Pancho and Lefty (1993) – Willie Nelson & Bob Dylan (written by Townes Van Zandt)

I first became familiar with Pancho and Lefty from the duet below by Willie Nelson & Bob Dylan. I liked it a lot from first listen. It’s reassuring to know Townes was alive to see these two honour him by playing a medley of his hit. Pancho and Lefty, originally Poncho and Lefty, is a song written by American country music singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Perhaps his most well-known song. For more information about his version I point you to my friend Max’s Pancho and Lefty post below:

The royalties from this song helped Van Zandt through the years. He told a story of getting pulled over by a couple of policemen. His car sticker was out of date so he got into the police car and they asked him what he does for a living. He said he was a songwriter and the policemen shook their heads. He then told them that he wrote “Pancho and Lefty” and their eyes lit up and they started to grin. Pancho and Lefty were the policemen’s police radio code names. They let Townes go after that.

Van Zandt did not like fame or what came attached to it. It’s been reported that he turned down opportunities to write with Bob Dylan. He respected Dylan a great deal but it was the celebrity part he didn’t want. He never ended up on a major label through his career…by choice.

Pancho and Lefty at PowerPop

Living on the road, my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath as hard as kerosene
You weren’t your momma’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 boy
His horse was fast as polished steel
He 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
But that’s the way it goes

All the Federales say
They could’ve had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

As alluded to above in Max’s post; Pancho and Lefty has been recorded by several artists since its composition and performance by Van Zandt, with the Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard version selling the most copies and reaching number one on the Billboard country chart.  

In an interview, Townes Van Zandt recalled, “I realize that I wrote it, but it’s hard to take credit for the writing, because it came from out of the blue. It came through me and it’s a real nice song, and I think, I’ve finally found out what it’s about. I’ve always wondered what it’s about. I kinda always knew it wasn’t about Pancho Villa, and then somebody told me that Pancho Villa had a buddy whose name in Spanish meant ‘Lefty.’ But in the song, my song, Pancho gets hung. ‘They only let him hang around out of kindness I suppose’ and the real Pancho Villa was assassinated.”

References:
1. Pancho and Lefty – Wikipedia

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand