Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard “Pancho and Lefty” / “Opportunity to Cry”

I know this song from the Townes Van Zandt version, who wrote it—it’s a good song. A while back I was listening to a lot of Townes Van Zandt, who was a great songwriter and singer, but at some point, for some reason, I had to take a break… I have no idea why. Maybe some feeling of inescapable sadness from his songs. It’s my problem. I’ll come back to him. I don’t want to be a person who is just trying to escape all the time. Anyway, this is a version sung by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Every time I hear Willie Nelson, I try to figure out just what makes his voice so distinctive and lovely. And Merle Haggard—I went through a phase with him a few decades back. So I was expecting something here, but I just can’t get past the production—it sounds like everyone is on TV, with makeup and manicured nails. Maybe it’s just the sound of 1982. I’d much prefer a version recorded in a truck-stop bathroom or a tent, somewhere, or a shed, or in the backseat on a trip. That’s just my preference. The B-side is better, not sure why. The funny thing is—the magic 8-ball happened to pick out this record at almost the same time I started reading Bob Dylan’s new book (The Philosophy if Modern Song), and I just came to a chapter on this recording—so I stopped reading and wrote this. Now I’ll go back and see what Bob’s take is… sure to be entirely different than mine. Maybe he’ll convince me.

So, ol’ Bob gives us as bit of the history of Townes Van Zandt. How ultimately, Hank Williams was his guy—I can hear that. I didn’t know that he died on New Year’s Day, like Hank. Dylan then has some kind words about Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Then, mostly, he kind of interprets the lyrics of the song, and goes on and on. Which got me to listen to the song in a new light—based on the words, more, I mean. I’ve always liked Townes’ version, of course, the beautiful melody, and the sadness. It’s a nutty song… like a dual narrative, with Pancho meeting his fate in Mexico, and Lefty ending up in, of all places, Cleveland. Where I’ve spent a few years—and could very well have “ended up.”

Out of curiosity, I checked out the album (by the same name) that this song is from,, which includes the B-side, “Opportunity to Cry.” The album also includes Merle Haggard’s “Reasons to Quit”—followed by “No Reason to Quit.” I gotta say, that’s some inspired sequencing. Those songs sound great. I don’t know why the sound of the title track put me off when I first spun it, so I give it another try. It’s a great song, sure, but this production—it starts off sounding like a bloated Hollywood movie from the Eighties, when everything got expensive but looked cheap. I’m sorry I can’t get past that. All recorded songs are essentially the perfect evocation of a time and place, more than anything. Sure, there’s poetry, and performances, and emotion, love, big hearts, passion, ideas, philosophy, history, all of it. But when it comes down to it, it’s still you getting invited into a room. And this is just a room—in spite of the good people and grand intentions—this is a room I don’t want to spend time in.

2.26.23