Living on the road my friend

Was gonna keep you free and clean

Now you wear your skin like iron

Your breath's 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 was 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

Nobody heard his dying words

That's the way it goes





All the federales say

They could have had him any day

They only let him hang around

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

They only let him slip away

Out of kindness I suppose





The poets tell how Pancho fell

Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel

The desert's quiet and 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

Now he's growing old





A few gray federales say

They could have had him any day

They only let him go so wrong

Out of kindness I suppose