Words and music by James Branam
All instruments and vocals performed by James Branam
Studio Version
Lyrics
A man walked into a pawnshop and said, ‘This watch I’d like to sell.
You see I need the money, as I don’t get round so well.
It’s been in my family for a hundred years, it was my father’s father’s pride
It doesn’t keep perfect time, to the minute, but it’s beauty can’t be denied.’
REFRAIN:
Some things just don’t have a price
You can try to price them but it doesn’t seem all right
Like a memory, like a sunset, like love
There’s a woman, she works the streets about a mile from here, selling what she thinks is love
To lonely men in convertibles, she says she’s had enough
She says she’s saving for her education, in just another year, maybe three
She says, she’d like to settle down some day and raise a family.
REFRAIN
There’s a girl in a corner crying out into the night
Her dreams are shattered and her hope’s run out, she thinks she’d like to try suicide
But there’s no-one there to hear her scream, just a homeless man and a prostitute
They run to her and they comfort her, because they, too, have nothing left to lose
REFRAIN
It’s getting late and the man decides to run back to his cardboard box under the bridge
He looks down at his arm to check the time then he sees that his grandfather’s watch is no longer on his wrist
He asks the woman if she’s got the time and then she reaches into her pocket and she pulls out the watch that was his father’s father’s pride
She said it was given to her by a man who needed some love but couldn’t pay the price
REFRAIN
Like a family, like a good friend, like love