Tall Handsome Stranger

A tall handsome stranger rode into town

With fire in his eyes burning red as sundown

His boots were all dusty, his coat open wide

Six ways of dying hung low on his side

He went in the town hall asking for me

They told him that I was still town deputy

I sent him to prison to pay for his crime

He killed a guard on the Santa Fe line

He spread word around town that my time had come

My notch was already carved on his gun

He's laughin' and braggin' and having his fun

It's all a show for he knows I won't run

That night in silence the town was asleep

I sat by my window and looked down the street

I wished in my heart that he'd just ride away

I hated to face him at sunup that day

I met him at sunup, the crowd gathered 'round

Awaitin' and watchin' for one to go down

He grabbed for his six-gun, tryin' his best

He cursed as my bullet went deep in his chest

He stood there a moment and looked all around

Slowly and lifeless, he fell to the ground

The stranger's my brother, born an outlaw

He must have forgotten I taught him to draw

The whole town was waitin' and I was alone

The blood that I spilled was just like my own

When she hears this story, how mother will cry

Brother 'gainst brother and one had to die

To die, to die