PANCHO AND LEFTY
(written by Townes Van Zandt)

as done by Emmylou Harris on her album Luxury Liner

C                            G
Living on the road my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean
F
Now you wear your skin like iron,
     C                 G
Your breath as hard as kerosene.
F                                         C               F
You weren't your mama's only boy, but her favorite one it seems
C                         F    C    G
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
    F              Am     Am G C
And sank into your dreams.
C                       G
Pancho was a bandit boys, his horse was fast as polished steel
F
He wore his gun outside his pants
    C                       G
For all the honest world to feel.
F                                    C               F
Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico
C                F  C  G             F                 Am   Am G F
Nobody heard his dying words, ah but that's the way it goes.

F                    C                        F
All the Federales say they could have had him any day
C                 F    C  G        F              Am
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.

Am G C
C                              G
Lefty, he can't sing the blues all night long like he used to.
F                                   C           G
The dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth
F                                  C               F
The day they laid poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio
C                F     C   G        F            Am
Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows

Am G F
F                    C                        F
All the Federales say they could have had him any day
C                 F    C  G        F              Am   Am G C
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.

C                                  G
Poets tell how Pancho fell, and Lefty's living in a cheap hotel
F
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold,
C                G
And so the story ends we're told
F                                        C              F

Pancho needs your prayers it's true, but save a few for Lefty too
C                   F   C  G       F                Am
He only did what he had to do, and now he's growing old

Am G F
F                     C                       F
All the Federales say they could have had him any day
C                 F    C  G        F              Am
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.

Am G F
F                        C                       F
A few gray Federales say they could have had him any day
C                  F  C  G              F            Am
They only let him go so long, out of of kindness, I suppose.