Old Doc Brown-Hank Snow

[ti:Old Doc Brown]
[ar:Hank Snow]
[al:The Hank Snow Anthology - 50 Classics, Vol. 3]
[by:]
[offset:0]
[00:00.00]Old Doc Brown - Hank Snow
[00:12.89]He was just an old country doctor
[00:15.03]In a little Kentucky town
[00:17.14]Fame and fortune had passed him by
[00:19.20]But we never saw him frown
[00:22.18]As day by day in his kindly way
[00:24.06]He served us one and all
[00:26.89]Many a patient forgot to pay
[00:28.27]Altho' doc's fees were small
[00:31.23]But old doc brown didn't seem to mind
[00:33.43]He didn't even send out bills
[00:36.14]His only ambition was to find
[00:37.98]It seems sure cures for aches and ills
[00:42.03]Why nearly half the folks in my home town
[00:44.16]Yes I'm one of them too
[00:46.42]Were ushered in by old doc brown
[00:48.40]When we made our first debut
[00:51.41]Tho' he needed his dimes and there were times
[00:53.83]That he'd receive a fee
[00:56.40]He'd pass it on to some poor soul
[00:58.16]That needed it worse than he
[01:01.06]But when the depression hit our town
[01:03.07]And drained each meager purse
[01:05.44]The scanty income of old doc brown
[01:07.62]Just went from bad to worse
[01:10.50]He had to sell all of his furniture
[01:12.63]Why he couldn't even pay his office rent
[01:15.52]So to a dusty room over a livery stable
[01:17.80]Doc brown and his practice went
[01:21.00]On the hitchin' post at the curb below
[01:22.89]To advertise his wares
[01:25.07]He nailed a little sign that read
[01:27.08]'Doc brown has moved upstairs'
[01:30.25]There he kept on helpin' folks get well
[01:32.53]And his heart was just pure gold
[01:35.79]But anyone with eyes could see
[01:37.61]That doc was gettin' old
[01:40.69]And then one day he didn't even answer
[01:42.56]When they knocked upon his door
[01:45.13]Old doc brown was a lyin' down
[01:47.16]But his soul was no more
[01:50.27]They found him there in an old black suit
[01:52.51]And on his face was a smile of content
[01:55.59]But all the money they could find on him
[01:57.30]Was a quarter and a copper cent
[02:00.45]So they opened up his ledger
[02:02.06]And what they saw gave their hearts a pull
[02:05.49]Beside each debtor's name
[02:06.91]Old doc had *writ these words 'Paid in full'
[02:10.80]It looked like the potter's field for doc
[02:13.53]That caused us some alarm
[02:16.00]'Til someone 'membered the family graveyard
[02:18.04]Out on the simmons farm
[02:20.54]Old doc had brought six of their kids
[02:22.51]And simmons was a grateful cuss
[02:25.68]He said doc's been like one of the family
[02:27.69]So you can let him sleep with us
[02:30.89]Old doc should have had a funeral
[02:32.78]Fine enough for a king
[02:34.43]It's a ghastly joke that our town was broke
[02:37.03]And no one could give a thing
[02:39.18]'Cept jones the undertaker
[02:40.61]He did mighty well
[02:42.16]Donatin' an old iron casket
[02:43.82]That he'd never been able to sell
[02:46.00]And the funeral procession it wasn't much
[02:48.74]For grace and pomp and style
[02:51.27]But those wagon loads of mourners
[02:52.96]They stretched out for more than a mile
[02:56.44]And we breathed a prayer as we laid him there
[02:58.59]To rest beneath the sod
[03:00.41]This man who'd earned the right
[03:01.62]To be on speaking terms with god
[03:05.12]His grave was covered with flowers
[03:06.85]But not from the floral shops
[03:09.22]Just roses and things from folks' garden
[03:11.56]And one or two dandelion pots
[03:15.00]For the depression had hit our little town hard
[03:17.24]And each man carried a load
[03:20.05]So some just picked the wildflowers
[03:21.89]As they passed along the road
[03:24.74]We wanted to give him a monument
[03:26.45]Kinda figured we owed him one
[03:28.91]'Cause he'd made our town a better place
[03:31.02]For all the good he'd done
[03:33.46]But monuments cost money
[03:34.99]So we did the best we could
[03:37.80]And on his grave we gently placed
[03:39.53]A monument of wood
[03:42.00]We pulled up that old hitchin' post
[03:43.99]Where doc had nailed his sign
[03:45.43]And we painted it white and to all of us
[03:48.29]It certainly did look fine
[03:50.64]Now the rains and snow has washed away
[03:52.74]Our white trimmings of paint
[03:54.98]And there ain't nothin' left but doc's own sign
[03:57.10]And that is gettin' faint
[04:00.03]Still when southern breezes and flickering stars
[04:02.64]Caress our sleeping town
[04:04.97]And the pale moon shines through Kentucky pines
[04:07.74]On the grave of old doc brown
[04:10.21]You can still see that old hitchin' post
[04:12.51]As if an answer to our prayers
[04:14.82]Mutely telling the whole wide world
[04:17.43]Doc brown has moved up stairs