The Philsophy of Modern Song: Poison Love – fun when it shouldn’t be

Posted on December 23, 2025 by Tony Attwood

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By Tony Attwood

This is part of a series of articles (links to previous articles at the end) in which I take a look at the songs Bob selected for his post-doctorate volume, “The Philosophy of Modern Song.”  I did start the series by trying to comment on Bob’s comments, but I found I couldn’t really add anything meaningful or useful, so I changed the series to one that offers a recording of each song, so if you wish to hear the song Bob was talking about, eventually they will all be available in one place – on this site once I have listed them all in the final episode.  And because I can never resist it, I have added my own comments too.

Today, we have Poison Love by Johnnie and Jack

For your poison love has stained the life-blood in 
                                          my heart and soul, dearAnd I know my life will never be the sameFor my pleadings have all been in vain for you and you alone, dearAnd you know that you are guilty of the shame

Poison Love was written by Tillman Franks and Elmer Laird, although according to some sources the composition was subsequently credited to Elmer Laird’s widow as a reward for her offering him a job when he was down and out.   I would imagine that was to enable her to receive the royalties from the song after the original authors passed away.

However, I’d really like to know more about that, as Tillman Franks died only 19 years ago (as I write this in 2025) and so if he gave up his rights on this song, that would be a very large amount of money he waved goodbye to.   If it is true, it was a most generous gift indeed.   He also wrote “How Far is Heaven” , “Honky Tonk Man” , and “When It’s Springtime in Alaska” – plus many more which were very popular in their day and has been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame as well as being bass player for Jimmie Davis, Slim Whitman and others.

The song itself was a country music hit in 1951 and offered to several artists before being taken up by Johnnie and Jack and becoming a hit.  

It is one of those songs that has really appealed to a multiplicity of performers, including Jerry Lee Lewis who makes it sound like it was meant for him.  I love this version – it is Jerry Lee at his very best.

Musically, the song is unusual in that it has the chord change in the fourth line of each section rather than in the third section that we would normally expect…. (the delayed change to E in the second line)

A
For your poison love has stained the life blood 
                               E
in my heart and soul dear 
                                                            A
And I know my life will never be the same

If the chord change had come at the start of the third bar (“in my heart”), I would suggest the impact of the music would have been lost, and it would have been just another popular song.  But that simple delay, which continues all the way through the song, makes it something extra, that something special.    Here’s the full first verse.

For your poison love has stained theLife-blood in my heart and soul, dearAnd I know my life will never be the sameFor my pleadings have all been in vain for you and you alone, dearAnd you know that you are guilty of the shameInto each life a love is born for one and one alone, dearThe love I chose was surely not for me

Although of course I must admit it is also unusual that a song which is so negative about a love affair – and we might also note that we get the same four lines of music over and over again – there is no separate chorus, no middle eight, no different instrumental break.

The music is also limited in that the music of the verse is identical to the chorus, which is sung at the start, at the end, and between the verses.

So really there is a minimal amount of music here, but it is a song of definitive farewell, and although quite a few of these have been written, this is one of the rarer kinds where the singer takes no blame and has no sorrow but really is throwing the whole affair straight back in the face of the partner.   And it has a bouncy beat too!

And it has been picked up over the years – this recording comes from 2017…

So why did Bob pick it?   For all the reasons above, I guess.  Musically, it is very enjoyable, and lyrically, it has a kick.   But above all, it is the delay to the chord change in the second line.  One little change from what we expect, and it makes the song into something else.  It’s fun, when in fact the lyrics suggest it shouldn’t be.

Previously in this series

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