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 momma'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 dyin words, ah but that's the way it goes



All the Federales say, they could've 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've had him any day

They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose



The boys tell how old Pancho fell, and 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, but save a few for Lefty too

He only did what he had to do, and now he's growing old



All the Federales say, they could've had him any day

They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose



A few gray Federales say, they could've had him any day

They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose