Liv ing on the road, my friend,
was gon na keep you free and clean;
and now you wear your skin like iron,
and your breath as hard as (A)ker o sene.
Weren’t you ma ma’s on ly boy?
But her (D)fa v’rite one, it seemed.
She be gan to cry when (G)you said
good bye,
and sank in to your (Bm)dream.
Liv ing on the road, my friend,
was gon na keep you free and clean;
and now you wear your skin like iron,
and your breath as hard as (A)ker o sene.
Weren’t you ma ma’s on ly boy?
But her (D)fa v’rite one, it seemed.
She be gan to cry when (G)you said
good bye,
and sank in to your (Bm)dream.
A All the Fed er al es say
they could have had him an y day.
They on ly let him slip (D)a (A)way,
out of (G)kind ness I sup (Bm)pose.
(Bm)pose.
This page shows “Pancho And Lefty” by Townes Van Zandt in our color-coded kid songbook view — every note is colored by pitch (red C, orange D, yellow E, green F, blue G, purple A, pink B) and the lyrics sit directly under each note, so children can sing along while they play. The song is in the key of D at 120 BPM, a comfortable easy-level arrangement perfect for first-time learners.