Family Plot Lyrics

Back in the woods on Grampa's land

I learned to hunt and fish

That's where I became a man

It was his greatest wish

He made sure that I was tough

And not afraid to live

One day his heart had had enough

And he collapsed and said "I give."

Grampa looked me in the eye

And with his dying breath

He said "I am not afraid to die

It's been a good life it'll be a good death"

We buried him in those woods that Sunday

Among our departed kin

And as we began to walk away

We all heard his voice again

The specter of Grampa hovered there

Like a flickering memory

But this wasn't grief that filled the air

He was real as you or me

He said "I've something left undone

And so I can't move on"

He said "Please take my father's gun

And tell them I'm the one.

I killed my father long ago

And the guilt has pained me so."

We did as he said and called the cops

They came and we took them out

It was me and my brother and our Pops

They asked "What is this about?"

They stood in amazement at the sight

But gathered their wits in time

As there in the woods that crazy night

My Grampa's ghost confessed his crime

He spoke as tears welled in his eyes

And stripped his guilt away

He'd lived his whole life wrapped in lies

Now he faded with the day

That's the last we saw of the man I loved most

When Grampa gave up the ghost