November 1982Â
The duet album with Merle Haggard, Pancho and Lefty, was special. Merle was a blue-collar brother and a fellow traveler from even before Willie met Waylon. Straight out of Bakersfield, Merle was salt of the earth like Willie was, had associated with more than his fair share of characters, and was one himself. He’s done time in prison, liked pot, and liked to talk about the paranormal: he was a big fan of Art Bell’s Coast to Coast radio show, broadcast in the wee hours of the morning. His people came from Newton County, Arkansas, the next county over from Searcy County where the Nelsons and Greenshaws came from. Merle was also the first modern country star to honor Bob Wills by teaching himself fiddle and recording the album A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World long before Asleep at the Wheel and Alvin Crow came along.
Having Merle record at the Pedernales studio was both a treat and an honor. “We’re going to make lemonade out of horse shit,” Willie declared before getting down to business. Willie and producer Chips Moman augmented Mickey and Grady with Mike Leech, Reggie Young, Johnny Christoper, Gene Chrisman, Bobbie Emmons, Bobby Wood and Johnny Gimble. The production was considerablylighter and less hands-on than previous Chips projects.
Merle and Willie recorded at least twenty-three tracks that were album worthy. “But the didn’t have the song,” sand Lana Nelson, a sharp cookie at twenty-nine who was managing the studio for her father. “Chips (who had returned to produce the album) was done. George (Fowler, Lana’s husband at the time) and I went home, went through our albums, and found Emmylou Harris’s cut of ‘Pancho and Lefty, We played it and said, ’That’s it.’ We knew it.”
In the wee hours of the morning, Lana called Daddy and told him the album wasn’t finished yet. He had one more song to do. The writer of the song was Townes Van Zandt, the poet laureat of the down-and-outer school of Austin songwriters who lived for their craft and frequented songwriter joints like Spellman’s emmajoes, Chicago House, the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus, and the Alamo Lounge.
Townes came from a well-heeled family in Fort Worth and lived in Clarksville, a small old west Austin neighborhood settled by freed slaves who worked for the rich folks in the mansions of the Peace-Enfield neighborhood nearby. Drink and drugs were his indulgences. Songs were the reason he lived. having Willie cover one of his songs was the break of his life; “Pancho and Lefty” already was one of his biggest crowd pleasers on the folk circuit he traveled from L.A. to New York and Europe, but even more so around Texas and especially Austin.
Merle was sleeping on his bus in the parking lot outside the studio when Willie knocked on the door. It was four in the morning. “Haggard, I’ve found this great song,” Willie said. “Come into the studio with me.” The band was already running through the instrumental. Merle suggested that Willie do the track and he’d come in sometime in the morning and finish it, but Willie was persistent. “You need to come in with me. Now.”
Merle shuffled into the stuio, bleary-eyed and more than a little spaced-out. Willie handed him the lyrics he’d scribbled on a brown paper bag. Merle ran through the vocals with Willie as they both got a feel for the song about a Mexican bandit and his inscrutable friend, both of them living outside the law. The tape rolled. Merle nailed his vocal in one take and went back to his bus to sleep. The next morning, he found Willie on the golf course and asked if he could do another vocal of the song they’d recorded a few hours earlier.
Willie laughed and shook his head. “Hell, the tapes’ already on the way to New York.”
The single of “Pancho and Lefty” reached number I on the country single charts in July 1983. The album went platinum.
Willie Nelson: An Epic Life
By Joe Nick Patoski           Â
www.joenickp.com             Â
Here’s the video. Enjoy.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxzJAF1BxP4]