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 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 dyin' words
 Ah, but that's the way it goes
 All the Federales say
 They could've 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 gray Federales say
 "We could have had him any day
 "We only let him go so long"
 Out of kindness, I suppose