Streets of Laredo (song)
Encyclopedia
"Streets of Laredo" also known as the "Cowboy's Lament", is a famous American cowboy
ballad
in which a dying cowboy tells his story to a living one. Derived from the English folk song "The Unfortunate Lad", it has become a folk music
standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations.
The old-time cowboy Frank H. Maynard
(1853-1926) of Colorado Springs
, Colorado
, claimed authorship of the revised Cowboy's Lament, and his story was widely reported in 1924 by the journalism professor Elmo Scott Watson
, then on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
.
". The British ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song "Spanish Ladies
". The Bodleian Library
, Oxford
, has copies of a nineteenth-century broadside entitled "The Unfortunate Lad", which is a version of the British ballad. Some elements of this song closely presage those in the "Streets of Laredo" and in the "St. James Infirmary Blues
".
Note that Mercury(II) chloride
or mercuric chloride was an early treatment
for syphilis
and is a white salt:
, Johnny Cash
, Joan Baez
, Burl Ives
, Jim Reeves
, Roy Rogers
, Marty Robbins
, Chet Atkins
, Arlo Guthrie
, Norman Luboff
Choir, Rex Allen
, Willie Nelson
, Waylon Jennings
and many country and western singers, as well as avant garde rocker John Cale
, the British pop group Prefab Sprout
, Mercury Rev
, Suzanne Vega
and former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg
on his digital only download DGT. There is also a version on RCA's "How The West Was Won" double album, Bing Crosby
- 1960.
The song plays a prominent role in the book and film Bang the Drum Slowly
, in which a version of the song is sung. 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 song is featured in the films Brokeback Mountain
and Night on Earth
. 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.
Peter S. Beagle's travelogue "I See By My Outfit" 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.
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, according to www.tv.com, 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:
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":
– From Songs of the Cowboys, a 1908 version of "Cowboy's Lament" (typographical errors unchanged)
has cited this ballad as the musical inspiration for his version of Woody Guthrie
's "The Unwelcome Guest".
"No Man's Land" (sometimes known as "Green Fields of France")
, written in 1976 by Eric Bogle
, makes use of a similar melody and contains the refrain "did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fifes lowly".
The song "Streets of the East Village" by The Dan Emery Mystery Band shows a definite influence from this song as well.
The song "Streets of Whitechapel" sung by J.C. Carroll is an updated version of this ballad.
The composer Samuel Barber
used the "Streets of Laredo" tune in the
"Allegretto" movement of Excursions, op. 20.
Different words and a chorus were added in 1960 under the title "Only The Heartaches" by Wayne P Walker, with additional words by Jess Edwins and Terry Kennedy. It was a minor hit in some countries by Houston Wells and The Marksmen and has been recorded by many other artists. The chorus begins "There's gold in the mountains, gold in the valleys..."
The song "Blackwatertown" by The Handsome Family
is another updated version of this song, framing the narrator's downfall as the resultant of an affair with a young woman employed in the publishing industry. It was released on The Rose And The Briar, a 2004 CD compilation and companion to The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad, edited by Sean Wilentz
and Greil Marcus
.
The game Fallout: New Vegas
contains a song called The Streets of New Reno, performed by J.E. Sawyer. That song is The Streets of Laredo as adapted into the Fallout (Game) universe
The song 'The Streets of Laredo' on the albums 'Ballads of the True West,' and 'American IV' by Johnny Cash
. Cash also recorded two other versions with different lyrics on his first Christmas album, (1963), and then again as "The Walls Of A Prison" on his 'From Sea to Shining Sea' album in 1967.
Singer Tamás Cseh sang the song with Hungarian
lyrics written by Géza Bereményi.
Canadian indie-rock singer Leslie Feist's "When I Was a Young Girl" was almost certainly inspired by this song.
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
in which a dying cowboy tells his story to a living one. Derived from the English folk song "The Unfortunate Lad", it has become a folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations.
The old-time cowboy Frank H. Maynard
Frank H. Maynard
Francis Henry Maynard, known as Frank H. Maynard , was an old-time cowboy of the American West who claimed authorship of the revised version of the well-known ballad, "The Streets of Laredo". After a decade of roaming the West, Maynard settled down with his wife, the former Flora V...
(1853-1926) of Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, claimed authorship of the revised Cowboy's Lament, and his story was widely reported in 1924 by the journalism professor Elmo Scott Watson
Elmo Scott Watson
Elmo Scott Watson was an American journalist and college professor, whose longest educational stint was at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois...
, then on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
.
Lyrics
- As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
- As I walked out in Laredo one day,
- I spied a young cowboy, all wrapped in white linen
- Wrapped up in white linen and cold as the clay.
- "I see by your outfit, that you are a cowboy."
- These words he did say as I slowly walked by.
- "Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
- For I'm shot in the chest, and today I must die."
- "'Twas once in the saddle I used to go dashing,
- 'Twas 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 I'm dying today."
