Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's 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 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

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
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
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

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

A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose

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Lyrics submitted by BRU149

Pancho & Lefty song meanings

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My Interpretation
Music lovers, I just found this site (songmeanings.net/songs/view/142055/) while doing an internet search on “Pancho and Lefty.”

I first heard this song by Emmy Lou Harris back in the late 70’s. I loved it then, but didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out the meaning. It seemed a simple story. A few years back a friend gave me a CD with a collection of Townes’ songs, mostly sung by others. Interestingly, he chose Harris version of “Pancho and Lefty” though I know he is familiar with Willie and Merle’s version. After listening to it on the way home from work one night I got on the internet to find out more about the song. I was curious to find out if it was based on a real event. This first search ended with nothing solid, so I let it go.

A few nights ago my wife came home from work talking about a live version of the song she heard on KBCO, a Denver station that records many musicians when they play in Denver. She couldn’t remember who did it, so we did a search for the song on Rhapsody and we listened to many versions. At the end I played her Emmy Lou’s version and she agreed it was the most moving. She referred to it as “haunting” and I agree. I will add that she was a folk and blues singer, and music major, when I met her in 1978, so I respect her taste.

I have had a great time searching the posts here and getting other’s ideas on the meaning. One person posting on this site says that Townes said the song was about Jesus and Judas. I don’t buy that. Jesus may have been an outlaw, but he wasn’t a bandit. Other posters believe that Lefty was a compadre of Pancho who sold him out for a payoff from the Federales. Still others believe that the song is about Townes himself. That interpretation gives meaning to the line:

“His Mother cried when he said goodbye, And sank into his dreams.”

Perhaps this refers to the insulin shock therapy that Townes went through when his parents brought him back from college at CU. Wikipedia says that giving Townes that treatment was the greatest regret of his mother’s life and that he lost all of his long term memory as a result. It could be that he withdrew and “sank into his dreams” after that event. Also, Townes did have a brother, so that fits this interpretation. If we take this approach the other details don’t matter as much, as the song is an allegory. Making sense of how all of the details fit together is less important than if we take the story literally.

Before taking any of these interpretations too seriously I want to point out that the song wasn’t written by a disciplined poet, but by an addict/alcoholic with mental illness. Perhaps he really had no memory of what inspired the song or the act of writing it. If so, it makes his comment about wanting to read the dissertation that a student was writing on his song in order to find out it’s meaning, especially witty. He may have been saying we can read too much into what is at heart meant to be just a good story, I have heard other song writers say that they don’t remember what they were thinking when they wrote a song.

When I first heard the song I thought that Lefty was a bounty hunter who came down from the north to hunt down Pancho. Reading the lyrics, I still like that interpretation. The blues is an American music form and I doubt it was popular in rural Mexico in the early 20th century. If “ Lefty can’t sing the blues all night like he used to” his place of origin must be north of the border. The line “Pancho met his match” reinforces this. To me that implies that the two hadn’t known each other before the encounter. Lefty was as wiley as Pancho and Pancho couldn’t shake him. Think of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid being chased through the west by special trackers: “Who are those guys?” My take on the Federales is that they were embarrassed by the inability to bring Pancho in and quietly offered a bounty on him. At least in American film the Federales do not have a reputation for kindness. The reality on their temperament probably varies, but I have to take the line as ironic.

Figuring out how Lefty heard about the bounty leaves a bit of hole in this theory. However, the line “The Dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty’s mouth” fits nicely with this. To “bite the dust” means to die, usually by violent means. That this killing occurred “down south” implies that the viewpoint of the story was from the north. I take this viewpoint to be Lefty’s if he went south to hunt Pancho, though it could also be the narrator’s. As for why the dust “ended up in Lefty’s mouth, perhaps a little of Lefty died when he killed Pancho, and thus he had dust in his mouth too. We can only imagine why he felt this way, but perhaps it was because he found Pancho a worthy adversary. Of course the “bread” that he used to go back north was the bounty and perhaps some of Pancho’s ill gotten gains.

One final comment: If I were to sing this song, and you surely wouldn’t want to hear it if I did, I would change the line about Pancho wearing his gun outside his pants to “For all the honest world to fear” instead of “for all the honest world to feel. ”Townes reached too far for a rhyme here, when “close to a rhyme would have been fine.” See what I mean? LewBob

