DDPro's Website > Other Chords > Townes Van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty
Capo 1st fret C G F Am C G Living on the road, my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean. F C G Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath as hard as kerosene. F C F You weren't your mama's only son, but her favorite one, it seems. Am F F/E G/D G7 F Am She began to cry when you said goodbye, and sank into your dreams.
Pancho was a bandit, boys, 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 borders down in Mexico,
And nobody heard his dying words - that's the way it goes.
F C F All the Federales say they could have had him any day, Am F - F/E - G/D - G7 F Am They only let him hang around 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 left 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.
C G F Am
Well, the poets tell how Pancho fell, Lefty's living in a cheap hotel,
The border'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 just 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 go so wrong out of kindness, I suppose.
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.
(Words and music by Townes Van Zandt, 1972)
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