Pancho and Lefty

Yep, Pancho and Lefty. Remember this old one? Long before the Wallis Bros. played it, I was livin’ it with my old runnin’ buddy Johnny Sweet. Outlaws with a feeling. We’d storm into town makin’ noise, then we’d hit the trail with the federales behind us. pressing on…sometimes, you just gotta reach back.

Livin on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath as hard as kerosene
Weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank 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
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
Ah but that's the way it goes

All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

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 laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
We only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose 

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

All the Federales say
Could have had him any day
Only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

A few gray Federales say
We could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness, I suppose

Songwriter: Townes Van Zandt

Pancho and Lefty lyrics ©️Wixen Music Publishing