Livin' on the road, my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath is hard as kerosene
You weren't your momma's only boy but her favorite one, it seems
But 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, in the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' words, ah, but that's the way it goes

All the Federales say, they could've 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, they could've 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
Only did what he had to do, ah, but that's the way it goes

All the Federales say, they could've had him any day
They only let him go so long out of kindness, I suppose

Few gray Federales say, could've had him any day
They only let him so go long out of kindness, I suppose