Lyrics Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

Old Doc Brown

He was just an old country doctor

In a little country town

Fame and fortune had passed him by

Though we never saw him frown

As day by day in his kindly way

He'd serve us one and all

Many a patient forgot to pay

Although Doc's fees were small

Though he needed his dimes and there were

Times that he'd receive a fee

He'd pass it onto some poor soul

That needed it worse than he

He had to sell his furniture

Couldn't pay his office rent

So to a dusty room over a livery stable

Doc Brown and his satchel went

And on the hitchin' post at the kerb below

To advertise his wares

He nailed a little sign that read

"Doc Brown has moved upstairs"

And one day he didn't answer

When they knocked upon his door

Old Doc Brown was layin' down

But his soul was no more

They found him there in that old black suit

On his face was a smile of content

But all the money they could find on him

Was a quarter and a copper cent

So they opened up his ledger

And what they saw gave their hearts a pull

Beside each debtor's name old Doc

Had write these words, "Paid in full"

Old Doc should had

A funeral fine enough for a king

It's a ghastly joke our town was broke

And no one could give a thing

'Cept Jones an undertaker

He did mighty well

Donated an old iron casket

He had never been able to sell

And the funeral procession

It wasn't much for grace and pomp and the style

But those wagon loads of mourners

They stretched out for more than a mile

We wanted to give him a monument

We kinda figured we owed him one

'Cause he made our town a better place

For all the good he'd done

We pulled up that old hitchin' post

Where Doc had nailed a sign

We'd painted it white and to all of us

It certainly did look fine

Now the rains and the snows

Have washed away our white trimmin's of paint

There ain't nothin' left but Doc's own sign

And that's gettin' pretty faint

But you can still see that old hitchin' post

As if in answer to our prayers

Mutually tellin' the whole wide world

Doc Brown has moved upstairs