I take my fiddle to the tavern. Every friday night I play Like that steamy summer evening down near buxton The last stop on the underground - about a mile away He came in slow and kind of cautious He came in slow, with eyes all full of fear Took a chair way down at the furthest table I saw he held a fiddle, so rough and so severe His eyes dropped to the table when I invited him to play A fiddle tune for the crowded room Cause I thought he'd want to celebrate He said, this table looks like cherry, just like my violin But it's all done up with polish The likes of which I've never seen Way, way back, can you remember Way, way back to your childhood days All the roughneck boys in the old schoolyard How they pushed you down, never let you play? Give those boys the weight of a rifle Give those boys the weight of the law Give them boys about three hundred years To reckon this is the way things are Then he struck down on his strings with such a vengeance He all but strangled off the tune Of some old reel meant to be far lighter Done up so forceful on his instrument so crude I said, son, why do you bend you bow so fiercely? You should be happy now you're free He dropped the fiddle from his chin and faced me He said, sir, it's best you let my anger be Forgive me if I'm edgy, but these fields outside your town Look flat and burned just like the earth Where the southern sun come beating down I know it don't sound pretty, the way I bow you song But if you want to hear how it grabs my ear Then maybe you should play along Then it felt like something took hold of my bow stroke The moment I tried to play along The beat began to echo like a footfall His old boots stomped out gunshots And his high strings wailed like hounds Until the noise spooked a snowy mare outside the window And the young man watched her bolt with widened eyes We had horses just like that back in kentucky White as a sheet against a burning midnight sky He said, forgive me for the fury. Your fiddle plays so well But even these are carved from trees growing just this side of hell Forgive me for my fury. I'd lose it if I could But a fiddle string ain't the only thing I've seen strung up on cherry wood Way, way back, can you remember Way, way back to your childhood days All the roughneck boys in the old schoolyard How they pushed you down, never let you play? Give those boys the weight of a rifle Give those boys the weight of the law Give them boys about three hundred years To reckon this is the way things are Way, way back, can you remember Way, way back to your childhood days All the roughneck boys in the old school yard How they pushed you down, never let you play? Give those boys the weight of a rifle Give those boys about a ton of lead Give them boys one devil of a passage From a good book they have never read