My Grandfather's Clock

1876 sheet music for "Grand-Father's Clock"

"My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music.

Origin of the song

Most accounts say the song was inspired by the George Hotel, a wayfarers' inn in Piercebridge on the border of Yorkshire and County Durham. The hotel was owned and operated by two brothers called Jenkins, and in the lobby was an upright longcase clock. The clock kept perfect time until one of the brothers died, after which it lost time at an increasing rate, despite the best efforts of the hotel staff and local clockmakers to repair it. When the other brother died, the clock stopped, never to go again. It is said that in 1875 Henry Clay Work visited the hotel and based "My Grandfather's Clock" on the stories he heard there.^{[citation needed]}

Storyline

The 17th century George Hotel, Piercebridge

The song is told from the standpoint of the grandson, who tells the story of a longcase clock that his grandfather owned. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the song is responsible for the common name "grandfather clock" being applied to the longcase clock.^[1] However, the term appears as early as 1817 in Ovid's Art of love, Remedy of love, Art of beauty, and Amours, by John Dryden Ovid.^[2]

The clock was 1 1/2 times taller than his grandfather's eventual height (though the two would end up weighing the same), and was purchased on the morning of his grandfather's birth. The clock worked perfectly for ninety years without any problems (requiring only a weekly winding), though it did have one unusual "malfunction": it rang 24 times when his grandfather brought his bride (presumably the singer's grandmother) into his house.

However, in the dead of one night, the clock sounded an alarm, which the family knew meant that the grandfather would soon die. The clock, though, continued to keep the time until the grandfather's death, after which the clock suddenly stopped and never was able to be started again.

Covers and inspirations

"My Grandfather's Clock" was often played in Britain on Children's Favourites during that period was recorded by the Radio Revellers. In the United States, a version, without the last stanza of lyrics, was on an extended-play 45 rpm record on the Peter Pan label (the other song on that side was The Syncopated Clock, and the flip side had The Arkansas Traveler and Red River Valley). Johnny Cash covered the song twice on his 1959 album "Songs of Our Soil" and his 1975 album, The Johnny Cash Children's Album. Other versions became popular in other countries. It is well known to many generations in Japan.

The song was the inspiration for the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Ninety Years Without Slumbering", and was recorded by Boyz II Men in 2004. In the music for American Mcgee's Alice, and the accompanying soundtrack, a music box version of the chorus is included in the song, "I'm Not Edible". A Japanese cover by Ken Hirai (大きな古時計, ookina furudokei) was a great success in Japan in 2002. In 2009, The Vietnamese singer - Dai Nhan, covered and re-wrote this song with the new title "The Last Class" (or" Tiet Hoc Cuoi Cung").

A popular clock toy, marketed by Fisher-Price in 1968, had a dial on it that, when turned, caused the toy to play the song along with clock-like ticking and moving hands on the face of the clock. An updated version of the toy (which is completely made of plastic and with other activities like a clicking plastic mouse on the side) has been manufactured by Fisher-Price since 1994. Imitations of the toy made by various companies exist and are sold in various countries worldwide.

An Australian one hit wonder band "The Creaky Buttocks" had their moment of fame when their a cappella version of My Grandfather's Clock went to number 9 in Indy Charts.^{[citation needed]} Jamaican guitar legend Ernest Ranglin recorded My Grandfather's Clock on numerous occasions, firstly in 1969 on Federal Records.^[3] Subsequently he recorded it on Below the Bassline and on Order of Distinction.^{[citation needed]}

The song is given a nod by the English band Half Man Half Biscuit in their song Joy Division Oven Gloves, which features the line My Grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf/So I sold it and opened up a stall/Selling Joy Division Oven Gloves

The dirty ditty "Grandfather's Cock" parodies My Grandfather's Clock and is sung to the same tune.^[4]

Lyrics

Bust of Henry Clay Work

My grandfather's clock
Was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half
Than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn
Of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.

CHORUS:
Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.

In watching its pendulum
Swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood
The clock seemed to know,
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four
When he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS

My grandfather said
That of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time,
And had but one desire,
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place,
Not a frown upon its face,
And its hand never hung by its side.
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS

It rang an alarm
In the dead of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit
Was pluming for flight,
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time,
With a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side.
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS

References

1. ^ "Oxford English Dictionary" (available online to subscribers, also in print). http://dictionary.oed.com/. Retrieved 2009-04-19. "Grandfather's clock [suggested by a song which was popular about 1880], a furniture-dealer's name for the kind of weight-and-pendulum eight-day clock in a tall case, formerly in common use; also grandfather clock (now the usual name): [1876 H. C. WORK Grandfather's Clock, My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf, So it stood ninety years on the floor.]" 
2. ^ Ovid, John Dryden. Ovid's Art of love, Remedy of love, Art of beauty, and Amours, p.23. Knight & Smith Printers, 62 East Smithfield, 1817.
3. ^ "Roots Archives". Ernest Ranglin - Boss Reggae. 2008. http://www.roots-archives.com/release/4970. Retrieved 14 January 2010. 
4. ^ "Error: no |title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". http://www.odps.org/glossword/index.php?a=term&d=5&t=126. 

External links

• George Hotel, Piercebridge - photo of the clock with song soundtrack
• Story of the clock