Desolate

They're 
Selling postcards 
Of the hanging 
They're painting 
The passports brown 
The beauty parlor 
Is filled with sailors 
The circus is in town 
Here comes 
The blind commissioner 
They've got him in a trance 
One hand is tied 
To the tight-rope walker 
The other is in his pants 
And the riot squad 
They're restless 
They need somewhere to go 
As Lady 
And I look out tonight 
From Desolation Row 

Cinderella 
She seems so easy 
It takes one to know one 
She smiles 
And puts her hands 
In her back pockets 
Bette Davis style 
And in comes Romeo 
He's moaning 
You Belong to Me I Believe 
And someone says 
You're in the wrong place 
My friend 
You better leave 
And the only sound that's left 
After the ambulances go 
Is Cinderella sweeping up 
On Desolation Row 

Now the moon is almost hidden 
The stars are beginning to hide 
The fortunetelling lady 
Has even taken 
All her things inside 
All except for Cain and Abel 
And the hunchback of Notre Dame 
Everybody is making love 
Or else expecting rain 
And the Good Samaritan 
He's dressing 
He's getting ready 
For the show 
He's going 
To the carnival tonight 
On Desolation Row 

Now Ophelia 
She's 'neath the window 
For her I feel so afraid 
On her twenty-second birthday 
She already is an old maid 

To her death 
Is quite romantic 
She wears an iron vest 
Her profession's her religion 
Her sin is her lifelessness 
And though her eyes 
Are fixed upon 
Noah's great rainbow 
She spends her time peeking 
Into Desolation Row 

Einstein 
Disguised as Robin Hood 
With his memories in a trunk 
Passed this way an hour ago 
With his friend 
A jealous monk 
He looked 
So immaculately frightful 
As he bummed a cigarette 
Then he went off 
Sniffing drainpipes 
And reciting the alphabet 
Now you 
Would not think 
To look at him 
But he was famous long ago 
For playing 
The electric violin 
On Desolation Row 

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world 
Inside of a leather cup 
But all his sexless patients 
They're trying to blow it up 
Now his nurse, some local loser 
She's in charge 
Of the cyanide hole 
And she also keeps 
The cards that read 
Have Mercy on His Soul 
They all play 
On penny whistles 
You can hear them blow 
If you lean 
Your head out far enough 
From Desolation Row 

Across the street 
They've nailed the curtains 
They're getting ready 
For the feast 
The Phantom of the Opera 
A perfect image of a priest 
They're spoonfeeding Casanova 
To get him to feel more assured 
Then they'll kill him 
With self-confidence 
After poisoning him with words 

And the Phantom's 
Shouting to skinny girls 
Get Outa Here 
If You Don't Know 
Casanova is just being 
Punished for going 
To Desolation Row 

Now at midnight all the agents 
And the superhuman crew 
Come out and round up everyone 
That knows more than they do 
Then they bring them to the factory 
Where the heart-attack machine 
Is strapped across their shoulders 
And then the kerosene 
Is brought down from the castles 
By insurance men who go 
Check to see 
That nobody is escaping 
To Desolation Row 

Praise be to Nero's Neptune 
The Titanic sails at dawn 
And everybody's shouting 
Which Side Are You On? 
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot 
Fighting in the captain's tower 
While calypso singers laugh at them 
And fishermen hold flowers 
Between the windows of the sea 
Where lovely mermaids flow 
And nobody has to think too much 
About Desolation Row 

Yes 
I received your letter yesterday 
(About the time the door knob broke) 
When you asked how I was doing 
Was that some kind of joke? 
All these people that you mention 
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame 
I had to rearrange their faces 
And give them all another name 
Right now I can't read too good 
Don't send me no more letters no 
Not unless you mail them 
From Desolation Row