The Cowboy’s Lament

It’s Song Lyric Sunday. Today’s prompt is “to find a song about the American West, or one that mentions cowboys, a sheriff, an outlaw, horses, cactus, or tumbleweeds.“

I was raised on folk music. My father especially loved Burl Ives. In the 60s The Smothers Brothers albums entered our lives. I LOVED the Smothers Brothers. Still do. In fact, I’ve started playing them again mostly because I need something to smile about. They never fail to make me laugh.

So I’m posting below both versions of “The Cowboy’s Lament” aka “The Streets of Laredo.” I’m only posting the lyrics to the Burl Ives version. You’ll have to listen to the Smothers Brothers to hear their twisted irreverence. Their voices harmonize so beautifully – and they make me laugh. They always me laugh. Have I mentioned that they are FUNNY?

The song is the story of dying cowboy — not funny at all. It’s a lament. He’s been shot and is dying. He gives his final wishes to another cowboy. “Beat the drum slowly, play the fife lowly” etc. It’s sad.

Apparently it’s a rewrite of an Irish-British Ballad about a dying sailor. Frank Maynard, a poet and balladeer of the Old West, turned the song from “The Unfortunate Rake” into “The Dying Cowboy” and published it in 1911.

Here are the lyrics:

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
These words he did say as I boldly walked by
Come 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 down to Rosie’s and then to the card house
Got shot in the breast and I’m dying today

Get sixteen gamblers to carry my coffin
Get six jolly cowboys to sing me a song
Take me to the graveyard and lay the sod o’er me
For I’m a young cowboy and know I’ve done wrong

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin
Get six pretty maidens to sing me a song
Take me to the valley and lay the sod o’er me
For I’m a young cowboy, and know I’ve done wrong

Oh beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
Play the Dead March as they carry me along
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin
Put roses to deaden the clods as they fall

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

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Here’s Burl Ives singing The Cowboy’s Lament:

And a clip of the very irreverent Smothers Brothers version: