Pancho And Lefty Lyrics - The Essential Merle Haggard: The Epic Years - Merle Haggard

Living on the road my friend, 

Was gonna keep you free and clean 

And now you wear your skin like iron, 

And 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 

We could have had him any day 

We only let him slip away 

Out of kindness, I suppose 

The poets 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 

We could have had him any day 

We only let him go so long 

Out of kindness, I suppose 

A few gray Federales say 

We could have had him any day 

We only let him go so long 

Out of kindness, I suppose