- "Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
- And play the dead march as you carry me along;
- Take me to the 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 soul 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 a traditional ballad, and the origins are not entirely clear. It seems to be primarily descended from a British folk song of the late 18th century called "The Unfortunate Rake", which also evolved (with a time signature change and completely different melody) into the New Orleans standard "St. James Infirmary BluesSt. James Infirmary Blues
"St. James Infirmary Blues" is based on an 18th century traditional English folk song of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose . Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.-Authorship and history:"St...
". The British ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song "Spanish Ladies
Spanish Ladies
Spanish Ladies is a traditional English naval song, describing a voyage from Spain to the Downs from the viewpoint of ratings of the British Royal Navy.- Origins :...
". The Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, has copies of a nineteenth-century broadside entitled "The Unfortunate Lad", which is a version of the British ballad. Some elements of this song closely presage those in the "Streets of Laredo" and in the "St. James Infirmary Blues
St. James Infirmary Blues
"St. James Infirmary Blues" is based on an 18th century traditional English folk song of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose . Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.-Authorship and history:"St...
".
Note that Mercury(II) chloride
Mercury(II) chloride
Mercury chloride or mercuric chloride , is the chemical compound with the formula HgCl2. This white crystalline solid is a laboratory reagent and a molecular compound. It is no longer used for medicinal purposes Mercury(II) chloride or mercuric chloride (formerly corrosive sublimate), is the...
or mercuric chloride was an early treatment
History of syphilis
The history of syphilis has been well studied, but the exact origin of syphilis is unknown. There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried from the Americas to Europe by the crew of Christopher Columbus, the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but...
for syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
and is a white salt:
- As I was a walking down by the [Lock] HospitalLock hospitalA Lock Hospital was a hospital that specialised in treating venereal diseases. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th. The military had a close association with a number of the hospitals. By the mid 19th century most of the larger army bases in...
, - 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 Eddy ArnoldEddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
, Jim Reeves
Jim Reeves
James Travis Reeves , better known as Jim Reeves, was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well-known for being a practitioner of the Nashville sound...
, Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
, Marty Robbins
Marty Robbins
Martin David Robinson , known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
, Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
, Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Norman Luboff
Norman Luboff
Norman Luboff was an American music arranger, music publisher, and choir director.-Early years:Norman Luboff was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1917. He studied piano as a child and participated in his high school chorus. Luboff studied at the University of Chicago and Central College in Chicago...
Choir, Rex Allen
Rex Allen
Rex Elvie Allen was an American film actor, singer and songwriter, known as the Arizona Cowboy, particularly known as the narrator in many Disney nature and Western film productions. For contributions to the recording industry, Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Family...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
and many country and western singers, as well as avant garde rocker John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, the British pop group Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout are an alternative English pop rock band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham, England who rose to fame during the 1980s. Eight of their albums have reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart, and one of their singles, "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", peaked at number seven in the UK...
, Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker , Jonathan Donahue , Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a...
, Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
and former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...
on his digital only download DGT. There is also a version on RCA's "How The West Was Won" double album, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
- 1960.
The song plays a prominent role in the book and film Bang the Drum Slowly
Bang the Drum Slowly
Bang the Drum Slowly is a novel by Mark Harris, a sequel to The Southpaw . It was first published in 1956, and was later made into a 1956 U.S...
, in which a version of the song is sung. 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
Red Dirt Girl
Red Dirt Girl is an Emmylou Harris album from 2000, which reached #3 on the Billboard country album charts and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2001. The album was a significant departure for Harris, as eleven of the twelve tracks were written or co-written by her. She was...
by Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
. The song is featured in the films Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
and Night on Earth
Night on Earth (1991 film)
Night on Earth is a 1991 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.It is a collection of five vignettes, which take place during the same evening, each concerning the temporary bond formed between taxi driver and passenger in five different cities around the world: Los Angeles, New York, Paris,...
. The lyrics are also (indirectly) the source of the title of Peter S. Beagle
Peter S. Beagle
Peter Soyer Beagle is an American fantasist and author of novels, nonfiction, and screenplays. His most notable works include the novels The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place and Tamsin, and the award-winning story "Two Hearts".-Career:Beagle won early recognition from The Scholastic Art &...
's 1965 travelogue of a cross-USA trip by Heinkel
Heinkel
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight.-History:...
scooter, "I See by My Outfit."
The same tune is used for the Irish lament Bold Robert Emmet.
Other versions
The Smothers Brothers performed this comedy version:- As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
- As I walked out on Laredo one day,
- I spied a young cowboy all dressed in white linen,
- Dressed in white linen as cold as the clay.
- "I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy."
- "I see by your outfit you are a cowboy too."
- "We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys.
- If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy too."
Peter S. Beagle's travelogue "I See By My Outfit" 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
Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...
also performed a parody of the song; his version was titled "Streets of Miami", and was about vacationing Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
lawyers. Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
's album Songs of the Cat
Songs of the Cat
Songs of the Cat was released by Highbridge Audio in 1991. It is a collection of songs and spoken-word pieces about cats, performed by Garrison Keillor and Frederica von Stade...
has a feline-themed parody, "As I Walked Out".
