Tall Handsome Stranger

(album: Return Of The Gunfighter - 1963)

A tall handsome stranger rode into town
With fire in his eyes burning red as sundown
His boots were all dusty, his coat open wide
Six ways of dying hung low on his side

He went in the town hall asking for me
They told him that I was still town deputy
I sent him to prison to pay for his crime
He killed a guard on the Sante Fe line

He spread word around town that my time had come
My notch was already carved on his gun
He's laughing and braggin and having his fun
It's all a show for he knows I won't run

That night in silence the town was asleep
I sat by my window and looked down the street
I wished in my heart that he would just ride away
I hated to face him next sunup that day

I met him at sunup, the crowd gathered round
Waitin and watching for one to go down
He grabbed for his six gun, tryin his best
He cursed as my bullet went deep in his chest

He stood there a moment and looked all around
Slowly and lifeless he fell to the ground
The stranger's my brother, born an outlaw
He must have forgotten I taught him to draw

The whole town was waiting and I was alone
The blood that I spilled was just like my own
When she hears this story, how Mother will cry
Brother 'gainst brother and one had to die

To die
To die