Pancho and Lefty

Livin′ on the road, my friend Was gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron Your breath as hard as kerosene Weren't your mama′s only boy 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 as fast as polished steel He wore his gun outside his pants For all the honest world to feel Pancho met his match, you know In the deserts down in Mexico Nobody heard his dyin' words Oh, but that's the way it goes All the federales say They coulda 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 ol' Pancho low Lefty split for Ohio Where he got the bread to go Ain′t nobody knows All the federales say They coulda had him any day They only let him slip away Out of kindness, I suppose Poets tell how Pancho fell And 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 only did what he had to do And now he′s growin′ old All the federales say They coulda had him any day They only let him slip away A few good federales say They coulda had him any day They only let him go so wrong Out of kindness, I suppose