The Randall Knife
By Guy Clark
Written by Guy Clark
Album: Better Days (1983)
Tabbed by Larry Mofle
5/29/2016

Intro chords:
D  Em  A  D  A
D  Em  A  D  A

D                              Em
My father had a Randall knife, my mother gave it to him
A                           G                D    
When he went off to WWII to save us all from ruin
D                                        Em
Now if you've ever held a Randall knife, you know my father well
A                                                G            D
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 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

And 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 and not because he didn't try
I'd cried for every lesser thing, for 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
And 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