ever see
Him misuse the blade
It almost cut his thumb off
When he took it for a tool
The knife was made for darker things
And you could not bend the rules

He let me take it camping once
On a Boy Scout jamboree
And I broke a half an inch off
Trying to stick it in a tree
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
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
And threw the roses in the wake
Of everything we'd learned
When we got back to the house
They asked me what I wanted
Not the lawbooks not the watch
I need the things he's haunted
My hand burned for the Randall knife
There in the bottom drawer
And I found a tear for my father's life
And all that it stood for

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24 Jun 99 - 04:31 AM (#89298)
Subject: RE: Need Guy Clark Lyrics
From: darkriver

I forgot to add (before I pressed the

Submit Message

button) that I got the lyrics from this excellent Guy Clark website: click here .

Doug aka darkriver®

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24 Jun 99 - 06:55 AM (#89311)
Subject: RE: Need Guy Clark Lyrics
From: Tiger

When Guy does Randall Knife in his shows, he unplugs his guitar and moves to the front of the stage to get closer to the audience. Then, with his backup men silent, he plays this to an absolutely hushed house.

If it doesn't raise the hair on your neck, there's something wrong with you.

....Tiger

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24 Jun 99 - 07:50 AM (#89312)
Subject: RE: Need Guy Clark Lyrics
From: Roger in Baltimore

I can't do this song without crying, so I've never performed it. Guy has a way with the male instincts that is not just Texas macho. I cried when I heard "Let Him Roll" the first time and it wasn't even Guy singing it. In fact, it was before I knew about Guy Clark.

I, too, saw Guy in concert and he did do "The Randall Knife" (although he stuck with the sound reinforcement system). Later I asked him to sing "Let Him Roll" and he said, "One wrist-splitter a night is enough."

Oh, and Barbara, I posted "The Randall Knife" in the Happy Father's Day thread.

Roger in Baltimore

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26 Jul 20 - 06:01 PM (#4065999)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Randall Knife (Guy Clark)
From: Joe Offer

Anything to be corrected here?

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