D   
Livin' on the road, my friend    
A   
Was gonna keep you free and clean    
G   
But now you wear your skin like iron   
D                              A   
And your breath's as hard as kerosene.   
G   
You weren't your mama's only boy   
D                         G   
But her favorite one, it seems.    
Bm                                      G             A  
She began to cry when you said goodbye  
G                   Bm   
And sank into your dreams.   
   
Pancho was a bandit, boys,    
Rode a horse fast as polished steel,    
Wore his guns outside his pants    
For all the honest world to feel.   
Pancho met his match, you know,    
On the deserts down in Mexico.    
No one heard his dyin' words    
But that's the way it goes.   
   

[Refrão]
G   
And all the federales say    
D                           G   
They could have had him any day.    
Bm                 G    A   
They only let him slip away    
       G               Bm   
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 old Pancho low    
Lefty split for Ohio.    
Where he got the bread to go,    
Well, there ain't nobody 'knows.    
   

[Refrão]
But all the federales say    
They could have had him any day.    
They only let him slip away    
Out of kindness, I suppose.    
   
Now, poets sing how Pancho fell.    
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.    
   

[Refrão]
And all the federales say    
They could have had him any day.    
They only let him go so long    
Out of kindness, I suppose.     
   
Yes a few gray federales still say    
They could have had him any day.    
They only let him go so wrong   
Out of kindness, I suppose.