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Version 1 Version 2
            [intro]
G
[verse]
G           D7         G            D7
As I walked out on the streets of Laredo
G           C         G       D7
As I walked out on Laredo one day
   G            D7         G                D7
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
 G                C       D7          G
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay
       G           D7          G         D7
"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy"
      G            C        G            D7
These words he did say as I boldly walked by
          G           D7         G           D7
"Come and sit down beside me and hear my sad story
    G           C            D7          G
I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die"
[verse]
        G           D7         G          D7
"It was once in the saddle, I used to go dashing
G           C         G           D7
Once in the saddle, I used to go gay
G            D7             G            D7
First to the card-house and then down to Rose's
        G           C              D7      G
But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today
    G         D7          G        D7
Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin
G              C          G          D7
Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall
      G          D7        G       D7
Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin
G        C          D7            G
Roses to deaden the clods as they fall"
[chorus]
      G                     C
"Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly
G                          A        D7
Play the dead march as you carry me along
        G                    C
Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me
G                        D7             G
I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong"
[verse]
      G           D7       G              D7
"Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother
    G            C           G             D7
And tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone
    G              D7          G           D7
But please not one word of the man who had killed me
      G           C            D7             G
Don't mention his name and his name will pass on"
     G           D7          G           D7
When this he had spoken, the hot sun was setting
    G            C         G           D7
The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay
   G              D7          G            D7
We took the young cowboy down to the green valley
    G                C         D7           G
And there stands his marker we made to this day
[chorus]
   G                     C
We beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly
G                         A            D7
Play the dead march as we carried him along
     G                    C
Down in the green valley, lay the sod over him
G                            D7             G
He was a young cowboy and he said he'd done wrong 
        
                