In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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
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
They 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
Was gonna keep you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath as hard as kerosene
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
They 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
Lyrics submitted by fallacies, edited by Gizmopolis
Pancho and Lefty Lyrics as written by Townes Van Zandt
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The meaning of this song has always haunted me, so one day I spent a few hours on the internet trying to hunt dow the meaning. Here's what I found. The song was written by the legendary Townes Van Zandt, who went to his grave without ever revealing anything about the song. Wow.
This song is about two brothers that were close but if it makes sense at all were also rivals one being his Mother's favorite both sent out on the road to live a cold, hard life. In this person's perception that I knew he came from a family of alcoholics and knew in order to be free he and his brother had to leave their parent's home and go out to their own dreams and independence in the world without training and without help. In the end the one brother died in the song. I say this because I knew of two brothers who claimed this to be "their song" because just as it states above this song was just like their life as they knew it. The song may hold other meanings for someone else. The person I knew actually thought he should play this song at his wedding it meant so much to him (in some way I think this person felt that marriage was his death sentence- sad but true). He felt marriage was his death sentence because he had watched his parent's suffer through their own alcoholism marriage like attending a funeral. Songs can hold very valuable meanings to us for different reasons. Often the general idea is the same but the details, ideologies and personal meanings comes from the eye of the reader. May God Bless you Bryon, in your honor and in your precious memory.
lefty and Poncho are the same person. Lefty left Ohio and drifted south and got involved with a bunch of petty thieves around the border and became Poncho. After a while he started looking back towards. When a Mexican in his "gang" was killed Lefty saw his chance and claimed the dead guy was Poncho. He took this as an opportunity to slip out of the mess that he had involved himself in and go home.
@IJBand Bingo!!