(Original by Townes Van Zandt)



Livin' on the road, my friend

Was gonna keep you free and clean

But now you wear your skin like iron

And your breath as hard as kerosene

You 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, boys

His horse as 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

No one heard his dyin' 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

The poets tell how Pancho fell

And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel

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

All the federales say

We could have had him any day

They only let him go so long

Out of kindness, I suppose

A few old gray federales still say

We could have had him any day

We only let him go so long

Out of kindness, I suppose