Come closer, my love, and you'll hear my tale.
It'll make you cold.
It'll turn you pale.
It's a tale of a man's never ending love and the long, black rifle.
He wed a woman sworn to another and, in a rage, the other man
Shot him down with a long, black rifle, shot him down and away he ran.
A prairie man loved a city maid.
Was the love he took worth the price he paid,
When a man ends up at the smoky end of a long, black rifle?
He wed a woman sworn to another and, in a rage, the other man
Shot him down with a long, black rifle, shot him down and away he ran.
His dyin' words I repeat to you.
"You can never k** love when love is true."
It lives when only the rust is left of the long, black rifle.
He wed a woman sworn to another and, in a rage, the other man
Shot him down with a long, black rifle, shot him down and away he ran.
Shot him down and away he ran.