NP: townes van zandt

[Joe Allonby]

Townes plays around with it a lot actually. There is  a live version that is
different from all of those. Emmy Lou did a nice version of it. I was just
giving a simplified chorus.

It's easy for me to remember these lyrics since it's part of my live set and
I sing it usually twice a week.


On 8/27/06, David Casseres <david.casseres at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Good rendition from memory.  But that chorus you give at the end --
>
> All the federales say,
> "We could have had him anyday,
> We only let him slip away,
> Out of kindness, I suppose."
>
> --actually comes round three times.  In Willy Nelson's version, it's
> as you give it the first two times, and then the last time it's
>
> All the federales say,
> "We could have had him anyday,
> We only let him go so long,
> Out of kindness, I suppose."
>
> --And it starts to look like another layer of story.  Turn now to
> Townes Van Zandt's original lyrics, and the three choruses go
>
> All the federales say
> They could have had him any day
> They only let him hang around
> Out of kindness I suppose
> ...
> All the federales say
> They could have had him any day
> They only let him slip away
> Out of kindness I suppose
> ...
> A few gray federales say
> They could have had him any day
> They only let him go so wrong
> Out of kindness I suppose
>
> -- and there you get the complete backstory.  I guess Willy decided it
> was too complicated, but I think it makes the song.
>
> I heard Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry do the song a year ago in Sisters,
> Oregon; it was so damn sad I can't even remember whoich lyrics they
> used for the chorus.
>
> On 8/16/06, Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Ah...what the hell.
> >
> > Living on the road, my friend,
> > Was gonna keep you free and clean,
> > But now you wear your skin like iron,
> > And your breath is hard as kerosene,
> > you weren't you Mama's only boy,
> > But her favorite one it seems,
> > She began to cry when you said goodbye,
> > And sank into your dreams,
> >
> > Poncho 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,
> > But noone heard his dying words,
> > But that's the way it goes,
> >
> > Lefty he can't sing the blues,
> > All night long like he used to,
> > The dust that Poncho bit down south,
> > Ended up in Lefty's mouth,
> > The day they laid poor Poncho low,
> > Lefty split for Ohio,
> > But where he got the bread to go,
> > There ain't nobody knows,
> >
> > The poets tell how Ponco fell,
> > And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel,
> > The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold,
> > And so the story ends we're told,
> > Poncho needs your prayers it's true,
> > But say a few for Lefty too,
> > He only did what he had to do,
> > And now he's growin'  old,
> >
> > All the federales say,
> > "We could have had him anyday,
> > We only let him slip away,
> > Out of kindness, I suppose."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 8/16/06, Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > So far as I know, I know TvZ only through
> > > Tindersticks' cover of his "Kathleen," but, seeing as
> > > it's my favorite track by them ... also, this ...
> > >
> > > http://www.townesthemovie.com/
> > >
> > > ... was recommended to me just yesterday, so ...
> > >
> > > --- "Thomas Eckhardt," < thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Van Zandt penned about twenty of the most beautiful
> > > > songs ever written....
> > >
> > >
> > > __________________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
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