Lyrics Streets of Laredo - Suzanne Vega

Streets of Laredo

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo\nAs I walked out on Laredo one day\nI spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen\nWrapped in white linen as cold as the clay\n«I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy»\nThese words he did say as I boldly walked by\n«Come and sit down beside me and hear my sad story\nI’m shot in the breast and I know I must die»\n«It was once in the saddle, I used to go dashing\nOnce in the saddle, I used to go gay\nIt was first to the card-house and down to old Rosie’s\nBut I’m shot in the breast and I’m dying today»\n«So beat the drum slowly, play the fife lowly\nPlay the dead march as you carry me along\nTake me to the valley, lay the sod o’er me\nI’m a young cowboy, I know I’ve done wrong»\n«Six jolly gamblers to carry my coffin\nSix dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall\nThrow bunches of roses all over my coffin\nRoses to deaden the clods as they fall»\n«Then go write a letter to my gray-haired mother\nPlease send the same to my sister so dear\nPlease not one word of all this would you mention\nWhen others should ask for my story to hear»\n«There is another more dear than a sister\nShe’ll bitterly weep when she know that I’m gone\nIf some other man ever wins her affection\nDon’t mention my name and my name will pass on»\nWhen thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting\nThe streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay\nWe took the young cowboy down to the green valley\nThere stands his marker we made to this day\nWe beat the drum slowly, played the fife lowly\nBitterly wept as we bore him along\nDown in the green valley we laid the sod o’er him\nJust a young cowboy who’d surely gone wrong