Where am I?: "Streets of Laredo" various artists

Tweet

“Streets of Laredo” (also known as “Cowboy’s Lament”) is a classic western traditional dating back to the late 1800s. The song is about a dying cowboy telling his story. “As I walked out in the streets of Laredo As I walked out in Laredo one day I spied a poor cowboy all in white linen All wrapped in linen and cold as the clay” The song’s origins go to an Irish folk ballad called “The Unfortunate Rake” whose lyrics are similar. Colorado cowboy Frank H. Raynard claimed authorship but who knows for sure. “Streets of Laredo” was first published in 1910. Everyone has recorded the song: Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Chet Atkins, Jim Reeves, Burl Ives, Roy Rogers, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Arlo Guthrie, Bing Crosby, John Cale, Suzanne Vega and more. There have been parodies by the Kingston Trio, Smothers Brothers and Allan Sherman. “Streets of Laredo” can be heard in movies from John Ford’s “Three Godfathers’ with John Wayne to “Brokeback Mountain” and TV series from “Maverick” to “Deadwood.” For those who do not know, Laredo is a Texas border town with Mexico.