Townes van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty (live)
tags:
Stumble This"Pancho and Lefty" is a folk song written by Townes Van Zandt. Van Zandt first recorded it for his 1972 album, The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. Emmylou Harris then covered the song for her 1977 album, Luxury Liner and the song became a number one country hit in 1983 when Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson adopted it as the title track of their duet album Pancho & Lefty.
D
Livin' on the road, my friend
A
Was gonna keep us free and clean
G
But now you wear your skin like iron
D D/C# D/B A
And your breath's as harsh as kerosene
G
You weren't your mama's only boy
D D/C# D/B
But her favorite one, it seems
D
She began to cry
D/C# D/B A
When you said good bye
G Bm
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
Chorus
G
And all the federales say
D D/C# D/B D/A
They could've had him any day
D D/C# D/B A
They only let him slip away
G Bm
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