As I walked out on the streets of Laredo

As I walked out on Laredo one day

I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen

All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

Beat the drum slowly and 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

For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong

Then go write a letter and send it to my grey haired mother

And please send the same to my sister so dear

But please not one word of all this would you mention

When other should ask for my story to hear

There is another more dear than a sister

She'll bitterly weep when she hears that I'm gone

And if some other man every wins her affection

Don't mention my name and my name will pass on

Just beat the drum slowly...

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin

Get six pretty maidens to sing me a song

Put bunches of roses all over my coffin

Roses to deaden the clods when they fall

We beat the drum slowly played the fife lowly

We bitterly wept as we bore him along

Down in the green valley we laid this sod o'er him

Just the young cowboy who surely gone wrong