Pancho and Lefty Songtext
von Willie Nelson with Merle Haggard

Livin′ on the road, my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath is hard as kerosene

Weren't you mamma′s only boy?
Her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
Sank to your dreams

Pancho was a bandit, boys
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
Oh, 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 lay poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

All the Federales say
We 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 cheap hotels
The desert′s quiet, Cleveland's cold
And so the story ends, we′re told


Pancho needs your prayers, it's true
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 gray Federales say
Could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness, I suppose