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CLOCK OUT lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
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Intro
Five fifty-one. Gate nine still dark. First one in. Same as the start.
Verse 1
Headlights off Okeechobee, quarter to dawn, he badges through Medley with his jacket still on. Slot forty-seven, he slides the card in, and it stamps five fifty-one, the first punch again. No coffee, no talking, he heads for the floor, and I log the same minute I logged him before.
Pre-chorus
I don't know his name, just the time that he came, the row where he stands, the stamp on the page.
Chorus
Punch in, punch out. That's all I keep, that's all I count. He gives me his mornings, I give him a line, a column of numbers, a quarter past time. Clock out. Clock out.
Verse 2
Thirty for lunch and he takes about twelve, back on the line 'fore the noon bell can swell. Double up Friday, he stamps in at four, clocks the whole overtime, then he's stamping for more. The floor never stops and the foreman don't care, I count what he gives me, I don't count what's fair.
Pre-chorus
I don't know his name, just the time that he came, the row where he stands, the stamp on the page.
Chorus
Punch in, punch out. That's all I keep, that's all I count. He gives me his mornings, I give him a line, a column of numbers, a quarter past time. Clock out. Clock out.
Verse 3
Last winter he walked in even and squared, now he favors the left, there's a drag in the air. Same card, same slot, same stamp at the door, but he leans on the rack that he leaned on before. I don't measure pain, I just measure the clock, he's two minutes slower from the lot to his spot.
Bridge
Forty years is a drawer pulled full of cards, and I am the one thing that wrote the man down. No raise on the wall, no name on a plaque, just the stamp and the click and the punch-card sound.
Verse 4
New card in slot forty-eight, crisp and still white, a kid badges in 'bout a quarter to light. Two cards on the rack where there only was one, one stamp for the old man, one stamp for the son. I clock them the same, I don't pick, I don't choose, one learning the line, one running out of line.
Verse 5
Five fifty-one and the crew floods the gate, the kid badges in at the regular rate. No jacket, no card, no stamp at the door, just a clean white slot where a man was before. The line still moves, the morning bell rings, I reach for his card and there's nothing to stamp.
Pre-chorus
I don't know his name. There is nobody to blame. Empty slot, empty page.
Chorus
Punch in, punch out. That's all I kept, that's all I count. He gave me his mornings, I gave him a line, a column of numbers, a quarter past time. Clock out. Clock out. Nobody is pulling him out.
Outro
Slot forty-seven. Five fifty-one. First one in. Last one gone.
Inside the recording
Five fifty-one. Gate nine still dark. First one in. Same as the start.
I don't know his name, just the time that he came, the row where he stands, the stamp on the page.
Slot forty-seven. Five fifty-one.
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.