Pancho and Lefty Lyrics

Living on the road my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron,
Your breath 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 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 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 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
The 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 have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
The boys tell how Pancho fell, and Lefty's living 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 have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
A few gray Federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
notes on playing:
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
Try playing the G D A as:
|-s-3--2----
|-s-3--3---2
|-s-4--2---2
And sank into your dreams.
and
ah but that's the way it goes.
The transitions at the ends of these lines are similar. Play the Bm like:
|---3------- And then walk the bass line up or down the 5th string
|---4------- to make the change to the final D or G. It's a quick
|---4------- transition.
And throughout the song, as you strum or pick your way merrily along,
try to keep an alternating bass line going, it gives the song a lot
of it's character.
Submitted by John Kearney (jk13@aol.com)