Lyrics
(Folk song)
1. Eyes like a morning star, cheeks like a rose,
Laura was a pretty girl everybody knows
Refrain
Weep, all you little rains, wail, winds, wail.
All along along along the Colorado trail.
2. Laura was a happy girl, smilin’ as the day,
Laura was a pleasant girl, now she’s gone away. Refrain
3. Sixteen years she graced the earth, and all life was good,
Now all life is buried beneath a cross of wood. Refrain
4. Ride all the lonely night, ride all the day,
Keep the herd a-rollin’ on, rollin’ on its way. Refrain
5. Black is the stormy night, dark is the sky,
Wish I’d stayed in Abilene, nice and warm and dry. Refrain
See also
- Country: Western states (U.S.) / American West
- Type: cowboy
- Form: AB
- Harmony: chords I IV V
- Meter: 4
- Scale: pentatonic
- Source: The American Songbag, Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace and Company, 1927
- more lyrics / info about the song
YouTube
- PDF of song with chords
- MIDI file
- Listen to the melody
Lovely song I listened to often as a child, on the album “Songs of the Old West” by the Norman Luboff Choir. One point: I don’t know which came first, but they and many others use the lyrics “God Almighty knows” instead of “everybody knows”, and I feel those lyrics are more poignant and keeping with the overall poetry of the song — the one who lost the child is almost cursing in their grief, plus it captures the loneliness along the trail.
Thanks for sharing your insights into this song — terrific!
Thanks for sharing, Barbara! I wasn’t aware of the other lyrics.