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 kill 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