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Streets of Laredo (song)
"Streets of Laredo" (Laws B01, Roud 23650), also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is an American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America listed it as number four of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Derived from the traditional folk song "The Unfortunate Rake", the song has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations. The title refers to the city of Laredo, Texas.
The old-time cowboy Frank H. Maynard (1853–1926) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, claimed authorship of his self-published song in 1911 "The Dying Cowboy". Cowboys up and down the trail revised The Cowboy's Lament, and in his memoir, Maynard alleged that cowboys from Texas changed the title to "The Streets of Laredo" after he claimed authorship of the song in a 1924 interview with journalism professor Elmo Scott Watson, then on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The song is widely considered to be a traditional ballad. It was first published in 1910 in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.
The lyrics appear to be primarily descended from an Irish 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 Blues". The Irish ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song "Spanish Ladies". The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has copies of a 19th-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".
Recordings of the song have been made by Cisco Houston, Vernon Dalhart, Harry McClintock, Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Johnny Western, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Jim Reeves, Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, Chet Atkins, Arlo Guthrie, The Norman Luboff Choir, Rex Allen, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Harry James and many country and western singers, as well as Bing Crosby, avant garde rocker John Cale, the British pop group Prefab Sprout, Snakefarm, Mercury Rev, Jane Siberry, Suzanne Vega, Paul Westerberg, Buck Ramsey and The Stone Coyotes.
Vince Gill recorded a version of three verses of the Irish ballad "The Bard of Armagh" (which takes the same tune) followed by three verses of this song on the album Long Journey Home, a compilation of songs about Irish emigration and the links between Irish and American folk and country music.
The song plays a prominent role in the book and film Bang the Drum Slowly, in which a version of the song is sung by actor Tom Ligon in his role as Piney Woods. 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.
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Streets of Laredo (song)
"Streets of Laredo" (Laws B01, Roud 23650), also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is an American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America listed it as number four of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Derived from the traditional folk song "The Unfortunate Rake", the song has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations. The title refers to the city of Laredo, Texas.
The old-time cowboy Frank H. Maynard (1853–1926) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, claimed authorship of his self-published song in 1911 "The Dying Cowboy". Cowboys up and down the trail revised The Cowboy's Lament, and in his memoir, Maynard alleged that cowboys from Texas changed the title to "The Streets of Laredo" after he claimed authorship of the song in a 1924 interview with journalism professor Elmo Scott Watson, then on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The song is widely considered to be a traditional ballad. It was first published in 1910 in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.
The lyrics appear to be primarily descended from an Irish 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 Blues". The Irish ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song "Spanish Ladies". The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has copies of a 19th-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".
Recordings of the song have been made by Cisco Houston, Vernon Dalhart, Harry McClintock, Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Johnny Western, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Jim Reeves, Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, Chet Atkins, Arlo Guthrie, The Norman Luboff Choir, Rex Allen, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Harry James and many country and western singers, as well as Bing Crosby, avant garde rocker John Cale, the British pop group Prefab Sprout, Snakefarm, Mercury Rev, Jane Siberry, Suzanne Vega, Paul Westerberg, Buck Ramsey and The Stone Coyotes.
Vince Gill recorded a version of three verses of the Irish ballad "The Bard of Armagh" (which takes the same tune) followed by three verses of this song on the album Long Journey Home, a compilation of songs about Irish emigration and the links between Irish and American folk and country music.
The song plays a prominent role in the book and film Bang the Drum Slowly, in which a version of the song is sung by actor Tom Ligon in his role as Piney Woods. 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.