Desolation row
Re
They're selling postcards of the hanging
Sol Re
They're painting the passports brown
La7
The beauty parlour's filled with sailors
Sol Re
The circus is in town here comes the blind commissioner
Sol Re La7
They've got him in a trance one hand's tied to the tightrope walker
Sol Re Sol
The other is in his pants and the riot squad they're restless
Re Sol
they need some where to go
Re La7 Sol Re
As lady and I look out tonight on Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Cinderella she seem so easy it takes on to know one she smiles
La7 Sol Re
Then puts her hand in her back pocket Betty Davis style
Re Sol Re
Then in comes Romeo he's moaning you Belong to me I believe
LA7
And someone says your in the wrong place my friend
Sol Re Sol
You better leave and the only sound that's left
Re Sol Re La7 Sol Re
after the ambulances go is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Now the moon is almost hidden the stars are beginning to hide
La7
The fortune telling lady
Sol Re
Has already taken all her things inside
Re Sol Re
All except for Cane and Able and the Hunch Back of Notre Dame
La7 Sol Re
everyone is making love or else expecting rain
Sol Re Sol
And the good Samaritan he's dressing he's gettin ready for the show
Re La7 Sol Re
He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Now Ophelia she's 'neath the window for her I feel so afraid
La7 Sol Re
On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
Re Sol Re
To her death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
La7 Sol Re
Her profession's her religion her sin is her lifelessness
Sol
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Re Sol Re La7 Sol Re
Noah's great rainbow she spends her time peeking into Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Einstein disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk
La7 Sol Re
Passed this way an hour ago with his friend a jealous monk
Re Sol Re
He looked so frightful as he bummed a cigarette
La7 Sol Re
Then went off sniffing drain pipes and reciting the alphabet
Sol
No you would not think to look at him
Re Sol Re La7
That he was famous long ago for playing electric violin
Sol Re
on Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Doctor filth he keeps his word inside a leather cup
La7 Sol Re
But all his sexless patients are trying to blow it up
Re
Now his nurse a local looser
Sol Re La7
She's in charge of the cyanide hole and she also keeps the cards that read
Sol Re Sol
Have mercy on his soul they all play on penny whistles
Re Sol Re La7
You can hear them blow If you lean your head out far enough
Sol Re
from Desolation row
Re
Across the street they've nailed the curtains
Sol Re La7
they're gettin ready for the feast the phantom of the opera
Sol Re
a perfect image of a priest
Re Sol Re
They're spoon feedin Casanova to get him to feel more assured
La7
then they'll killed him with self confidence
Sol Re
after poisoning him with words
Sol
and the phantom shouting to skinning girls
Re Sol
get outta her don't you know
Re La7 Sol Re
Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crews
La7 Sol Re
round up everyone that knows more than they do
Re
Then they bring them to the factory
Sol Re
where the heart attack machines
La7
is strapped across their shoulders
Sol Re Sol
And then the kerosene is brought down from the castles
Re Sol Re La7
by insurance men that go check to see that nobody is escaping
Sol Re
to Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Praise be to Nero's Neptune the Titanic sails at dawn
La7 Sol Re
and everybody shouting which side are you on
Re
and Ezra Pound and T S Eliot
Sol Re La7
fighting in the captains tower while calypso signers laugh at them
Sol Re Sol
and fishermen hold flowers between the windows of the sea
Re Sol Re La7
where lovely mermaids flow and nobody has to think too much
Sol Re
about Desolation row
Re Sol Re
Yes I received your letter yesterday about the time the door knob broke
La7 Sol Re
When you asked me how I was was that some kind of joke
Re
All those people that you mention
Sol Re La7
yes I know them they're quite lame I had to rearrange their faces
Sol Re
and give them all another name
Sol Re Sol
Right now I can't read too good don't send me no more letters no
Re La7 Sol Re
Not unless you mail them from Desolation row
