Pancho and Lefty
D A
Living on the road my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean
G
Now you wear your skin like iron,
D A
Your breath as hard as kerosene.
G D G
You weren't your mama's only boy, but her favorite one it seems
D G D A
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
G Bm Dm
And sank into your dreams.
D A
Pancho was a bandit boy, his horse was fast as polished steel
G
He wore his gun outside his pants
D A
For all the honest world to feel.
G D G
Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico
D G D A G Bm Gm
Nobody heard his dying words, ah but that's the way it goes.
G D G
All the Federales say they could have had him any day
D G D A G Bm
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
BAD
D A
Lefty, he can't sing the blues all night long like he used to.
G D A
The dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth
G D G
The day they laid poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio
D G D A G Bm
Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows
BAG
G D G
All the Federales say they could have had him any day
D G D A G Bm Dm
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
D A
The boys tell how Pancho fell, and Lefty's living in cheap hotels
G
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold,
D A
And so the story ends we're told
G D G
Pancho needs your prayers it's true, but save a few for Lefty too
D G D A G Bm
He only did what he had to do, and now he's growing old
BAG
G D G
All the Federales say they could have had him any day
D G D A G Bm
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
BAG
G D G
A few gray Federales say they could have had him any day
D G D A G D D
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.
notes on playing:
D G D A
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
Try playing the G D A as:
GDA
|-s-3--2----
|-s-3--3---2
|-s-4--2---2
|----------2
|-----------
|-----------
G Bm Dm
And sank into your dreams.
and
G Bm Gm
ah but that's the way it goes.
The transitions at the ends of these lines are similar. Play the Bm like:
Bm
|---2-------
|---3------- And then walk the bass line up or down the 5th string
|---4------- to make the change to the final D or G. It's a quick
|---4------- transition.
|---2-------
|-----------
BADBAG
|---2------2 |---2------3
|---3------3 |---3------0
|---4------2 |---4------0
|---4------- |---4------0
|---2---4--- |---2---0--2
|----------- |----------3
And throughout the song, as you strum or pick your way merrily along,
try to keep an alternating bass line going, it gives the song a lot
of it's character.
Submitted by John Kearney (jk13@aol.com)