The first verse is key. As with most all of Townes' work, there's not a spare word in the whole thing.
Pat Pattison says in his book on song-writing that a song should establish who is talking to who and why or it won't be all it can be. The first verse does this.
This is the story of two tragedies and the fork in the road a young man faces, whether to pursue the glorious free death or the long safe life. It's also about the tragedy of the American man and then less provably it's about Townes.
Here's the literal story for the whole song:
The boy has run away to live on the road, the mother has sent a friend, private eye or lover after him, some older man anyway and he's found him on the road. Rather than just drag him back he's giving him the benefit of his wisdom. The man doing the talking is Lefty and Lefty is an unreliable narrator.
In the second verse he's telling the boy about his friend Pancho who lived on the road but ultimately died. Pancho is a nickname for boys called ‘Francis’ which originally means ‘free’. Townes was a great reader of history and would have known this. Pancho represents the choice the boy has to run after the free life.
Lefty doesn't want to let be known who he is to the boy though. Maybe he sold out his buddy, maybe he didn't. I think he did though and the reason is in the misquoted chorus above. The chorus actually changes with each telling. In the first, the federales needed kindness to get him to 'hang around'. E.g. get hung by being betrayed. This is the tragedy of the man who seeks glory. His choices are his own undoing.
Lefty is growing old, can't play anymore and the death (dust) has made him silent about things, referencing how he can't tell the whole truth to us and the boy. Finally we're left with the tragedy of growing old, the tragedy of the man who seeks safety.
Secondly it's about America. Americans, as opposed to Europeans always went to the frontier to grow up, to live. There was a great piece in GQ magazine about Eustace Conway in 1998, a man who lives like the old pioneers hunting bucks with his bare hands and riding across America on horseback. The American man pines for this lifestyle but it's gone. He can now live on a different frontier and die a criminal, or he can die the slow death of civilization in Cleveland motel. It's the tragedy of the modern man.
Lastly, I think both Pancho and Lefty are to some extent both Townes. Townes was born to money but went to live with the people, with prostitutes, bar-flies, drug addicts and worst of all, songwriters. He lived the life of the American tragedy and his best songs are about that life. He sought the frontier, he sought to live but he found his own tragedies. The biggest one is probably the three months of insulin shock therapy his family put his through in the sanitarium. Essentially therapeutic brain damage administered by psychiatrists and now no longer practiced. The therapy left him without his long term memory, and I think that is Pancho. The left brain in most people is the dominant 'conscious' brain. The song therefore could also be about Townes's brain damage. Pancho is the lost part, the person he was. Lefty is the person he is now, growing old.
The first verse is key. As with most all of Townes' work, there's not a spare word in the whole thing.
Pat Pattison says in his book on song-writing that a song should establish who is talking to who and why or it won't be all it can be. The first verse does this.
This is the story of two tragedies and the fork in the road a young man faces, whether to pursue the glorious free death or the long safe life. It's also about the tragedy of the American man and then less provably it's about Townes.
Here's the literal story for the whole song:
The boy has run away to live on the road, the mother has sent a friend, private eye or lover after him, some older man anyway and he's found him on the road. Rather than just drag him back he's giving him the benefit of his wisdom. The man doing the talking is Lefty and Lefty is an unreliable narrator.
In the second verse he's telling the boy about his friend Pancho who lived on the road but ultimately died. Pancho is a nickname for boys called ‘Francis’ which originally means ‘free’. Townes was a great reader of history and would have known this. Pancho represents the choice the boy has to run after the free life.
Lefty doesn't want to let be known who he is to the boy though. Maybe he sold out his buddy, maybe he didn't. I think he did though and the reason is in the misquoted chorus above. The chorus actually changes with each telling. In the first, the federales needed kindness to get him to 'hang around'. E.g. get hung by being betrayed. This is the tragedy of the man who seeks glory. His choices are his own undoing.
Lefty is growing old, can't play anymore and the death (dust) has made him silent about things, referencing how he can't tell the whole truth to us and the boy. Finally we're left with the tragedy of growing old, the tragedy of the man who seeks safety.
Secondly it's about America. Americans, as opposed to Europeans always went to the frontier to grow up, to live. There was a great piece in GQ magazine about Eustace Conway in 1998, a man who lives like the old pioneers hunting bucks with his bare hands and riding across America on horseback. The American man pines for this lifestyle but it's gone. He can now live on a different frontier and die a criminal, or he can die the slow death of civilization in Cleveland motel. It's the tragedy of the modern man.
Lastly, I think both Pancho and Lefty are to some extent both Townes. Townes was born to money but went to live with the people, with prostitutes, bar-flies, drug addicts and worst of all, songwriters. He lived the life of the American tragedy and his best songs are about that life. He sought the frontier, he sought to live but he found his own tragedies. The biggest one is probably the three months of insulin shock therapy his family put his through in the sanitarium. Essentially therapeutic brain damage administered by psychiatrists and now no longer practiced. The therapy left him without his long term memory, and I think that is Pancho. The left brain in most people is the dominant 'conscious' brain. The song therefore could also be about Townes's brain damage. Pancho is the lost part, the person he was. Lefty is the person he is now, growing old.