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Lyrics written by
Originally written by
Language
English
Adapted from
The Unfortunate Lad written by [Traditional] – Long quote
Comments
The story of one unfortunate cowboy who met a violent end in one of these towns is told in the song that evolved from a 18th century British ballad "Unfortunate Lad" about a soldier who died of syphilis.
Frank Maynard is credited with picking up a variation of this song around 1876. His version (situated in Laredo) was published in 1911 in "Rhymes of the Range and Trail".
But one year earlier John A. Lomax had already published it in his book "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads".
Early versions of this ballad were accompanied with varying tunes like "Spanish Ladies" and "Get Along Little Dogies".
But around 1928 the ballad was accompanied by another tune ("The Bard of Armagh"), which would turn out to be the most enduring version: SEE "Streets of Laredo"
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