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Livin' on the road, my friend |
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Was gonna keep you free and clean |
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And now you wear your skin like iron |
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And your breath as hard as kerosene |
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Weren't you mama's only boy |
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But her favorite one, it seems |
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She began to cry when you said, 'Goodbye' |
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Sank into your dreams |
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Pancho was a bandit, boy |
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His horse was fast as polished steel |
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He wore his gun outside his pants |
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For all the honest world to feel |
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Pancho met his match, you know |
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On the deserts down in Mexico |
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Nobody heard his dyin' words |
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But that's the way it goes |
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All the federales say |
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'They could have had him any day' |
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They only let him slip away |
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Out of kindness, I suppose |
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Lefty he can't sing the blues |
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All night long like he used to |
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The dust that Pancho bit down south |
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Ended up in lefty's mouth |
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The day they laid poor Pancho low |
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Lefty split for Ohio |
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Where he got the bread to go |
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There ain't nobody knows |
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All the federales say |
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'They could have had him any day' |
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We only let him slip away |
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Out of kindness, I suppose |
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The poets tell how Pancho fell |
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And lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel |
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The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold |
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And so the story ends, we're told |
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Pancho needs your prayers, it's true |
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But save a few for lefty, too |
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He only did what he had to do |
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And now he's growin' old |
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All the federales say |
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'We could have had him any day' |
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They only let him go so long |
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Out of kindness, I suppose |
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A few old gray federales say |
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'Could have had him any day' |
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We only let him go so long |
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Out of kindness, I suppose |
