Lyrics post

[edg]

This song's been on my mind a lot lately. Dunno why - I don't even have a good recording of it.

Pancho and Lefty
by Townes van Zandt

Livin' on the road, my friend,
Is gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one, it seems
She began to cry as you said goodbye
And fell into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit boy
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match, you know,
In the desert down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' words
But that's the way it goes

And all the Federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

Lefty, he don't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
It ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they lay poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio, and
Where he got the got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

And all the Federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

The poets sing how Pancho fell
And Lefty's livin' in cheap hotels
The desert's quiet, and Cleveland's cold
And so the story ends, we're told
Pancho needs your prayers, it's true
But save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he's growin' old

And all the Federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose