Pancho and Lefty

"Pancho and Lefty" is a song written by country singer and songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Van Zandt first recorded it for his 1972 album, The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. Emmylou Harris then covered the song for her 1977 album, Luxury Liner and the song became a number one country hit in 1983 when Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson adopted it as the title track of their duet album Pancho & Lefty.

Content & composition

The song tells the story of a Mexican bandit named Pancho and a more enigmatic character, Lefty. The song tells of Pancho's death and implies that he was betrayed by his associate Lefty who was paid off by the Mexican federales.

Although the lyrics are not exactly reconcilable with the historic details of the life and death of the famous Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, Van Zandt does not rule out the idea. In an interview, he 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, uh, 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.' I know that's strange, huh? 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, uh, assassinated." ^[1]

Chart performance

Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

Notes and sources

1. ^ 1984 PBS series, "Austin Pickers". Ed Heffelfinger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZrAy6iXj7o

External links

• Chords and lyrics from the Townes Van Zandt Blue Sky Homepage
• Song review at Allmusic
• Townes Van Zandt explains "Pancho and Lefty" (MPEG video) from Townes Van Zandt Central