I will go to my grave maintaining two things: that “Pancho and Lefty” is the saddest song ever sung in this wide and lonely world, and that Toby Keith is a congenitally underrated musician and person.
1. The best, the definitive version, against which all other versions are ranked: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.
(Some of the live Willie Nelson clips feature his controversial jazzy lyrical style; it sounds a bit rushed, as if he were trying to race ahead of the music. You either like this or you do not.)
2. Emmylou Harris
3. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Toby Keith
*Opens arms into Creed stance, falls into a sea of haters* Yes, the Toby Keith version goes above Townes van Zandt. He belongs there. Just because van Zandt wrote the song doesn’t mean he sang it best. Toby Keith is perhaps the greatest man in the world. He can turn the world on with his smile, and I love him, and I wish I could transform him into a shaggy red-coated dog that was my best friend and went on adventures with me and slept at the foot of my bed and wore a cowboy hat. This version’s a bit too glossy and uptempo, but it weirdly works, somehow.
4. Jason Isbell
That voice. This interpretation is a little more belt-y than strictly necessary, but that’s a minor quibble. Also notable for inspiring one of the most terrifying YouTube comments I have ever read:
“I always get a chill when I hear this song. Nothing sadder than an old killer, with nothing left but aches and pains…and memories. All the guys are dead, and gone, he’s left behind , still alive. Sometimes, in the dark , when no one’s around…he sits and drinks and holds his guns.”
5. Steve Earle
You want someone to go Full Darkness, you want Steve Earle. This is the version that forces you to stare into the abyss.
6. Townes van Zandt
Only okay. But he wrote the song, and for that we must always be grateful.
7. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Very slow, very subdued. For whatever reason this is the only version that does not make me actively sob, but it’s still quite lovely. Perhaps a little too lovely; this is not supposed to be quite so pretty.
8. Delbert McClinton
Straightforward, workmanlike, efficient. Perfectly acceptable. “Pancho and Lefty” is equally good slowed down and sped up; this is because it is a perfect song.
9. Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan
I include this only so you can hear a version where Willie sings his verses slowly. Bob Dylan is garbage on this song. It makes me angry, to hear him sing this song. Bob Dylan, you are not taking the tragedy of Pancho and Lefty seriously, and you are a damned hippie. I — stop singing like that. Sing normal, with a normal mouth.
10. Darius Rucker and Kris Kristofferson
This is a mess! A not unpleasant mess, but a mess nonetheless. Darius Rucker is a delightful man but he is wearing a suit. He is too polished by half for this song. Kris Kristofferson sounds like he is in so much pain that I want to bring him a shawl and a cup of tea. Also: what an odd song to sing at the White House! I love them both, however.
Worth mentioning: “Pancho and Lefty” has one of the greatest Wikipedia pages I have ever seen.
Two Interpretations of the NarrativeThe song is more a character study of the imperfect union between two bandits and how betrayal plays a part in the hero Pancho’s downfall, and how Lefty goes on in his life (“to Ohio”). Writing in “American Songwriter,” Jim Beviglia argues that Lefty did not betray Pancho, instead suggesting that the song contrasts the choice between going out in a “blaze of glory” versus growing old and gray — a theme also addressed by Neil Young. However, the line “Lefty split for Ohio / Where he got the bread to go there / Ain’t nobody knows” suggests that Lefty sold out Pancho, and in addition, a bandit character named Pancho, even if not directly in reference to the historical figure Pancho Villa, would have had a reward out for him. Further still, the federales likely wouldn’t have gotten Pancho without the betrayal of one of his friends (“We only let him slip away / Out of kindness, I suppose”).
/Sobs ineffably, fade to black.
Tags: bob dylan you stop singing like that, emmylou harris, i’ve got opinions real bad, merle haggard, pancho and lefty, sad songs, steve earle, toby keith, townes van zandt, willie nelson
I really don’t understand how Steve Earle’s isn’t #1. “See you when I get there, maestro.”
Steve Earle named his son after TVZ and then his son became a musician, got mixed up in drugs and booze like his old man, then became semi-reformed and is now also terribly amazing FOR THESE DETAILS AND MORE, THE STEVE EARLE VERSION IS DEFINITIVE.
JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE IS MY WEIRD LOOKING COUNTRY CRUSH FOREVER AND EVER.
I saw him play recently. He gives all these mini essays on music history between his songs and moves around really weird. It’s terrific.
I love this news. I need to see him live.
What, no love for the Poozies? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYN8ccAi2lU
I’ve never actually liked Willie/Merle version. Emmylou Harris’s version is far superior, and I am glad it’s close to where it should be.
Yesss, Emmylou all the way.
This is correct.
Jesus Christ on a cracker, Mallory. Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan are #9 on a list of 10? Are you trying to kill me?
….Shamelessly using this to post my favorite Steve Earle Performance of Forever and All Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsxI29D3Rv4
Merle and Willie forever! Also seconding the italics for Jason Isbell.
But I’ve always felt like Willie is more of a Lefty then a Pancho, you know? He’s so congenial!
Emmylou is number 1, she does sad sadder saddest songs like no one else.
“I — stop singing like that. Sing normal, with a normal mouth”
YES. I think this for most Bob Dylan songs. YOU CAN SING NORMAL, BOB, I’VE HEARD YOU. Why do you do this?
Whatever, Jim Beviglia! Of course Lefty sold out Pancho. That’s why he had to split for O-hi-o. He saved himself from certain violent death, and now he’s just living out his days burdened by a choice he made down in Mexico.
He only did what he had to do, and now he’s growing old.
