Come closer, my love, and you'll hear my tale. It'll 
make you cold. It'll turn you pale.
It's a tale of a man's never ending love and the long, 
black rifle.

He wed a woman sworn to another and, in a rage, the 
other man
Shot him down with a long, black rifle, shot him down 
and away he ran.

A prairie man loved a city maid. Was the love he took 
worth the price he paid,
When a man ends up at the smoky end of a long, black 
rifle?

He wed a woman sworn to another and, in a rage, the 
other man
and away he ran.

His dyin' words I repeat to you. "You can never kill 
love when love is true.
It lives when only the rust is left of the long, black 
rifle.

He wed a woman sworn to another and, in a rage, the 
other man
Shot him down with a long, black rifle, shot him down 
and away he ran.

His dyin' words I repeat to you. "You can never kill 
love when love is true.
It lives when only the rust is left of the long, black 
rifle.

Long, black rifle, long, black rifle, long, black 
rifle.