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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Pancho & Lefty song meanings

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My Interpretation
Ciberratt I think you are right. It is autobiographical, and you noted a couple of significant points, one, that the first verse is the tipoff, and two, that "he is whole in the first verse but then splits into two distinct personalities" . I always felt that he was talking about himself from the first time i heard the song, but later allowed myself to be misled by Townes own explanations. Only later did i realize that Townes would never explain his songs if you asked, they were written for himself and for anyone who could listen and understand. Furhtermore, I propose that Townes (as he used to be) is Pancho, and Lefty is who he had to become (when you said goodbye and sank into your dreams). I invision Townes in a "cheap hotel", sitting on the bed with his guitar, and he looks up at himself in the dresser mirror, and sings this song to himself.(Lefty, because the Townes in the mirror is playing left handed). Pancho and Lefty is more about lamenting for a life surrendered than it is about any "split personality", though.

Ciberratt I think you are right. It is autobiographical, and you noted a couple of significant points, one, that the first verse is the tipoff, and two, that "he is whole in the first verse but then splits into two distinct personalities" . I always felt that he was talking about himself from the first time i heard the song, but later allowed myself to be misled by Townes own explanations. Only later did i realize that Townes would never explain his songs if you asked, they were written for himself and for anyone who could listen and understand. Furhtermore, I propose that Townes (as he used to be) is Pancho, and Lefty is who he had to become (when you said goodbye and sank into your dreams). I invision Townes in a "cheap hotel", sitting on the bed with his guitar, and he looks up at himself in the dresser mirror, and sings this song to himself.(Lefty, because the Townes in the mirror is playing left handed). Pancho and Lefty is more about lamenting for a life surrendered than it is about any "split personality", though.

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whiteyjohnsonon October 05, 2009 Link
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@whiteyjohnson

I like your interpretation about the down-and-out, washed-up "Lefty" being Townes himself, looking in the mirror. I can picture him sitting in that cheap motel in Cleveland, watching himself play guitar in the mirror, talking to himself: "Well, Lefty, you're not singing the blues like you used to, are ya?"

iggy72on February 06, 2012