Van Zandt Townes – Pancho & Lefty tab

Here's one of my favorite ballads which was written by the inimitable Townes Van 
Zandt. Emmylou Harris recorded it, as did Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in a 
duet (don't ask me why). I first heard it in a coffeehouse at RPI (remember 
coffeehouses, where people went to hear good music, not get drunk) by Robin and 
Linda Williams, of later Prairie Home Companion fame. 

I play this with a D, C#, B bass run transition from the D chord to whatever 
follows. I've indicated this with the following chord notation.

	D		x00232
	D/C#		x40232
	D4/B(?)	x20032

I also lead into the verse with e+-----------2--b+--2--3--5-----g+--------------  then picking out of the D chord, etc. d+-----------0--a+--0--2--4-----e+--------------                Livin' on the road, my friend.....

which is nice for many songs played in D. 

Enjoy, 
Denny Straussfogel 



		Pancho and Lefty		by Townes Van Zandt

D
Livin' on the road, my friend 
A
Was gonna keep us free and clean 
G
But now you wear your skin like iron
        D           D/C#    D4/B       A
And you breath's as hard as kerosene
G
You weren't your mama's only boy
        D        D/C#    D4/B
But her favorite one, it seems 
    D
She began to cry
         D/C# D4/B A    A7
When you said good bye 
    G             Bm
And sank into you dreams 

(same chords as first verse) 
Pancho was a bandit, boys 
Rode a horse fast as polished steel 
Wore his guns outside his pants 
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match, ya know 
On the deserts down in Mexico 
No one heard his dyin' words 
But that's the way it goes

Chorus (words change slightly, each time) 
G
And all the federales say 
     D        D/C#    D4/B
They could of had him any day 
      D    D/C#    D4/B     A   A7
They only let him slip away 
       G               Bm
Out of kindness, I suppose

Now Lefty he can't sing the blues 
All night long like he used to 
The dust that Pancho bit down South 
It ended up in Lefty's mouth 
The day they laid old Pancho low 
Lefty split for Ohio 
Where he got the bread to go 
Well there ain't nobody 'knows 

But all the federales say 
They could of had him any day 
They only let him slip away 
Out of kindness, I suppose

Now poets sing how Pancho fell 
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel 
The desert'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 only did what he had to do 
And now he's growin' old 

And all the federales say 
They could of had him any day 
They only let him go so long 
Out of kindness, I suppose

Yes a few old gray federales still say 
They could of had him any day 
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness, I suppose