I watched the Van Zandt video and none others out of spite for putting Toby above Townes and then the additional “only okay” is such a dissapointing middle finger I’m just waitin’ around to die now. I suppose his was a solo and not a duet. We are still friends.
Oooh. This was a great idea. I’d like to do something similar with the sundry versions of “Long Black Veil.”
Why do I remember the lyrics as “wore his gun outside his pants, for all the honest world to SEE.” when “FEEL” is fantastically superior and has great Freudian connotations?
I’ve heard recordings that used “see,” so maybe that’s it?
I’m very happy to see a whole post dedicated solely to the song Pancho and Lefty. My boyfriend and I love that song a lot. He loves the Merle Haggard/ Willie duo and I love the Kate Rusby version, though it might be considered too pretty, it’s hauntingly beautiful. I enjoy listening to a woman sing the song, because I can imagine Pancho’s mom could be singing it, after he left her, still standing at the door, waiting for him, even after she found out he was gone forever. And the video you’d of Townes van Zandt was great, showed how he loved to hang out with friends and just kick back and be himself, didn’t seem like a show-off at all, that’s for sure, just an artist, a thinker, a poet. Seemed more authentic than all those other celebrity types. And a “damn” dirty hippie, too!
It’s such a huge song. There’s room for so many people and points of view in the singing of it. I love the idea of Pancho’s mom singing it, bitter towards Lefty, but unwilling to say the unthinkable, forgiving him to his fate.
For your consideration, the version by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, who were once the Refreshments and for whom I have an Arizona-bred soft spot. (“Banditos” is still a really fun song, you guys!)
Also, the YouTube rabbit hole has led me to these fellas about whom I know nothing but LOOK AT ALL THE AMAZING JACKETS. The fringe! The stars! The FLOWERS ON THE BACKING BAND!
oh goodness, their jackets are giving me LIFE.
RCPM!!!!!!! I’m gonna go see them when I go home for the holidays.
For your consideration, the version by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, who were once the Refreshments and for whom I have an Arizona-bred soft spot. ("Banditos" is still a really fun song, you guys!)
Also, the YouTube rabbit hole has led me to these fellas about whom I know nothing but LOOK AT ALL THE AMAZING JACKETS. The fringe! The stars! The FLOWERS ON THE BACKING BAND!
NONE OF THIS LIST IS WRONG I AM NEVER WRONG
I must say that I appreciate long youtube related posts full of melancholy music as the last post of the day. It makes the long European morning pass more quickly before there are any new posts to read in the late afternoon.
goddammit i take one day off from the Toast to actually do work at my job, and that is the day Mallory talks about country music. OF COURSE.
You are a goddess. Or some consortium or coven of female deities with supernatural tapped-inatude, because now you’re my go-to source for assembling seductive mix-tape material from the American songbook on the U-tubes. (Don’t think your recent post on My Fair Lady got tossed out as gravel after a few swirls in my pop-cultural panning pot. Oh for the love of Nudie Cohn, I have struck gold!) Even though the language you lather on Toby Keith is a style of speech I usually reserve only for all things Emmylou, I will concede Keith can carry his own water on this tune. And Emmylou’s Spyboy/FarmAid version of “P&L” has now dethroned my previous top contender for what nigh onto 35 years I considered the celestial high point of tear-jerking, drunk-making delivery of the text. That would be Emmylou and The Hot Band on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977, the link to which I post here, merely as a tangible indicator of its historical significance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMPydiR4NaQ
Jason Isbell! Emmylou Harris! They are two of my favorites and are from my state. I am irrationally happy to see these two names on The Toast today. And I’m not gonna lie, I feel a little bit cooler with a Mallory endorsement on two of my favorite singers.
RCPM!!!!!!! I'm gonna go see them when I go home for the holidays.
Mr. Wikipedia is making some mighty big assumptions about Pancho based solely on his name there. Maybe Pancho was just a very nice kid who really needed money so his little brother could get an operation.
I always loved Willie Nelson & Bob Dylan’s version. I think it’s such a slow, sad take on the song. I think ol’ Bob articulates quite well and sings nicely. Willie’s vocals are pretty but have a rough edge too and I think they compliment each other well!
That said, also Steve Earle’s version is up there too. I might just shuffle the order of your list around (no offense Toby Keith!)
True fact: My melancholy troubled college boyfriend was TVZ's cousin AND looked like him AND sung like him.
Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I was doing holiday travel yesterday and almost missed this post. That would’ve been so awful.
-love this shit
-National Treasure Merle Haggard! I will listen to whatever he puts before me, even the really slick, semi-hokey recent stuff.
-Toby Keeeeeith! I got to go his “I Love This Bar and Grill” in Vegas. It was as upsetting as you might think. I associate the rise of Toby Keith into country radio ubiquity with a lot of tough things in my life and the world, and I more or less feel like he’s a force for evil, but I love him. I think he brings a voice to a very particular kind of rage and pain, in every word he sings, even in his goof songs. Like, he is enough of a badass to sing the word “yucky,” and still put out an aura of extremely real menace. Merle Haggard’s extremely warm and sincere appreciation of Toby Keith warms my heart.
Nobody mentioned the Hoyt Axton version? The tempo is a little upbeat, but I think the delivery gets real sober when shit gets bad later in the song. “Where he got the bread to go / ain’t nobody knows…”
Emmylou has to get credit for recording the version that inspired Willie to wake Merle up and tell him they now had the title song for the album they were working on.
However, I recently heard Rodney Crowell do a live version in a small place in Norhthampton, Mass that was stunning.
Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad version of that song.