Song 30 in Ukulele for Beginners

Streets of Laredo

Also known as: The Cowboy's Lament

Every recording starts with four clicks to set the speed. Start with the slow one. Tap ▶ to play.

Ukulele

For Ukulele for Beginners.

Slow (70% speed) (0:49)
Learn with this one first.

Normal speed (0:35)
The speed printed on the page.

Play-along (0:35)
Just the accompaniment, no tune: you play or sing the melody.

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped up in white linen,
Wrapped up in white linen as cold as the clay.
"Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
Play the Dead March as you carry me along;
Take me to the green valley, there lay the sod o'er me,
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.
"I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy,"
These words he did say as I boldly stepped by.
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story;
I was shot in the breast and I know I must die.
"Let sixteen gamblers come handle my coffin,
Let sixteen cowboys come sing me a song,
Take me to the graveyard and lay the sod o'er me,
For I'm a poor cowboy and I know I've done wrong.

Music: Traditional (American cowboy song, from the Irish/English "Unfortunate Rake" family)
Words: Traditional, as collected by John A. Lomax (1867–1948)
First published: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads); text earlier in N. Howard Thorp, Songs of the Cowboys (1908)
Copyright: Public domain in the US, UK and EU. The arrangement and recordings belong to the book.