The album includes what is Van Zandt's signature tune,[citation needed] the enigmatic "Pancho and Lefty", which Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard took to number one on the country charts in 1983.

[citation needed] A lilting portrait of undying love, the song was first recorded by Doc Watson on his 1973 Grammy-winning album Then and Now and later taken to number three on the country charts by Emmylou Harris and Don Williams in 1981.

In an interview on the show Nashville Now, Van Zandt insisted to Ralph Emery that he wrote the song in his sleep, dreaming the melody and writing down the words when he woke up.

Van Zandt also recorded the Guy Clark-penned "Don't Let The Sunshine Fool Ya" and co-wrote the lullaby "Heavenly Houseboat Blues" with Clark's wife Susanna.

"Sad Cinderella" first appeared on Van Zandt's debut For the Sake of the Song but, like several other cuts on the album, was later rerecorded by the singer, who remained unhappy with the overproduction on his first LP.

[citation needed] The album's closing track "Silver Ships of Andilar" is a Van Zandt epic which contains seven verses about a dying man who, out of desperation, slips a message into a bottle.

In his 2018 memoir My Years with Townes Van Zandt: Music, Genius, and Rage, road manager Harold Eggers writes, "It was a song he would never perform live, no matter how insistent the request."

"If I Needed You" has been recorded by Andrew Bird, Tom Astor, Ray Benson, Bonnie Bishop, Ginger Boatwright, Phil Cody, Dashboard Confessional, the Dead Ringer Band, Richard Dobson, Fireside, Enzo Garcia and Rhonda Harris.

"Pancho and Lefty" has been recorded by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Sally Barker, Johnny Bush, Pete Charles, the Cumberland Trio, Richard Dobson, Steve Earle, Cleve Francis, Dick Gaughan, Hawke, and Hoyt Axton.