{"id":21646,"date":"2014-05-29T13:57:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T17:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=21646"},"modified":"2014-05-29T13:57:54","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T17:57:54","slug":"can-someone-tell-me-what-this-song-is-about-part-ii-pancho-and-lefty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/can-someone-tell-me-what-this-song-is-about-part-ii-pancho-and-lefty\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Someone Tell Me What This Song Is About, Part II (Pancho and Lefty)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ym2EpwnilUc\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the past few days, I\u2019ve become obsessed with the song &#8220;Pancho and Lefty,&#8221; by <strong>Townes Van Zandt<\/strong>. The lyrics contain some great lines, but the more I listen to it, the more I wonder, what is this song really about? It should be noted that I usually take narratives at face value and have trouble reading into subtext and symbolism.<\/p>\n<p>The several accounts that Townes himself gives don&#8217;t really shed any light, so here&#8217;s a few theories that I\u2019ve formed and\/or collected on the internet:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The narrator is telling someone a cautionary tale about the dangers of living outside the law. Pancho and Lefty are two bandits. Pancho was killed by the Federales after being betrayed by Lefty, who is allowed to keep Pancho\u2019s money in exchange for the betrayal. Lefty\u2019s fate is arguably not any better than Pancho\u2019s since he\u2019s relegated to living in a cheap hotel in Cleveland, in hiding and with the guilt of betrayal on his conscience.<\/li>\n<li>Pancho is Jesus and Lefty is Judas.<\/li>\n<li>Pancho faked his own death and is now living in hiding as Lefty.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Pancho&#8221; is a Walter Mitty-like fantasy of Lefty\u2019s.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Any additional theories? Which one do you think is the most accurate interpretation? The lyrics follow&#8230;<em>after the jump<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Living on the road my friend,<br \/>\nWas gonna keep you free and clean.<br \/>\nNow you wear your skin like iron,<br \/>\nYour breath as hard as kerosene.<br \/>\nYou weren&#8217;t your mama&#8217;s only boy,<br \/>\nBut her favorite one it seems.<br \/>\nShe began to cry when you said goodbye,<br \/>\nAnd sank into your dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Pancho was a bandit boy,<br \/>\nHis horse was fast as polished steel.<br \/>\nHe wore his gun outside his pants<br \/>\nFor all the honest world to feel.<br \/>\nPancho met his match you know<br \/>\nOn the deserts down in Mexico,<br \/>\nNobody heard his dying words,<br \/>\nAh but that&#8217;s the way it goes.<\/p>\n<p>All the Federales say<br \/>\nThey could have had him any day<br \/>\nThey only let him slip away<br \/>\nOut of kindness, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p>Lefty, he can&#8217;t sing the blues<br \/>\nAll night long like he used to.<br \/>\nThe dust that Pancho bit down south<br \/>\nEnded up in Lefty&#8217;s mouth.<br \/>\nThe day they laid poor Pancho low,<br \/>\nLefty split for Ohio.<br \/>\nWhere he got the bread to go,<br \/>\nThere ain&#8217;t nobody knows.<\/p>\n<p>All the Federales say<br \/>\nWe could have had him any day.<br \/>\nWe only let him slip away<br \/>\nOut of kindness, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p>The poets tell how Pancho fell,<br \/>\nAnd Lefty&#8217;s living in cheap hotels<br \/>\nThe desert&#8217;s quiet, Cleveland&#8217;s cold,<br \/>\nAnd so the story ends we&#8217;re told.<br \/>\nPancho needs your prayers it&#8217;s true,<br \/>\nBut save a few for Lefty too.<br \/>\nHe only did what he had to do,<br \/>\nAnd now he&#8217;s growing old.<\/p>\n<p>All the Federales say<br \/>\nWe could have had him any day.<br \/>\nWe only let him go so long<br \/>\nOut of kindness, I suppose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past few days, I\u2019ve become obsessed with the song &#8220;Pancho and Lefty,&#8221; by Townes Van Zandt. The lyrics contain some great lines, but the more I listen to it, the more I wonder, what is this song really about? It should be noted that I usually take narratives at face value and have <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/can-someone-tell-me-what-this-song-is-about-part-ii-pancho-and-lefty\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[204],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}