[00:32.130]They're selling postcards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown
[00:40.800]The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town
[00:48.820]Here comes the blind commissioner, they've got him in a trance
[00:56.210]One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants
[01:04.410]And the riot squad they're restless, they need somewhere to go
[01:12.730]As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row
[01:26.990]Cinderella, she seems so easy, "It takes one to know one," she smiles
[01:35.570]And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style
[01:43.600]And in comes Romeo, he's moaning. "You Belong to Me I Believe"
[01:51.730]And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend, you'd better leave"
[01:59.370]And the only sound that's left after the ambulances go
[02:07.800]Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row
[02:22.020]Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide
[02:34.510]The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside
[02:42.060]All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame
[02:50.920]Everybody is making love or else expecting rain
[02:58.380]And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing, he's getting ready for the show
[03:06.610]He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row
[03:16.840]Ophelia, she's 'neath the window for her I feel so afraid
[03:24.650]On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
[03:32.130]To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
[03:40.580]Her profession's her religion, her sin is her lifelessness
[03:48.970]And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow
[03:56.970]She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row
[04:11.650]Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk
[04:19.900]Passed this way an hour ago with his friend, a jealous monk
[04:27.180]Now he looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette
[04:35.400]And he when off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
[04:43.470]You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago
[04:51.500]For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row
[05:05.550]Dr. Filth, he keeps his world inside of a leather cup
[05:13.880]But all his ***less patients, they're trying to blow it up
[05:20.880]Now his nurse, some local loser, she's in charge of the cyanide hole
[05:29.640]And she also keeps the cards that read, "Have Mercy on His Soul"
[05:37.960]They all play on the penny whistles, you can hear them blow
[05:45.550]If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row
[05:59.710]Across the street they've nailed the curtains, they're getting ready for the feast
[06:07.720]The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest
[06:15.160]They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
[06:23.030]Then they'll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
[06:30.950]And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls, "Get outta here if you don't know"
[06:39.200]Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row"
[06:53.290]At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
[07:05.880]Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
[07:13.570]Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
[07:22.090]Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
[07:29.850]Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
[07:37.700]Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row
[07:49.680]Praise be to Nero's Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn
[07:58.010]Everybody's shouting, "Which side are you on?!"
[08:05.680]And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain's tower
[08:13.900]While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
[08:22.060]Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
[08:29.600]And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row
[09:28.440]Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
[09:40.710]When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
[09:48.250]All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they're quite lame
[09:56.210]I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
[10:04.270]Right now, I can't read too good, don't send me no more letters no
[10:12.690]Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row