[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]