JOEY MCGEE

Lyrics

Pancho & Lefty
Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
But now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath is 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, boys
His horse as fast as polished steel
And 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
And that’s the way it goes

And 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 old Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
And where he got the bread to go
Ain’t nobody knows

And all the federales say they
Could have had him any day
They only let him go so far
Out of kindness I suppose

Poets tell of how Pancho fell
Lefty’s living 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
Say a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he’s getting old

And all the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
out of kindness I suppose

A few brave federales say
they could have had him any day
they only let him go so far
out of kindness I suppose
Yes, I suppose


By Townes Van Zandt
Copyright Ruminating Music o/b/o Will Van Zandt Publishing, Ruminating Music o/b/o Katie Bell Music, and Ruminating Music o/b/o Jtvz Music