Streets Of Laredo

(album: Honi Soit - 1981)

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day
I spied a young cowboy wrapped up in white linen
Wrapped up in white linen and cold as the clay
"O beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
Play the Dead March as you carry me along
Take me to the green valley and lay the sod o're me
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I done wrong"

"I see by your outfit that your are a cowboy"
These words he did say as I boldly stepped by
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die"

"My friends and relations they live in the Nation
They know not where their dear boy has gone
I first came to Texas and hired to a ranchman
O I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong"

"It was once in the saddle I used to go dashing
It was once in the saddle I used to go gay
First to the dram house and then to the card house
Got shot in the breast and I'm dying today"

"Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin
Get six pretty maidens to sing me a song
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin
Put roses to deaden the cods as they fall"

"Go gather around you a group of young cowboys
And tell them the story of this my sad fate
Tell one and the other before they go further
To stop their wild roving before it's too late"

"Go bring me a cup, a cup of cold water
To cool my parched lips," the young cowboy said
Before I returned the spirit had left him
And gone to its Maker the cowboy was dead

We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly
And bitterly wept as we bore him along
For awe all loved our comrade, so brave, young, and handsome
We all loved our comrade although he'd done wrong