Song Lyrics

There was a murder in the red barn, a murder in the red barn

The trees are bending over and the cows are lying down
The autumn's taking over, you can hear the Buckshot hounds
The watchman said to Reba the loon
Was it pale at Manzanita, was it Blind Bob the coon?
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, 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
Roadkill has its seasons just like anything
There's possums in the autumn and there'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 they neighbor's wife
But for some murder is the only door through which they enter life

Well, they surrounded the house, they smoked him out, took him off in chains
They sky runed black and bruised and we had months of heavy rains
Now, the ravens 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 barn,
There's always some killin' you got to do around the farm
A murder in the red barn, murder in the red barn

The woods will never tell what sleeps beneath the trees
Or what's buried 'neath a rock or hiding in the leaves
'Cause roadkill has it's seasons just like anything
It's possums in the autumn 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 nothin' without folks' tongues waggin'
Is this blood on the tree or is it autumn's red blaze?
When the ground' 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

There was a murder in the red barn, a murder in the red barn

Kathleen Brennan, Thomas Alan Waits

The duration of Murder in the Red Barn is 4:29 minutes and seconds.