Pancho & Lefty

Livin' on the road, my friend Is gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron And your breath's as hard as kerosene 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 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 In the deserts, down in Mexico And nobody heard his dyin' words Ah, but that's the way it goes All the Federales say They could of had him any day 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 Could of had him any day "We 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 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 Could of had him any day "We only let him slip away" Out of kindness, I suppose A few gray Federales say Could've had him any day "We only let him go so long" Out of kindness, I suppose