Desolation Row

Desolation Row Lyrics

Song Desolation Row
Artist Bob Dylan
Album Highway 61 Revisited
Download Image LRC TXT
[00:08.269] They're selling postcards of the hanging
[00:13.339] They're painting the passports brown
[00:17.709] The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
[00:22.900] The circus is in town
[00:27.340] Here comes the blind commissioner
[00:31.659] They've got him in a trance
[00:35.900] One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
[00:40.910] The other is in his pants
[00:44.900] And the riot squad they're restless
[00:50.100] They need somewhere to go
[00:54.900] As Lady and I look out tonight
[00:58.160] From Desolation Row
[01:03.100]
[01:07.290] Cinderella, she seems so easy
[01:12.160] "It takes one to know one," she smiles
[01:16.670] And puts her hands in her back pockets
[01:21.730] Bette Davis style
[01:25.720] And in comes Romeo, he's moaning
[01:29.910] "You Belong to Me I Believe"
[01:34.350] And someone says," You're in the wrong place, my friend
[01:39.740] You better leave"
[01:44.300] And the only sound that's left
[01:47.990] After the ambulances go
[01:53.300] Is Cinderella sweeping up
[01:56.550] On Desolation Row
[02:01.200]
[02:05.560] Now the moon is almost hidden
[02:10.179] The stars are beginning to hide
[02:14.299] The fortunetelling lady
[02:19.119] Has even taken all her things inside
[02:24.299] All except for Cain and Abel
[02:27.739] And the hunchback of Notre Dame
[02:32.369] Everybody is making love
[02:36.499] Or else expecting rain
[02:41.249] And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing
[02:45.799] He's getting ready for the show
[02:50.590] He's going to the carnival tonight
[02:54.249] On Desolation Row
[02:58.129]
[03:03.319] Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window
[03:07.819] For her I feel so afraid
[03:12.690] On her twenty-second birthday
[03:16.320] She already is an old maid
[03:20.510]
[03:20.820] To her, death is quite romantic
[03:25.999] She wears an iron vest
[03:29.579] Her profession's her religion
[03:34.149] Her sin is her lifelessness
[03:38.519] And though her eyes are fixed upon
[03:43.269] Noah's great rainbow
[03:47.649] She spends her time peeking
[03:50.769] Into Desolation Row
[03:55.649]
[04:00.899] Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
[04:05.290] With his memories in a trunk
[04:09.659] Passed this way an hour ago
[04:13.529] With his friend, a jealous monk
[04:17.909] He looked so immaculately frightful
[04:22.530] As he bummed a cigarette
[04:26.659] Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
[04:30.909] And reciting the alphabet
[04:36.390] Now you would not think to look at him
[04:39.789] But he was famous long ago
[04:44.359] For playing the electric violin
[04:48.599] On Desolation Row
[04:52.500]
[04:57.599] Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
[05:02.109] Inside of a leather cup
[05:06.539] But all his sexless patients
[05:11.299] They're trying to blow it up
[05:15.239] Now his nurse, some local loser
[05:19.549] She's in charge of the cyanide hole
[05:23.929] And she also keeps the cards that read
[05:27.989] "Have Mercy on His Soul"
[05:33.179] They all play on penny whistles
[05:37.599] You can hear them blow
[05:41.620] If you lean your head out far enough
[05:45.679] From Desolation Row
[05:50.0]
[05:54.500] Across the street they've nailed the curtains
[05:58.808] They're getting ready for the feast
[06:03.560] The Phantom of the Opera
[06:07.560] A perfect image of a priest
[06:12.0] They're spoonfeeding Casanova
[06:16.500] To get him to feel more assured
[06:20.679] Then they'll kill him with self-confidence
[06:24.870] After poisoning him with words
[06:29.620]
[06:30.570] And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls
[06:35.250] "Get Outa Here If You Don't Know
[06:39.630] Casanova is just being punished for going
[06:43.880] To Desolation Row"
[06:47.570]
[06:52.900] Now at midnight all the agents
[06:56.950] And the superhuman crew
[07:01.260] Come out and round up everyone
[07:05.580] That knows more than they do
[07:09.890] Then they bring them to the factory
[07:14.320] Where the heart-attack machine
[07:18.580] Is strapped across their shoulders
[07:22.640] And then the kerosene
[07:27.340] Is brought down from the castles
[07:31.400] By insurance men who go
[07:35.770] Check to see that nobody is escaping
[07:40.200] To Desolation Row
[07:43.960]
[07:47.800] Praise be to Nero's Neptune
[07:51.900] The Titanic sails at dawn
[07:55.840] And everybody's shouting
[08:00.719] "Which Side Are You On?"
[08:04.280] And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
[08:08.909] Fighting in the captain's tower
[08:13.990] While calypso singers laugh at them
[08:16.979] And fishermen hold flowers
[08:21.989] Between the windows of the sea
[08:26.359] Where lovely mermaids flow
[08:30.669] And nobody has to think too much
[08:34.679] About Desolation Row
[08:38.808]
[09:35.0] Yes, I received your letter yesterday
[09:38.770] (About the time the door knob broke)
[09:42.960] When you asked how I was doing
[09:48.0] Was that some kind of joke?
[09:51.720] All these people that you mention
[09:56.300] Yes, I know them, they're quite lame
[10:00.210] I had to rearrange their faces
[10:04.520] And give them all another name
[10:09.400] Right now I can't read too good
[10:12.910] Don't send me no more letters no
[10:17.900] Not unless you mail them
[10:21.300] From Desolation Row
[10:26.220]
Desolation Row Lyrics
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