Pancho & Lefty

Livin' on the road, my friend

Was gonna keep you free and clean

Now you wear your skin like iron

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 boy

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 dying words

That's the way it goes

All the federales say

Coulda 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

It ended up in Lefty's mouth

The day they laid Pancho low

Well, Lefty split for Ohio

Where he got the bread to go

Ain't nobody knows

All the federales say

"Yeah, we could've had him any day"

They only let him slip away

Out of kindness, I suppose

Poets tell how Pancho fell

But 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

They coulda had him any day

They only let him go so long

Out of kindness, I suppose

A few gray federales say

They could've had him any day

They only let him hang around

Out of kindness, I suppose