C
F
C
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
F
C
They’re painting the passports brown
G
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
F
C
The circus is in town
C
Here comes the blind commissioner
F
C
They’ve got him in a trance
G
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
F
C
The other is in his pants
F
And the riot squad they’re restless
C
F
They need somewhere to go
C
G
As Lady and I look out tonight
F
C
From Desolation Row
C
F
C
Cinderella, she seems so easy
F
C
“It takes one to know one,” she smiles
G
And puts her hands in her back pockets
F
C
Bette Davis style
C
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
F
C
“You Belong to Me I Believe”
G
And someone says,” You’re in the wrong place, my friend
F
C
You better leave”
F
And the only sound that’s left
C
F
After the ambulances go
C
F
Is Cinderella sweeping up
F
C
On Desolation Row
C
F
C
Now the moon is almost hidden
F
C
The stars are beginning to hide
G
The fortunetelling lady
F
C
Has even taken all her things inside
C
All except for Cain and Abel
F
C
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
G
Everybody is making love
F
C
Or else expecting rain
F
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
C
F
He’s getting ready for the show
C
G
He’s going to the carnival tonight
F
C
On Desolation Row
C
F
C
Now Ophelia, she’s ‘neath the window
F
C
For her I feel so afraid
G
On her twenty-second birthday
F
C
She already is an old maid
C
To her, death is quite romantic
F
C
She wears an iron vest
G
Her profession’s her religion
F
C
Her sin is her lifelessness
F
And though her eyes are fixed upon
C
F
Noah’s great rainbow
C
G
She spends her time peeking
F
C
Into Desolation Row
C
F
C
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
F
C
With his memories in a trunk
G
Passed this way an hour ago
F
C
With his friend, a jealous monk
C
He looked so immaculately frightful
F
C
As he bummed a cigarette
G
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
F
C
And reciting the alphabet
F
Now you would not think to look at him
C
F
But he was famous long ago
C
G
For playing the electric violin
F
C
On Desolation Row
C
F
C
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
F
C
Inside of a leather cup
G
But all his sexless patients
F
C
They’re trying to blow it up
C
Now his nurse, some local loser
F
C
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
G
And she also keeps the cards that read
F
C
“Have Mercy on His Soul”
F
They all play on penny whistles
C
F
You can hear them blow
C
G
If you lean your head out far enough
F
C
From Desolation Row
C
F
C
Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains
F
C
They’re getting ready for the feast
G
The Phantom of the Opera
F
C
A perfect image of a priest
C
They’re spoonfeeding Casanova
F
C
To get him to feel more assured
G
Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence
F
C
After poisoning him with words
F
And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls
C
F
“Get Outa Here If You Don’t Know
C
G
Casanova is just being punished for going
F
C
To Desolation Row”
C
F
C
Now at midnight all the agents
F
C
And the superhuman crew
G
Come out and round up everyone
F
C
That knows more than they do
C
Then they bring them to the factory
F
C
Where the heart-attack machine
G
Is strapped across their shoulders
F
C
And then the kerosene
F
Is brought down from the castles
C
F
By insurance men who go
C
G
Check to see that nobody is escaping
F
C
To Desolation Row
C
F
C
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
F
C
The Titanic sails at dawn
G
And everybody’s shouting
F
C
“Which Side Are You On?”
C
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
F
C
Fighting in the captain’s tower
G
While calypso singers laugh at them
F
C
And fishermen hold flowers
F
Between the windows of the sea
C
F
Where lovely mermaids flow
C
G
And nobody has to think too much
F
C
About Desolation Row
C
F
C
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
F
C
About the time the door knob broke
G
When you asked how I was doing
F
C
Was that some kind of joke?
C
All these people that you mention
F
C
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
G
I had to rearrange their faces
F
C
And give them all another name
F
Right now I can’t read too good
C
F
Don’t send me no more letters no
C
G
Not unless you mail them
F
C
From Desolation Row
C
F
G
