DESOLATION ROW (Bob Dylan)
INTRO: D D4 D D4 D D4 D D4
D
They're selling postcards of the hanging
G D
They're painting the passports brown
A G D
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors the circus is in town
G D
Here comes the blind commissioner they've got him in a trance
A G D
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker the other is in his pants
G D G
And the riot squad they're restless they need somewhere to go
D A G D
As Lady and I look out tonight from Desolation Row
D
Cinderella, she seems so easy
G D
"It takes one to know one," she smiles
A G D
And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style
G D
And in comes Romeo, he's moaning "You belong to me I believe"
A G D
And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend, you better leave"
G D G
And the only sound that's left after the ambulances go
D A G D
Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row
D
Now the moon is almost hidden
G D
the stars are beginning to hide
A G D
The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside
G D
All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame
A G D
Everybody is making love or else expecting rain
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And the good Samaritan, he's dressing he's getting ready for the show
D A G D
He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row
D
Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window
G D
for her I feel so afraid
A G D
On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
G D
To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
A G D
Her profession's her religion her sin is her lifelessness
G D G
And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow
D A G D
She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row
D
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
G D
with his memories in a trunk
A G D
Passed this way an hour ago with his friend , a jealous monk
G D
He looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette
A G D
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
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Now you would not think to look at him but he was famous long ago
D A G D
For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row
D
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
G D
inside of a leather cup
A G D
But all his sexless patients they're trying to blow it up
G D
Now his nurse, some local loser she's in charge of the cyanide hole
A G D
And she also keeps the cards that read "Have mercy on his soul"
G D G
They all play on penny whistles you can hear them blow
D A G D
If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row
D
Across the street they've nailed the curtains
G D
They're getting ready for the feast
A G D
The Phantom of the Opera a perfect image of a priest
G D
They're spoonfeeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
A G D
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
G D G
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls "Get outta here if you don't know"
D A G D
Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row
D
Now at midnight all the agents
G D
and the super human crew
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Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
G D
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
A G D
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
G D G
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
D A G D
Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row
D
Praise be to Nero's Neptune
G D
the Titanic sails at dawn
A G D
And everybody's shouting "Which side are you on?"
G D
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain's tower
A G D
While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
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Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
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And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row
D
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
G D
about the time the door knob broke
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When you asked how I was doing was that some kind of joke?
G D
All these people that you mention yes I know them, they're quite lame
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I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
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Right now I can't read too good don't send me no more letters no
D A G D
Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row