How the years have gone
It's come to this
A rose on his lapel, in the open coffin I'd give him a kiss


I have to go up north to play at his funeral
And his wife is there

In some chapel she's picked out
And there's not even an organ
I have to play on some broken upright piano


Listen to these low notes


What a joke
And you have to park and you couldn't even hear the ceremony in the cemetery
because the noise from the traffic and construction is so terrible


And I stood there in the slush
And I walked along, very slowly

To the tree by the turn
And I went in front of my mother and father and sister and husband's graves
And looked over to the sun setting to the right


Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock
And I thought of myself

And I thought of them
In the cold hard ground


You still can't believe
You still can't believe


I didn't believe it then
And I don't believe it now
I didn't believe it then

And I don't believe it now
I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now
But there it is


Listen to this tune I'm playing for you now, kids
Does it seem sad

Does it remind you of when

Shady grave

Come the summer it will be
Shady grave
Come the summer it will be


Well I can hear the cars just
A hundred feet behind

And I smell the rock salt in the air
And I know in my bones it isn't fair


And the sun sets in the sleet to the side