Irish traditional song lyrics — collected by Beer Belly Band.
Billy Gray rode into Gantry way back in ’83
Where he first met with young Sarah MacLaine
The wild rose of morning the pale flower of dawning
Heralded springtime in Billy’s life that day
Sarah she could not see the daylight of reality
In her young eyes Billy bore not a flaw
No not her chosen one he was a hired gun
Wanted in Kansas City by the law
Then one day a tall man came riding from the badlands
That lie to north of New Mexico
He was over heard to say he was looking for Billy Gray
A wanted man and a dangerous outlaw
Well the news it came creeping to Billy fast sleeping
There in the Clarendon Bar and Hotel
He ran to the old church that lies on the outskirts
Thinking he’d hide in the old steeple bell
But a rifle ball came flying face down he lay during
There in the dust of the road where he lay
Sarah ran to him she was cursing the lawman
Poor girl knew no reason except that he’d been killed
Sarah still lives in that old white framed house
Where she first met Billy some forty years ago
But the wild rose of morning has faded with the dawning
With each day of sorrow too long years have grown
And written on the stone where the dusty winds have long blown
Eighteen words to a passing world say
True knows no season no rhyme nor no reason
Justice is cold as the range in County Clare
True knows no season no rhyme nor no reason
Justice is cold as the range in County Clare