Streets of Laredo

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo

As I walked out on Laredo one day

I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen

Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy

These words he did say as I boldly walked by

Come and sit down beside me and hear my sad story

I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die

It was once in the saddle I used to go dashing

Once in the saddle, I used to go gay

First to the card house and then down to Rose's

But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin

Six dance hall maidens to bear up my pall

Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin

Roses to deaden the clods as they fall

Then beat the drum slowly, play the fife lowly

Play the dead march as you carry me along

Take me to the green valley, lay the sod over me

I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong

Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother

And tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone

But please, not one word of the man who had killed me

Don't mention his name and his name will pass on

When thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting

The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay

We took the young cowboy down to the green valley

And there stands his marker we made to this day

We beat the drum slowly, played the fife lowly

Played the dead march as we carried him along

Down in the green valley, laid the sod over him

He was a young cowboy and he said he had done wrong