As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
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As I walked out on Laredo one day,
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I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen,
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Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.
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"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy."
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These words he did say as I boldly walked by.
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"Come an' sit down beside me an' hear my sad story.
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"I'm shot in the breast an' I know I must die."
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"It was once in the saddle, I used to go dashing.
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"Once in the saddle, I used to go gay.
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"First to the card-house and then down to Rose's.
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"But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today."
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"Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin.
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"Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall.
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"Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin.
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"Roses to deaden the clods as they fall."
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"Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly.
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"Play the dead march as you carry me along.
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"Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me,
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"I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."
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"Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother,
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"An' tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone.
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"But please not one word of the man who had killed me.
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"Don't mention his name and his name will pass on."
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When thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting.
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The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay.
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We took the young cowboy down to the green valley,
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And there stands his marker, we made, to this day.
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We beat the drum slowly and played the Fife lowly,
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Played the dead march as we carried him along.
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Down in the green valley, laid the sod o'er him.
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He was a young cowboy and he said he'd done wrong.
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Streets Of Laredo
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| Johnny Cash |
