Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron

Your breath's 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 boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
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
That's the way it goes


All the federales say
They could have had him any day
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 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 poets tell how Pancho fell
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel

The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
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
Now he's growing old


A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day

They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose