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.
  
  Chorus:
  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?
  
  (Chorus)
  
  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.
  
  (Chorus)
  
  Shot him down and away he ran.