Lyrics Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard

Old Doc Brown

Let me tell you bout a song called Doc Brown

And it needs no introduction

He was just an old country doctor in a little Kentucky 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 more than he

He had to sell his furniture cause he 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

Then 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 just a quarter and a copper cent

So they opened up his ledger and what they saw gave their hearts a pull

For beside each debtor's name old Doc had write these words Paid In Full

Old Doc should had a funeral fine enough for king

It was a ghastly joke our town was broke and no one could give a thing

Ah cept to ole Curly Jones an undertaker he did mighty well

Donated an old iron casket he had never been able to sell

And that funeral procession well it wadn'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

So we pulled up that old hitchin' post where Doc had nailed a sign

We 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' kinda 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