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I'm a gambler
And I'm a runner
But you knew that
When you lay down
I'm a picture
Of ugly stories
I'm a killer
And I'm a clown
Step into the street by sundown
Step into your last goodbye
You're a target just by living
Twenty dollars will make you die
I wear lace
And I wear black leather
My hands are lightning up
On my gun
My shots are clean
And my, my shots are final
My shots are deadly
And when it's done
You're as stiff as my smoking barrel
You're as dead as a desert night
You're a notch
And I'm a legend
You're at peace
And I must hide
Tell where the hell I'm going
Let my bones fall in the dust
Can't you hear that ghost that's calling
As my Colt begins to rust
In the dust
I'm a killer
I'm a clown
I'm a priest
That's gone to town
And I'm a runner
But you knew that
When you lay down
I'm a picture
Of ugly stories
I'm a killer
And I'm a clown
Step into the street by sundown
Step into your last goodbye
You're a target just by living
Twenty dollars will make you die
I wear lace
And I wear black leather
My hands are lightning up
On my gun
My shots are clean
And my, my shots are final
My shots are deadly
And when it's done
You're as stiff as my smoking barrel
You're as dead as a desert night
You're a notch
And I'm a legend
You're at peace
And I must hide
Tell where the hell I'm going
Let my bones fall in the dust
Can't you hear that ghost that's calling
As my Colt begins to rust
In the dust
I'm a killer
I'm a clown
I'm a priest
That's gone to town
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So I support the interpretation that the song is about a gunslinger.
The first and second stanzas is the gunslinger telling to the whore his persona, that he is a wanted and dangerous man (I know, it's almost the same thing in the western) and also that he is a "picture of ugly stories" and a "clown", so he thinks that he is also a loser. The whore doesn't care and sleep with him anyway, maybe because this is her living, so it doesn't matter with who she have to sleep, because she HAVE to sleep with strangers to survive.
The third stanza is comparing the act of making love with a western duel. "Twenty dollars will make you die" refers to the reward of his "target", but in reality is how much the gunslinger is paying to the whore to lay down and kill her after the sex (She knows about that, like it was said in the first stanza).
The fourth and fifth stanzas continue the "duel / sex" double meaning. "I wear lace / And I wear black leather" is just about his costume. "My hands are lighting up / On my gun" is about he jerking off to ejaculate and also is about he taking his gun to kill the whore. The "shots" part is both about his orgasm and when he is killing the whore.
The sixth stanza is the gunslinger talking about her dead body, she is just a whore, just a "notch" and he is a killer, a wanted man, a "legend". He gave her "peace", so she'll never have to lay down with another strange man (She's dead, no necrophilia here). I think that this "peace" part can show us that the whore wanted to be killed, but it's not clear in the song, so it's just a guess. Anyway, now the gunslinger have to run away after another killing.
The seventh stanza is about the gunslinger running away, probably in a desert, because he doesn't know where he is and there is all that dust who makes his Colt rust. Also, I think this where the gunslinger starts to regret his actions, he fall in the desert while he runs away, and the ghost (Actually, the Holy Ghost) is calling him for redemption, so he left his Colt rusting in the desert. OR maybe the "ghost" is the ghost of the people who the gunslinger killed, which now is tormenting him and he starts his redemption. OR he is just being tormented and drop his gun. I support the first one, about the Holy Ghost, because Alice talks a lot about redemption.
The last stanza remembers the first one. The gunslinger tell who he is: "A killer", the wanted man, the legend; "A clown", the loser, a picture of ugly stories; and "a priest", the man after his redemption, the new man. He is all these three personas AT THE SAME TIME. He didn't forget his past, but he is different now, he is one more person, the "priest", and he is in a new town, where he can start shooting like a killer, drinking like a clown or "preaching" like a priest (I think it's more like telling his story than preaching). The town isn't necessarily a new one, so going to town can mean that he is facing his past that he ran away (The gunslinger tell us that he was a runner in the first stanza) maybe as a new person or maybe the "priest" is just a disguise, cuz he is a wanted man.
Maybe if I listen more to Jim Morrison I can change my whole interpretation, or maybe Jim Morrison is really the gunslinger in the story, or maybe whatever. Anyway, this is one of the greatest songs of Alice Cooper, it could be easily the title-track (Not underestimating "Killer", which is also a great song).
It's crossed my mind that the "Tell me where the hell I'm going" stanza could be Alice pondering his own death, wondering if his own self-destruction would take him to the same place that Jim ended up. This is a shaky hypothesis, I know, but it just struck me as a possibility since Alice has said that watching all of his friends die young was what made him realize that if he didn't change something, he'd end up the same way.
The song is about some gunslinger.
Gangster or cowboy? Could be both, although the title seems to suggest a western theme.
I think that Alice Cooper deliberately wrote it so that it could be either.