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.