Pancho and Lefty (Bonus)

By Townes Van Zandt
Verse chords:
D - A - / G - D A / G - D G / Bm GA A* G Bm -
Chorus chords:
G - D G / Bm GA A* G Bm - (same chords as the last two lines of each verse)

Lyrics:
Living on the road my friend was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath's 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 was fast as polished steel
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 - Ah, but that's the way it goes

All the federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him hang around out of kindness, I suppose

Now 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 poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows

And all the federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose

The poets tell how Pancho fell and Lefty's livin' in a cheap motel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold and so the story ends we're told
Now Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do... and now he's growing old

And all the federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose

A few old grey federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong out of kindness, I suppose