Song Lyrics

I saw you, yesterday
Walking down my line
I says, I know you, just get away
Your name is Father Time

Time I hate, the time I love
Time I spent all over
Time I wasted, the time I spent
Time I've got to run away

I saw you, yesterday
Running down my track
I saw you just yesterday
I could feel you at my back

With that long black cloak and that sharp scythe
For cutting them all down
Your long black coat, a skull and a scythe
Cutting them all through town

I saw you, just yesterday
You don't frighten me
I see you every day
You still don't frighten me

One day I'll go
And you'll have no choice but to come with me
The next day I'll come
The very next day I'll have to go, I tell you, say

You're no herb from my garden
You're no rosemary
And you're no sage
You know your name
I call you Father Time

I saw you yesterday
I can still see you now
You're living in my face, in my breakfast
I can see you now

You're just the time I wasted, the time I spent
You're the time I'm left to run with
What time is this
Even I make up time, I do, I'm the time

You can call yourself daddy
But you're no father of mine

Yes, I saw you yesterday
You didn't frighten me at all
I saw you just yesterday
You didn't frighten me at all

With that long cloak and that silly little skull
The stupid scythe and all your jive
I never could see you, I can't see you now
Not as long as I'm alive

One day, I'll go
The very next day you'll come
One day you'll come
The very next time I'll go

I know a friend of mine, a friend of mine was watching
Told me the time by the clock
I saw him last night, down by the graveyard
Holding on to a rock

I said, "I saw you yesterday
I saw you, Father Time"
I said, "Go away, go away, go away, go away, go away
I know you're Father Time, run it down now"

I said, "Every minute, every second, every day of my life
I meet you in the mirror
Every time, look at each wrinkle
I know I've got a sheriff coming"

Sure I saw you, sure as time
Sure as clock, sure is fine
I know that mother's no father
'Cause they call him Father Time

Coming through the door with a black cloak
And a nasty sharp instrument
That nasty sharp instrument
That nasty sharp instrument

I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch me
I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch me
I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch me
I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch

I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch me
I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch me
I won't go till I'm ready and you can't catch me
I won't go till I'm ready

John Martyn

The duration of Father Time is 5:35 minutes and seconds.