Music lovers, I just found this site (http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/142055/) while doing an internet search on “Pancho and Lefty.” I first heard this song by Emmy Lou Harris back in the late 70’s. I loved it then, but didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out the meaning. It seemed a simple story. A few years back a friend gave me a CD with a collection of Townes’ songs, mostly sung by others. Interestingly, he chose Harris version of “Pancho and Lefty” though I know he is familiar with Willie and Merle’s version. After listening to it on the way home from work one night I got on the internet to find out more about the song. I was curious to find out if it was based on a real event. This first search ended with nothing solid, so I let it go. A few nights ago my wife came home from work talking about a live version of the song she heard on KBCO, a Denver station that records many musicians when they play in Denver. She couldn’t remember who did it, so we did a search for the song on Rhapsody and we listened to many versions. At the end I played her Emmy Lou’s version and she agreed it was the most moving. She referred to it as “haunting” and I agree. I will add that she was a folk and blues singer, and music major, when I met her in 1978, so I respect her taste. I have had a great time searching the posts here and getting other’s ideas on the meaning. One person posting on this site says that Townes said the song was about Jesus and Judas. I don’t buy that. Jesus may have been an outlaw, but he wasn’t a bandit. Other posters believe that Lefty was a compadre of Pancho who sold him out for a payoff from the Federales. Still others believe that the song is about Townes himself. That interpretation gives meaning to the line: “His Mother cried when he said goodbye, And sank into his dreams.” Perhaps this refers to the insulin shock therapy that Townes went through when his parents brought him back from college at CU. Wikipedia says that giving Townes that treatment was the greatest regret of his mother’s life and that he lost all of his long term memory as a result. It could be that he withdrew and “sank into his dreams” after that event. Also, Townes did have a brother, so that fits this interpretation. If we take this approach the other details don’t matter as much, as the song is an allegory. Making sense of how all of the details fit together is less important than if we take the story literally. Before taking any of these interpretations too seriously I want to point out that the song wasn’t written by a disciplined poet, but by an addict/alcoholic with mental illness. Perhaps he really had no memory of what inspired the song or the act of writing it. If so, it makes his comment about wanting to read the dissertation that a student was writing on his song in order to find out it’s meaning, especially witty. He may have been saying we can read too much into what is at heart meant to be just a good story, I have heard other song writers say that they don’t remember what they were thinking when they wrote a song. When I first heard the song I thought that Lefty was a bounty hunter who came down from the north to hunt down Pancho. Reading the lyrics, I still like that interpretation. The blues is an American music form and I doubt it was popular in rural Mexico in the early 20th century. If “ Lefty can’t sing the blues all night like he used to” his place of origin must be north of the border. The line “Pancho met his match” reinforces this. To me that implies that the two hadn’t known each other before the encounter. Lefty was as wiley as Pancho and Pancho couldn’t shake him. Think of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid being chased through the west by special trackers: “Who are those guys?” My take on the Federales is that they were embarrassed by the inability to bring Pancho in and quietly offered a bounty on him. At least in American film the Federales do not have a reputation for kindness. The reality on their temperament probably varies, but I have to take the line as ironic. Figuring out how Lefty heard about the bounty leaves a bit of hole in this theory. However, the line “The Dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty’s mouth” fits nicely with this. To “bite the dust” means to die, usually by violent means. That this killing occurred “down south” implies that the viewpoint of the story was from the north. I take this viewpoint to be Lefty’s if he went south to hunt Pancho, though it could also be the narrator’s. As for why the dust “ended up in Lefty’s mouth, perhaps a little of Lefty died when he killed Pancho, and thus he had dust in his mouth too. We can only imagine why he felt this way, but perhaps it was because he found Pancho a worthy adversary. Of course the “bread” that he used to go back north was the bounty and perhaps some of Pancho’s ill gotten gains. One final comment: If I were to sing this song, and you surely wouldn’t want to hear it if I did, I would change the line about Pancho wearing his gun outside his pants to “For all the honest world to fear” instead of “for all the honest world to feel. ”Townes reached too far for a rhyme here, when “close to a rhyme would have been fine.” See what I mean? LewBob

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LewBobon August 08, 2013 Link
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@LewBob

@LewBob Absolutely love this comment - it especially helps me process the first verse, which has always puzzled me. That biographical context regard shock therapy is haunting. I can't quite subscribe to the theory of Lefty being a bounty hunter who hadn't known Pancho prior. The lyrics lead me to think Lefty was an associate of Pancho who turned on him in order to buy his escape, for a few reasons: -The "...Federales say..." segment immediately after Lefty's verse uses the phrase "only let him slip away," - which I always thought was describing his act of leaving for Ohio a line or two before. It also suggests to me that Lefty was equally in trouble with the law (and that he turned Pancho in to secure his own financial reward and freedom). -The line where nobody knows "where he got the bread to go" suggests to me he was someone from the area familiar to the locals (not a random visitor from the North), otherwise they wouldn't have known enough prior context about him or his financial means to be openly pondering his leaving or his ability to do so. -The last verse suggests Lefty only did what he "had to do," and implies he feels guilt for it. I don't think those emotions would make as much since in a bounty hunter vs. target relationship, so much as they would explain a relationship of partners where one individual (Lefty) sold his associate out for his own wellbeing. -The moral tradeoff of the song seems to be how Lefty chose to sacrifice his relationship and the exciting but riskier bandit lifestyle, and in return secured the ability to now be stably "growing old" (but at the same time is saddled with guilt, and living more blandly, unglamorously, in a cheap hotel). On the flip side, Pancho met an untimely end, but has his story remembered by the ages.

