"Streets of Laredo" (Laws B01, Roud 23650),. also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is an American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America listed it as number four of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Derived from the traditional folk song "The Unfortunate Rake", the song has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations. The title refers to the city of Laredo, Texas.
The old-time cowboy Frank H. Maynard (1853–1926) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, claimed authorship of his self-published song in 1911 "The Dying Cowboy". Cowboys up and down the trail revised The Cowboy's Lament, and in his memoir, Maynard alleged that cowboys from Texas changed the title to "The Streets of Laredo" after he claimed authorship of the song in a 1924 interview with journalism professor Elmo Scott Watson, then on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign..
Lyrics
As I walked out on the streets of Laredo As I walked out on Laredo one day, I spied a poor cowboy, all wrapped in white linen All wrapped in white linen and cold as the clay.
"I can see by your outfit, that you are a cowboy." These words he did say as I slowly passed by. "Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story, For I'm shot in the chest, and today 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 now here I lay."
"Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly, And play the death march as you carry me along; Take me to the green valley, and lay the sod o'er me, For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."
"Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin, Get six pretty maidens to bear up my pall. Put bunches of roses all over my coffin, Roses to deaden the clods as they fall."
"Then swing your rope slowly and rattle your spurs lowly, And give a wild whoop as you carry me along; And in the grave throw me and roll the sod o'er me. For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."
"Go bring me a cup, a cup of cold water. To cool my parched lips", the cowboy then said. Before I returned, his spirit had departed, And gone to the round up – the cowboy was dead.
We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly, And bitterly wept as we bore him along. For we loved our comrade, so brave, young and handsome, We all loved our comrade, although he'd done wrong.
Origin The song is widely considered to be a traditional ballad. It was first published in 1910 in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.Two years earlier, N. Howard Thorp had included a song called "The Cowboy's Lament" in his booklet Songs of the Cowboys (Estancia, New Mexico: News Print Shop, 1908, p.29). It included two verses (although not the title stanza) from "Streets of Laredo," however the song as discussed here is essentially the Lomax version.
The lyrics appear to be primarily descended from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called "The Unfortunate Rake","Folk Songs and Ballads", American Roots Music, PBS which also evolved (with a time signature change and completely different melody) into the New Orleans standard "St. James Infirmary Blues". The Irish ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song "Spanish Ladies". The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has copies of a 19th-century broadside entitled "The Unfortunate Lad", which is a version of the British ballad.Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads. Ballads Catalogue: Harding B 15(341a) [and Firth b.34(302)] Some elements of this song closely presage those in the "Streets of Laredo" and in the "St. James Infirmary Blues".
As I was a walking down by the "Lock", As I was walking one morning of late, Who did I spy but my own dear comrade, Wrapp'd in flannel, so hard is his fate.
Chorus.
Had she but told me when she disordered me, Had she but told me of it at the time, I might have got salts and pills of white mercury, But now I'm cut down in the height of my prime.
I boldly stepped up to him and kindly did ask him, Why he was wrapp'd in flannel so white? My body is injured and sadly disordered, All by a young woman, my own heart's delight.
My father oft told me, and of[ten] times chided me, And said my wicked ways would never do, But I never minded him, nor ever heeded him, [I] always kept up in my wicked ways.
Get six jolly fellows to carry my coffin, And six pretty maidens to bear up my pall, And give to each of them bunches of roses, That they may not smell me as they go along.
[Over my coffin put handsful of lavender, Handsful of lavender on every side, Bunches of roses all over my coffin, Saying there goes a young man cut down in his prime.]
Muffle your drums, play your pipes merrily, Play the death [dead] march as you go along. And fire your guns right over my coffin, There goes an unfortunate lad to his home.
Recorded versions Recordings of the song have been made by Cisco Houston, Vernon Dalhart, Harry McClintock, Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Johnny Western, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Jim Reeves, Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, Chet Atkins, Arlo Guthrie, The Norman Luboff Choir, Rex Allen, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Harry James and many country and western singers, as well as Bing Crosby, avant garde rocker John Cale, the British pop group Prefab Sprout, Snakefarm, Mercury Rev, Jane Siberry, Suzanne Vega, Paul Westerberg, Buck Ramsey and The Stone Coyotes.
Vince Gill recorded a version of three verses of the Irish ballad "The Bard of Armagh" (which takes the same tune) followed by three verses of this song on the album Long Journey Home, a compilation of songs about Irish emigration and the links between Irish and American folk and country music.
In literature The song plays a prominent role in the book and film Bang the Drum Slowly, in which a version of the song is sung by actor Tom Ligon in his role as Piney Woods. The words from the title replace the words "beat the drum slowly" from the lyrics below. This in turn is the phrase used in the song "Bang the Drum Slowly" on the album Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris.
The lyrics are also (indirectly) the source of the title of Peter S. Beagle's 1965 travelogue of a cross-USA trip by Heinkel scooter, I See by My Outfit.
