Pancho and Lefty lyrics

Livin' on the road my friend,

Was gonna keep you free and clean

Now you wear your skin like iron

An' your breath is hard as kerosene

Weren't your momma's only boy,

But her favorite one it seems

She began to cry when you said goodbye

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' word,

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

Th' 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've had him any day

We only let him slip away

Out of kindness I suppose

[Instrumental]

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,

But save a few for Lefty too

He only did what he had to do,

And now he's growing old

All the Federales say,

They could've had him any day

Only let him go so long,

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.

• Artist:Merle Haggard
• Album:Pancho & Lefty (1983)