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