Yes, revolution and betrayal.

There's an interview with Townes Van Zandt on YouTube where he says that he *thought* it wasn't about Pancho Villa, but then discovered that one of Villa's sidekicks was called something that meant 'Lefty' in Spanish.

Townes Van Zandt was (a) an alcoholic, who spent a lot of his life in a haze, and (b) a Texas aristocrat, at one stage groomed by his family for governorship.

When he was growing up, he must have heard old men talking about the border wars of the Mexican revolution; old enemies talk in drink.

"He sank into his dreams" - the dream of revolution, of heroism.

I love the way that Van Zandt uses the objective correlative in the tight, spare writing - things like "for all the honest world to feel" making the 'honest' resound back from the world to reflect the naive heroism of Pancho.

The federales: I sense a certain sarcasm in "out of kindness, I suppose?" - as if to say, yeah, they say now they could have had him any day, but that's an empty boast from timid bullies.

"The dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth" - what a perfect expression of betrayal: after Pancho's gunned down, Lefty is no longer able to sing the honest blues; his betrayal chokes him.