Lyrics

Pancho And Lefty
Written by John Townes Van Zandt

Living on the road my friend,
Was gonna keep you free and clean.
Now you wear your skin like iron,
An’ your breathe’s as hard as kerosine.
You weren’t your mammas only boy,
But her favourite one it seems.
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
An’ sank into your dreams.

Pancho was a bandit boy,
His horse as fast as polished steel.
Wore his gun outside his pants,
For all the honest world to feel.
Pancho met his match you know,
On the deserts down in Mexico.
An’ nobody heard his dying words.
Well, that’s the way it goes.

All federales say, “could’a had him any day”.
They only let him get away,
Out of kindness I suppose.

Now Lefty he can’t sing the blues,
All night long like he used to.
The dust that Pancho bit down south,
Ended up in Lefty’s Mouth.
The day they lay poor Pancho low,
Lefty split for Ohio,
An’ where he got the bread to go?
Well, there ain’t nobody knows.

All federales say, “could’a had him any day”.
They only let him get away,
Out of kindness I suppose.

Now the poets tell how Pancho fell,
An’ Lefty’s living in a cheap Hotel.
The deserts quiet, Cleveland’s cold,
So the story ends we’re told.
Pancho needs your prayers it’s true,
But save a few for Lefty too.
He just did what he had to do,
An’ now he’s growing old.

All federales say, “could’a had him any day”.
They only let him get away,
Out of kindness I suppose.
And a few grey federales say, “could’a had him any day”.
They only let him go so long,
Out of kindness I suppose.