The same tune is used for the Irish lament "Bold Robert Emmet" and the sea shanty "Spanish Ladies" .
Louis MacNeice wrote a poem called "The Streets of Laredo" about the bombing of London during World War Two. The rhythms of the poem resemble the lyrics of the song, and the 1948 book Holes in the Sky states that his wife Hedli Anderson sang the poem.
The song is a featured motif in John Irving's 14th novel Avenue of Mysteries. The good gringo "el gringo bueno" sings the song incessantly, even in his sleep. The band from Circo de La Maravilla plays the song at Lupe's funeral.
White Noise by Don DeLillo features protagonist Jack Gladney’s son Heinrich "moodily" singing the song in one of the last chapters.
The lyric "For I Am a Cowboy and Know I've Done Wrong" is cited as the title of one of the songs sung "every Saturday night" on the prairie in Nebraska in the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather.
Other versions The Kingston Trio performed this comedy version as "Laredo?" on their 1961 album College Concert:
As I walked down in the streets of Laredo. As I walked down in Laredo one day, I spied a young cowboy dressed in white linen, Dressed in white linen and cold as the clay.
"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy." "You can see by my outfit I'm a cowboy too." "You can see by our outfits that we are both cowboys." "Get yourself an outfit, and be a cowboy too."
The Smothers Brothers performed a similar comedy version on their 1962 album The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers.
Peter S. Beagle's travelogue See by My Outfit: Cross-Country by Scooter: An Adventure takes its name from this version of the song; in the book, he and his friend Phil refer to it as their "theme song".
Allan Sherman also performed a parody of the song; his version was titled "Streets of Miami", and was about vacationing Manhattan lawyers. Garrison Keillor's album Songs of the Cat has a feline-themed parody, "As I Walked Out".
Marty Robbins' 1959 album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs features his hit "El Paso", similar in form and content to "Streets of Laredo". The 1960 follow-up More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs has a version of the original.
Doc Watson's version, "St. James Hospital", combines some of the "cowboy" lyrics with a tune resembling "St. James Infirmary" and lyrics drawn from that song, and contains the unmistakable "bang the drum slowly" verse.
New Mexican satirist Jim Terr's parody, "Santa Fe Cowboy", "is about the kind of cowboys who wear Gucci hats and spurs by Yves St. Laurent."
A portion of "Streets of Laredo" was sung by a group of cowboys in Season 2, Episode 5: "Estralita" on the TV show Wanted Dead or Alive which first aired on 10/3/1959..
The lyrics of Pete Seeger's "Ballad of Sherman Wu" are patterned after "Streets of Laredo'" and is set to the same tune. The song presages the American Civil Rights Movement and recounts the refusal of Northwestern University's Psi Upsilon fraternity to accept Sherman Wu because of his Chinese heritage. The song deliberately echoes "Streets of Laredo", beginning:
As I was out walking the streets of Northwestern, I spied a young freshman, dejected and blue. And so when I asked him, "Why are you dejected?", He said "I'm Chinese, and I can't join Psi U."
The words of the labor song "The Ballad of Bloody Thursday" – inspired by a deadly clash between strikers and police during the 1934 San Francisco longshoremen's strike – also follow the "Streets of Laredo" pattern and tune.
As for "The Cowboy's Lament/Streets of Laredo" itself, Austin E. and Alta S. Fife in Songs of the Cowboys (1966) say
Note that some versions of printed lyrics, such as Lomax's 1910 version, have been bowdlerized, eliminating, for example, subtle mentions of drunkenness and/or prostitution. Johnny Cash's 1965 recording substitutes "dram-house" for the traditional "Rosie's", i.e. the saloon for the brothel (though Burl Ives' 1949 recording retains the more logical, "first down to Rosie's, and then to the card-house..."). This bowdlerization renders nonsensical the next phrase, "...and then to the card-house," as though drinking and gambling took place in separate establishments. One of the Fifes' sources "exaggerating somewhat, says that there were originally seventy stanzas, sixty-nine of which had to be whistled.".
An intermediately bowdlerized version of "The Cowboy's Lament":
'Twas once in my saddle I used to be happy 'Twas once in my saddle I used to be gay But I first took to drinking, then to gambling A shot from a six-shooter took my life away. Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily Sing your dearth march as you bear me along Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
My curse let it rest, rest on the fair one Who drove me from friends that I loved and from home Who told me she loved me, just to deceive me My curse rest upon her, wherever she roam. Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily Sing your death march as you bear me along Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
Oh she was fair, Oh she was lovely The belle of the Village the fairest of all But her heart was as cold as the snow on the mountains She gave me up for the glitter of gold. Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily Sing your dearth march as you bear me along Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
I arrived in Galveston in old Texas Drinking and gambling I went to give o'er But, I met with a Greaser and my life he has finished