I was born on Stagger Mountain in the sunshine and the snow
And leaving was the first mistake I made
But I hungered for the shadows in the valley down below
And a girl that danced the tune the devil played
Her smile was like the blinding light of sunshine on the snow
And the flashing of her hair was black as sin.
And her body set the smokes of hell a-boiling in my skull
When the fiddle of the devil made her spin.
Born in sunshine sunshine high on the mountain,
Where the air is pure and cold;
But there's darkness in the shadows
In the canyons of my soul.
The lantern cast her shadow like a demon on the wall
And the naked sweat was gleaming on her skin;
Then the room was spinning closer as her clothes began to fall
And the eagle started screaming in my brain
Then I saw the laughing dagger and I heard the devil scream
And her bleeding heart was beating in my hand.
Then the darkness flew away and I was standing by a tree
With a hanging rope a-danglin' from a limb.
Born in sunshine sunshine high on the mountain,
Where the air is pure and cold;
But there's darkness in the shadows
In the canyons of my soul.