Pancho And Lefty

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