GUNSLINGER
(Lyrics: Bud Freeman / Music: Leon Pober)


Katie Lee - 1957
The Limeliters - 1961



Gunslinger, Gunslinger, Gunslinger, Gunslinger!

Gunslinger, Gunslinger, where did you go wrong
When you were a child did the Cheyenne and Sioux
Refuse to play nicely with you
Did you always feel you didn't belong
Gunslinger

You killed one hundred and thirty men, old buddy
And now you wanta settle down.
But other gunslingers are a-gunnin' for you
And a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do
Old buddy

Gunslinger, Gunslinger, why you act so strange
When you were a child were you forced to compete
With brothers that you never could beat
Did you come from a broken "Home on the Range"
Old buddy

Don't wear your guns in town today, old buddy
Last night you cried out "Mummy, Dear"
You got a recurrent dream in your craw
And that dream of your Maw will inhibit your draw
Old buddy, old buddy, old buddy

Yippee-i-aye, yippee-i-oh

Gunslinger gunslinger, please take my advice
You know in your mind that you're plumb insecure
And that killing a man is real immature 
It is just an attention-getting device
Gunslinger

There you lie dead in the dust, old buddy, old buddy 
And now your myth begins 
Out in the West the folks all believe 
You faced and killed the toughest hombres of your day
But time has exposed your feet of clay
Recent research has clearly shown
That ninety-three-point-six percent of the gunmen you killed 
Were simply accident prone
Gunslinger!



(Transcribed by Mel Priddle - September 2017)