Well, the night was deep and the night was dark   And I was at the old dance hall on the edge of town, yeah   Some big ceremony was going down   Well dancers writhed and squirmed and then      Came apart and then writhed again   Like squirming flies on a pin   In the heat and in the din, in the heat and in the din   I fell to thinking about brand new wife of mad John Finn      Well, midnight came and clock did strike   And in she came, did John Finn's wife   With legs like scissors and butcher's knives   Tattooed breast and flaming eyes      And a crimson carnation in her teeth   Carving her way through the dance floor   And I'm standing over by the bandstand   Every eye gaping on John Finn's wife   Every eye gaping on John Finn's wife   Oh yeah      Now John Finn's wife was something of a mystery   In a town where to share a sworn secret was a solemn duty   I had brass knuckles and a bolo knife   Over near the bandstand with John Finn's wife      She got perfumed breasts and raven hair   Sprinkled with wedding confettis   And a gang of garroters were all giving me stares   Armed, as they were, with machetes      Well the night through the window was full of lights   Winking and watching at John Finns' wife   Winking and watching at John Finns' wife      Well next came the cops, all out on the town   But it don't look like no trouble there   As they had for the bar in their lumpy suits   And I slip my hand between the things of John Finn's wife      They seemed to yawn awake, her things   It was a warm and very ferocious night   And the moon was full of blood and light   And my eyes grew small and my eyes grew tight   As I plotted in the ear of John Finns' wife      Enter John Finn in his shrunken suit   With his quick black eyes and black cheroot   With his filled down teeth and a hobnail boot   And his fists full of pistols in his pockets   Aiming at me and aiming at his wife      The band fall silent fearing for their lives   And with fear in my guts like tangled twine   'Cause all I got is brass knuckles and a bolo knife   And mad John Finns' wife is all   And the three of us walk out of the hall      Now the night bore down upon us all   You could hear the crickets in the thickets call   Guns did flare and guns did bawl   And I planted my bolo knife in the neck of mad John Finn      I took his wretched life   Now I'm over by the bandstand   Every hand moving on John Finns' wife   Every hand moving on John Finns' wife      And John Finns' wife took all the flowers down   From her hair and threw them on the ground   And the flies did hum and the flies did buzz around   Poor John Finn lying dead upon the ground   Lying dead upon the ground