Interpret:

Johnny Cash

Album:

American IV: The Man Comes Around

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


I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
These words he did say as I boldly walked by
Come an' sit down beside me an' hear my sad story
I'm shot in the breast an' 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 to the card-house and then down to Rose's
But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today


Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin
Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall
Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin
Roses to deaden the clods as they fall


Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly
Play the dead march as you carry me along
Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong


Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother
An' tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone
But please not one word of the man who had killed me
Don't mention his name and his name will pass on


When thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting
The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay
We took the young cowboy down to the green valley
And there stands his marker, we made, to this day


We beat the drum slowly and played the Fife lowly
Played the dead march as we carried him along
Down in the green valley, laid the sod o'er him
He was a young cowboy and he said he'd done wrong.