(Original by Townes Van Zandt) 



Livin' on the road, my friend

Was gonna keep you free and clean 

But now you wear your skin like iron 

And your breath 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 as 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 

No one heard his dyin' words 

Ah, 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 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 

We only let him slip away 

Out of kindness, I suppose 

The poets tell how Pancho fell 

And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel 

The desert's quiet and 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 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 old gray federales still say

We could have had him any day 

We only let him go so long 

Out of kindness, I suppose