Marty Robbins
Marty Robbins
Martin David Robinson , known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
' 1959 album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is an album released by Marty Robbins on the Columbia Records label in September 1959, peaking at #6 on the U.S. pop albums chart. It was recorded on April 7, 1959...
features his hit "El Paso
El Paso (song)
"El Paso" is a country and western ballad written and originally recorded by Marty Robbins, and first released on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in September 1959. It was released as a single the following month, and became a major hit on both the country and pop music charts, reaching number...
", 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.
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, according to www.tv.com, Aired on 10/3/1959.
The lyrics of Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
'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
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
's Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, founded at Union College in 1833. It has chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America. For most of its history, Psi Upsilon, like most social fraternities, limited its membership to men only...
fraternity to accept Sherman Wu
Sherman Wu
Sherman Hsiu-huang Wu was a Chinese American social activist and a former professor, whose experiences at Northwestern University brought the issue of discrimination against Asian Americans to the fore. The general condemnation of the prejudice exhibited against him presaged later actions in the...
because of his Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
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
Expurgation
Expurgation is a form of censorship which involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive, usually from an artistic work.This has also been called bowdlerization, especially for books, after Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work that he...
, 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.
- -
- 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 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'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'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
- I arrived in Galveston in old TexasTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
- Drinking and gambling I went to give o'er
- But, I met with a Greaser and my life he has finished
- Home and relations I ne'er shall see more.
- 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'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
- Send for my Father. O send for my Mother
- Send for the surgeon to look at my wounds
- But I fear it is useless I feel I am dying
- I'm a young cow-boy cut down in my bloom.
- 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'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
- Farewell my friends, farewell my relations
- My earthly career has cost me sore
- The cow-boy ceased talking, they knew he was dying
- His trials on earth, forever were o'er.
- 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'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
– From Songs of the Cowboys, a 1908 version of "Cowboy's Lament" (typographical errors unchanged)
Derivative musical works
Billy BraggBilly Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
has cited this ballad as the musical inspiration for his version of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's "The Unwelcome Guest".
"No Man's Land" (sometimes known as "Green Fields of France")
No Man's Land (Eric Bogle song)
"No Man's Land" is a song written in 1976 by Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, reflecting on the grave of a young man who died in World War I. Its chorus refers to two famous pieces of military music, "The Last Post" and "The Flowers of the Forest"...
, written in 1976 by Eric Bogle
Eric Bogle
Eric Bogle is a folk singer-songwriter. He emigrated to Australia in 1969 and currently resides near Adelaide, South Australia.-Career:...
, makes use of a similar melody and contains the refrain "did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fifes lowly".
The song "Streets of the East Village" by The Dan Emery Mystery Band shows a definite influence from this song as well.
The song "Streets of Whitechapel" sung by J.C. Carroll is an updated version of this ballad.
The composer Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
used the "Streets of Laredo" tune in the
"Allegretto" movement of Excursions, op. 20.
Different words and a chorus were added in 1960 under the title "Only The Heartaches" by Wayne P Walker, with additional words by Jess Edwins and Terry Kennedy. It was a minor hit in some countries by Houston Wells and The Marksmen and has been recorded by many other artists. The chorus begins "There's gold in the mountains, gold in the valleys..."
The song "Blackwatertown" by The Handsome Family
The Handsome Family
The Handsome Family is an alternative country band, formed in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The band was formed in 1993 by husband-and-wife duo Brett Sparks and Rennie Sparks and drummer Mike Werner, although the band would later revolve around Rennie, who writes the lyrics, and Brett, who writes...
is another updated version of this song, framing the narrator's downfall as the resultant of an affair with a young woman employed in the publishing industry. It was released on The Rose And The Briar, a 2004 CD compilation and companion to The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad, edited by Sean Wilentz
Sean Wilentz
Robert Sean Wilentz is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979.-Background:Born in 1951 in New York City, where his father Eli and uncle Ted owned a well-known Greenwich Village bookstore, the Eighth Street Bookshop, Wilentz earned...
and Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
.
The game Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is a first person action role-playing video game in the Fallout series developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is based in a post-apocalyptic environment in and around Las Vegas, Nevada...
contains a song called The Streets of New Reno, performed by J.E. Sawyer. That song is The Streets of Laredo as adapted into the Fallout (Game) universe
The song 'The Streets of Laredo' on the albums 'Ballads of the True West,' and 'American IV' by Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
. Cash also recorded two other versions with different lyrics on his first Christmas album, (1963), and then again as "The Walls Of A Prison" on his 'From Sea to Shining Sea' album in 1967.
Singer Tamás Cseh sang the song with Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
lyrics written by Géza Bereményi.
Canadian indie-rock singer Leslie Feist's "When I Was a Young Girl" was almost certainly inspired by this song.