[00:08.74]They're selling postcards of the hanging
[00:13.05]They're painting the passports brown
[00:18.12]The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
[00:21.61]The circus is in town
[00:27.47]Here comes the blind commissioner
[00:31.15]They've got him in a trance
[00:35.61]One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
[00:40.41]The other is in his pants
[00:45.11]And the riot squad they're restless
[00:49.50]They need somewhere to go
[00:53.91]As Lady and I look out tonight
[00:58.58]From Desolation Row
[01:07.44]Cinderella, she seems so easy
[01:12.08]"It takes one to know one," she smiles
[01:16.72]And puts her hands in her back pockets
[01:21.24]Bette Davis style
[01:25.58]And in comes Romeo, he's moaning
[01:30.04]"You Belong to Me I Believe"
[01:33.91]And someone says," You're in the wrong place, my friend
[01:38.13]You better leave"
[01:43.48]And the only sound that's left
[01:46.63]After the ambulances go
[01:52.66]Is Cinderella sweeping up
[01:56.94]On Desolation Row
[02:03.72]Now the moon is almost hidden
[02:10.60]The stars are beginning to hide
[02:14.60]The fortunetelling lady
[02:19.12]Has even taken all her things inside
[02:23.60]All except for Cain and Abel
[02:26.75]And the hunchback of Notre Dame
[02:32.70]Everybody is making love
[02:36.63]Or else expecting rain
[02:41.40]And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing
[02:45.63]He's getting ready for the show
[02:50.06]He's going to the carnival tonight
[02:54.79]On Desolation Row
[03:03.32]Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window
[03:07.31]For her I feel so afraid
[03:11.68]On her twenty-second birthday
[03:15.39]She already is an old maid
[03:20.27]To her, death is quite romantic
[03:24.84]She wears an iron vest
[03:29.56]Her profession's her religion
[03:33.82]Her sin is her lifelessness
[03:38.60]
[03:43.31]Noah's great rainbow
[03:47.42]She spends her time peeking
[03:51.37]Into Desolation Row
[04:00.75]Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
[04:05.02]With his memories in a trunk
[04:09.54]Passed this way an hour ago
[04:13.31]With his friend, a jealous monk
[04:17.81]He looked so immaculately frightful
[04:22.93]As he bummed a cigarette
[04:26.06]Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
[04:30.54]And reciting the alphabet
[04:35.33]Now you would not think to look at him
[04:39.52]But he was famous long ago
[04:44.43]For playing the electric violin
[04:47.97]On Desolation Row
[04:57.27]Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
[05:01.34]Inside of a leather cup
[05:06.03]But all his sexless patients
[05:09.98]They're trying to blow it up
[05:15.08]Now his nurse, some local loser
[05:19.12]She's in charge of the cyanide hose
[05:23.44]And she also keeps the cards that read
[05:27.91]"Have Mercy on His Soul"
[05:31.95]They all play on penny whistles
[05:36.48]You can hear them blow
[05:40.98]If you lean your head out far enough
[05:45.72]From Desolation Row
[05:53.41]Across the street they've nailed the curtains
[05:59.68]They're getting ready for the feast
[06:02.56]The Phantom of the Opera
[06:06.42]A perfect image of a priest
[06:10.87]They're spoonfeeding Casanova
[06:14.84]To get him to feel more assured
[06:19.36]Then they'll kill him with self-confidence
[06:23.60]After poisoning him with words
[06:27.97]And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls
[06:33.83]"Get Outa Here If You Don't Know
[06:38.46]Casanova is just being punished for going
[06:41.83]To Desolation Row"
[06:51.40]Now at midnight all the agents
[06:57.02]And the superhuman crew
[07:00.23]Come out and round up everyone
[07:03.97]That knows more than they do
[07:08.48]Then they bring them to the factory
[07:13.14]Where the heart-attack machine
[07:17.38]Is strapped across their shoulders
[07:21.08]And then the kerosene
[07:26.09]Is brought down from the castles
[07:30.26]By insurance men who go
[07:34.19]Check to see that nobody is escaping
[07:38.66]To Desolation Row
[07:45.79]Praise be to Nero's Neptune
[07:49.09]The Titanic sails at dawn
[07:54.20]And everybody's shouting
[07:58.46]"Which Side Are You On?"
[08:02.97]And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
[08:06.98]Fighting in the captain's tower
[08:11.77]While calypso singers laugh at them
[08:15.78]And fishermen hold flowers
[08:20.77]Between the windows of the sea
[08:24.65]Where lovely mermaids flow
[08:28.77]And nobody has to think too much
[08:33.29]About Desolation Row
[09:33.03]Yes, I received your letter yesterday
[09:36.60](About the time the door knob broke)
[09:41.80]When you asked how I was doing
[09:45.76]Was that some kind of joke?
[09:50.07]All these people that you mention
[09:54.39]Yes, I know them, they're quite lame
[09:58.64]I had to rearrange their faces
[10:01.99]And give them all another name
[10:06.64]Right now I can't read too good
[10:11.43]Don't send me no more letters no
[10:14.47]Not unless you mail them
[10:20.77]From Desolation Row