(Tom Waits/K. Brennan)



There was a murder in the red barn

Murder in the red barn



The trees are bending over

The cows are lying down

The atumn's taking over

You can hear the buckshot hounds

The watchman said to Reba the loon

Was it pale at Manzanita

Or Blind Bob the raccoon?

Pin it on a drifter

They sleep beneath the bridge

One plays the violin

And sleeps inside a fridge

There was a murder in the red barn

A murder in the red barn



Someone's crying in the woods

Someone's burying all his clothes

Now Slam the Crank from Wheezer

Slept outside last night and froze

Road kill has its seasons

Just like anything

It's possums in the autumn

And it's farm cats in the spring

There was a murder in the red barn

A murder in the red barn



Now thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house

Or covet thy neighbor's wife

But for some

Murder is the only door through which they enter life



Now they surrounded the house

They smoke him out

They took him off in chains

The sky turned black and bruised

And we had months of heavy rains

Now the raven's nest in the rotted roof

Of Chenoweth's old place

And no one's asking Cal

About that scar upon his face

'Cause there's nothin' strange

About an axe with bloodstains in the barn



There's always some killin'

You got to do around the farm

A murder in the red barn

Murder in the red barn



Now the woods will never tell

What sleeps beneath the trees

Or what's buried 'neath a rock

Or hiding in the leaves

'Cause road kill has it's seasons

Just like anything

It's possums in the atumn

And it's farm cats in the spring

A murder in the red barn

A murder in the red barn



Now a lady can't do ntohin'

Without folks' tongues waggin'

Is this blood on the tree

Or is it autumn's red blaze

When the ground's soft for diggin'

ANd the rain will bring all this gloom

There's nothing wrong with a lady

Drinking alone in her room

But there was a murder in the red barn

A murder in the red barn

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