The original from The Best of Townes Van Zandt is tuned down a half-step!
[Intro:]
Finger pick A to Bm
[Verse 1]
D
Living on the road my friend
A
Was gonna keep you free and clean
G
Now you wear your skin like iron
D A
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
G
You weren't your mama's only boy
D G
But her favorite one it seems
Bm G A
She began to cry when you said goodbye
G Bm
And sank into your dreams
[Verse 2]
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
[Chorus]
G
All the federales say
D G
They could have had him any day
Bm G A
They only let him hang around
G Bm
Out of kindness I suppose
[Verse 3]
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
[Chorus]
G
All the federales say
D G
They could have had him any day
Bm G A
They only let him hang around
G Bm
Out of kindness I suppose
[Verse 4]
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
[Chorus]
G
All the federales say
D G
They could have had him any day
Bm G A
They only let him hang around
G Bm
Out of kindness I suppose
G
All the federales say
D G
They could have had him any day
Bm G A
They only let him hang around
G Bm
Out of kindness I suppose
