David's Watch

(Tales from the Taxis pt 2)

Words & Music: Pat Drummond.

For The James Family

Dateline, Ballina, N.S.W.

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This is a song about the way our journeys often end with their beginnings; and about the way in which Time often returns to us those things we thought were lost. A particularly appropriate love song for this album, it is for the incurably romanticamong us who still believe in the redemptive power of a patient love.

Sue bought Dave a watch in 1985 from a shop on London's Old Kent Road.

Inscribed across the back she wrote

"Love is always patient"; four words etched with care.

He strapped those words against his arm,

wore them like a lucky charm

but somehow as the years went past he forgot those words were there.

Chorus: Love is never wasted Love is always patient

and if it often seems that dreams get lost in time.

Behind the hours, behind the years that whisper past

Like a star beyond the storm it always shines

Half a world of wandering stole his heart away.

Caught in a storm in Melbourne town,

He flagged a passing cabbie down.

He thought he had a 'twenty' in his bag somewhere

but when the cabbie dropped that flag.

He rifled through his aging bag.

He found his wallet empty and he could not pay the fare

Chorus:

And the cabbie said, "The piper must be paid.

No cash? Then you've a watch to trade."

Dave, in his need, agreed and fumbled with the band.

Then those words flashed in the light;

silver fire etched in white;

just time to read them as the cabbie closed his hand.

Oh it only took an instant for that boy to understand.

He took the stairs up to his flat three at a time.

He did not stop to wonder what

the time might show on London's clocks.

He dialled the ISD code hoped she'd still be there.

A sleepy voice came on the line.

His heart leapt seven years in time

and to the girl he left behind

he said it like a prayer.

Chorus:

And down

in Melbourne town,

beside a heart of steel;

behind a cabbie's wheel;

there is a message ticking in a pocket;

waiting for love to unlock it;

a second chance for hearts that fail to feel.

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