The Red Violin

T'was a quarter past midnight we fell through the door
Of a quaint little alehouse I'd not been before
On the shelf there was a bottle of sweet Old Tom gin
And beside it was a red violin
Her paint it had faded, her strings bound with rust
But her beauty was calling from beneath all the dust
So I hailed to the barkeep, "Sir, please fill me in
What's the deal with that red violin?"

He said, "Oh, where does the time go?
I'm a tapster, I'm a taverner, I turn timid men bold
That's the life I've been living, oh, but what I'd not give
For a tune on me red violin"

So he started to tell me all the places she'd been
She was played by his father, and his father before him
And when it was time she was passed down again
It was his turn with the red violin
He fashioned his playing all winter through fall
And soon he was playing all the ballrooms and halls
They swayed as he played 'till their soles were warn thin
Keeping time to his red violin

He said, "Oh, where does the time go?
I'm a tapster, I'm a taverner, I turn timid men bold
That's the life I've been living, oh, but what I'd not give
For a tune on me red violin"

Now the world it was changing and war came to call
He left for the trenches all winter through fall
And as the shells came down on the gulleys and glens
He dreamt of his red violin
T'was then as he leaned in to fill up me drink
The towel on his forearm fell down to the sink
T'was then that I spied what I'd not seen before
His left hand was lost to the war

He said, "Oh, where does the time go?
I'm a tapster, I'm a taverner, I turn timid men bold
That's the life I've been living, oh, but what I'd not give
For a tune on me red violin"

It's been many a year now since he cradled his bow
He opened his taproom off Kinnegad Road
For a fiddler needs fingers like a barkeep needs gin
So he laid down his red violin
He had grown old now, the war did him in
He asked if I played and I told him I did
For he had no children and no next of kin
So he passed me his red violin

Now I play her on weekends at the dances and balls
New paint and new strings at the taverns and halls
And I'll never forget that old barkeep from Trim
Who gave me his red violin

He said, "Oh, where does the time go?
I'm a tapster, I'm a taverner, I turn timid men bold
That's the life I've been living, oh, but what I'd not give
For a tune on me red violin"

He said, "Oh, where does the time go?
I'm a tapster, I'm a taverner, I turn timid men bold
That's the life I've been living, oh, but what I'd not give
For a tune on me red violin"