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
All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

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

Then go write a letter and send it to my gray haired mother
And please send the same to my sister so dear
But please not one word of all this would you mention
When others 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 ever wends her affection
Don't mention my name, and my name will pass on

Just 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
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 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 better lay wept as we bore him along
Down in the green valley, we laid the sod o'er him
Just a young cowboy who surely gone wrong