Browns0286on January 26, 2018

@LewBob why are you going on about “disciplined poet(s)”? Songwriting is NOT poetry, lyrics are mostly meaningless without the music. And your comment about “reaching for a rhyme” - no, “for all the honest world to FEEL” is perfect. And anyway, it rhymes w/“fast as polished STEEL”, so I’m not sure what you’re saying makes any sense

force263on October 29, 2019

@LewBob Force 263. Well, after all the work and effort, and fun, that went into my post you come up with "song writing is not poetry." I and many others would disagree. Many songs were peoms first before being put to music. The Star Spangled Banner is an example. Some songwriters are serious about the craft and do some pretty good poetry. Are you really saying that "The Sounds of Silence" doesn't stand alone as a poem? Neither song (our National Anthem or The Sounds of Silence) are not meaningless without music. For that matter, waha is the name of this website? Song Meanings... As for for my comment about fear vs feel. I think you are more apt to fear an outlaw's gun than feel it. That search for a rhyme always bothered me. To me fear and steel come close enough to a rhyme just as fine and rhyme are close enough. That may not make sense to you, but it does to me. Capiche?

LewBobon October 30, 2019

@LewBob Force 263. Well, after all the work and effort, and fun, that went into my post you come up with "song writing is not poetry." I and many others would disagree. Many songs were peoms first before being put to music. The Star Spangled Banner is an example. Some songwriters are serious about the craft and do some pretty good poetry. Are you really saying that "The Sounds of Silence" doesn't stand alone as a poem? Neither song (our National Anthem or The Sounds of Silence) are not meaningless without music. For that matter, waha is the name of this website? Song Meanings... As for for my comment about fear vs feel. I think you are more apt to fear an outlaw's gun than feel it. That search for a rhyme always bothered me. To me fear and steel come close enough to a rhyme just as fine and rhyme are close enough. That may not make sense to you, but it does to me. Capiche? By the way, I may have thrown you off with "disciplined poets." I was referring to writers, be it poets or song writers, who take the craft seriously and study poetry. These are writers who could probably tell you what inspired the poem and maybe tell you what they were trying to say, though most would not. Jimmy Buffett is someone who I do not consider a "serious poet" though he is very literate. He kind of admits it in this line from Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season: Feelin' tired, then I got inspired I knew that it wouldn't last long So all alone I walked back home Sat on my beach and then I made up this song I like the song and many others from his early albums, but I don't put him a class with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell or Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson, Townes, may have been drunk or stoned when he wrote many of his songs, but damn they are well crafted. Did you see Ken Burns "Country Music?" Larry Gatlin goes on and on about some of Kris's lyrics. From Sunday Morning Coming Down " Then I headed back for home And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin' And it echoed through the canyons Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday" 

LewBobon October 30, 2019

@LewBob Force 263. Well, after all the work and effort, and fun, that went into my post you come up with "song writing is not poetry." I and many others would disagree. Many songs were peoms first before being put to music. The Star Spangled Banner is an example. Some songwriters are serious about the craft and do some pretty good poetry. Are you really saying that "The Sounds of Silence" doesn't stand alone as a poem? Neither song (our National Anthem or The Sounds of Silence) are not meaningless without music. For that matter, what is the name of this website? Song Meanings... As for for my comment about fear vs feel. I think you are more apt to fear an outlaw's gun than feel it. That search for a rhyme always bothered me. To me fear and steel come close enough to a rhyme just as fine and rhyme are close enough. That may not make sense to you, but it does to me. Capiche? By the way, I may have thrown you off with "disciplined poets." I was referring to writers, be it poets or song writers, who take the craft seriously and study poetry. These are writers who could probably tell you what inspired the poem and maybe tell you what they were trying to say, though most would not. Jimmy Buffett is someone who I do not consider a "serious poet" though he is very literate. He kind of admits it in this line from Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season: Feelin' tired, then I got inspired I knew that it wouldn't last long So all alone I walked back home Sat on my beach and then I made up this song I like the song and many others from his early albums, but I don't put him a class with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell or Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson, Townes, may have been drunk or stoned when he wrote many of his songs, but damn they are well crafted. Did you see Ken Burns "Country Music?" Larry Gatlin goes on and on about some of Kris's lyrics. From Sunday Morning Coming Down " Then I headed back for home And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin' And it echoed through the canyons Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday" 

LewBobon October 30, 2019