townes van zandt wrote the ballad of pancho and lefty.
townes van zandt wrote the ballad of pancho and lefty.
who wrote the ballad of pancho and lefty?
townes van zandt
the album includes what is van zandt's signature tune, the enigmatic "pancho and lefty". in an interview that appears in the book "songwriters on songwriting", paul zollo asked if he remembered writing the song, to which van zandt replied, "yes. i was in dallas. in a hotel room. that one kind of came from not having anything to do and sitting down with the express purpose of writing a song. i took one day and then i played what i had that night at a gig. and a songwriter told me, 'man, that’s a great. but i don’t think it’s finished.' so i went back to my hotel room the next day and wrote the last verse. the only thing i remember thinking about while i was writing it was consciously thinking that this is not about pancho villa." the song tells the story of a mexican bandit named pancho and a more mysterious character, lefty, and implies that pancho was killed after he was betrayed by his associate lefty, who was paid off by the mexican federales. in the 1984 pbs series "austin pickers", the singer elaborated: "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."
the late great townes van zandt
pancho &amp; lefty (album)









































pancho & lefty is a honky tonk album by outlaw country musicians merle haggard and willie nelson, released in 1983. original vinyl copies from 1983 give the album's title as "poncho & lefty" on the cover, as well as on the inner sleeve and the record label; the album's title track is similarly rendered "poncho & lefty" on the cover, inner sleeve, and label. later editions correct the title to the intended "pancho & lefty". they are backed by don markham of the strangers.









































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pancho & lefty (album)