Charlie was a fiddle player, the best there was around
He and his fiancé were at the picnic grounds
Charlie and his band would play the dance that summer night

But deep inside his heart he felt that somethin' wasn't right

His sister said you'd better keep an eye upon your girl

Rumor has it she's been givin' someone else a whirl
So Charlie had decided to spy on his bride-to-be
But never was he prepared to see what he would see


CHORUS:
Her love was poison

Her love was poison
She ran around with other boys 'n'
Her love was poison


He spotted her behind the barn in another's hands
The man he saw was Earl who played guitar in Charlie's band

Blood red sunset fell upon the couple's dark embrace
And cast a long and desperate shadow over Charlie's face



CHORUS


When that night he took the stage, sadness mixed with jealous rage
Charlie gazed upon the crowd, then raised his voice clear and loud
"What I've feared has come to pass" in his hand a poisoned glass

He swallowed that lye beneath the moon and said I'm playin' my farewell tune

As the last note died away, that fiddler did the same

They laid him in an old pine box, with nails they sealed his fame
Summer sun and poison soon made his body swell
The casket nearly burst apart and put forth quite a smell


Green flies swarmed around and followed Charlie all the way
To the little meadow where forever he would lay

And dream of fiddles, fiancés, and that fateful night
When Charlie played his farewell tune beneath the pale moonlight


CHORUS