Loved this song even long before I finally got what happens in it - and then I loved it even more.
Key lines: "Where he got the bread to go ain't nobody knows", "He just did what he had to do"
Lefty sells Pancho to the cops. He betrays his best friend (and possibly more than that, if you want to over-interpret the "gun outside his pants for all the honest world to feel" line). Pancho gets killed, Lefty gets to live with the guilt and 30 pieces of silver. Yet Townes has at least as much sympathy for Lefty as for Pancho - "Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for Lefty too". Lefty's the villain of the piece, but also the one who ends up losing everything. Extremely sad and beautiful song.
Loved this song even long before I finally got what happens in it - and then I loved it even more.
Key lines: "Where he got the bread to go ain't nobody knows", "He just did what he had to do"
Lefty sells Pancho to the cops. He betrays his best friend (and possibly more than that, if you want to over-interpret the "gun outside his pants for all the honest world to feel" line). Pancho gets killed, Lefty gets to live with the guilt and 30 pieces of silver. Yet Townes has at least as much sympathy for Lefty as for Pancho - "Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for Lefty too". Lefty's the villain of the piece, but also the one who ends up losing everything. Extremely sad and beautiful song.
Wow, I got the narrative in the song, but I never noticed the Jesus Christ-Judas Iscariot parallels.
Wow, I got the narrative in the song, but I never noticed the Jesus Christ-Judas Iscariot parallels.