Desolation Row
(专辑: Highway 61 Revisited - 1965)
They're selling postcards of the
hanging They're painting the
passports brown The
beauty parlor is filled with sailors The
circus is in town Here comes the
blind commissioner They've got him in a
trance One hand is tied to the
tight-rope walker The
other is in his pants And the
riot squad they're restless They need somewhere to go As Lady and I
look out tonight From Desolation Row. Cinderella, she seems so easy "It takes one to know one," she smiles And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style And in comes Romeo, he's moaning, "You belong to Me I
Believe." And someone says, "You're in the
wrong place, my friend You'd better leave." And the
only sound that's left After the
ambulances go Is Cinderella sweeping up On Desolation Row. Now the
moon is almost hidden The
stars are beginning to hide The
fortune-telling lady Has even taken all her things inside All except for Cain and Abel And the
hunchback of Notre Dame Everybody is making love Or else expecting rain And the
Good Samaritan, he's dressing He's getting ready for the
show He's going to the
carnival tonight On Desolation Row. Ophelia, she's 'neath the
window For her I
feel so afraid On her twenty-second birthday She already is an old maid To her, death is quite romantic She wears an iron vest Her profession's her religion Her sin is her lifelessness And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow She spends her time peeking Into Desolation Row. Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood With his memories in a
trunk Passed this way an hour ago With his friend, a
jealous monk NOW, he looked so immaculately frightful As he bummed a
cigarette Then he went off sniffing drainpipes And reciting the
alphabet You would not think to look at him But he was famous long ago For playing the
electric violin On Desolation Row. Dr. Filth, he keeps his world Inside of a
leather cup But all his sexless patients They ARE trying to blow it up Now his nurse, some local loser She's in charge of the
cyanide hole And she also keeps the
cards that read "Have Mercy on His Soul" They all play on the
penny whistle You can hear them blow If you lean your head out far enough From Desolation Row. Across the
street they've nailed the
curtains They're getting ready for the
feast The
Phantom of the
Opera In a
perfect image of a
priest They are spoon-feeding Casanova To get him to feel more assured Then they'll kill him with self-confidence After poisoning him with words And the
Phantom's shouting to skinny girls "Get outta here if you don't know" Casanova is just being punished for going To Desolation Row. At midnight all the
agents And the
superhuman crew Come out and round up everyone That knows more than they do Then they bring them to the
factory Where the
heart-attack machine Is strapped across their shoulders And then the
kerosene Is brought down from the
castles By insurance men who go Check to see that nobody is escaping To Desolation Row. Praise be to Nero's Neptune The
Titanic sails at dawn Everybody's shouting "Which side are you on?" And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot Fighting in the
captain's tower While calypso singers laugh at them And fishermen hold flowers Between the
windows of the
sea Where lovely mermaids flow And nobody has to think too much About Desolation Row. Yes, I
received your letter yesterday About the
time the
door knob broke When you asked me how I
was doing Or was that some kind of joke? All these people that you mention Yes, I
know them, they're quite lame I
had to rearrange their faces And give them all another name Right now I
can't read too good Don't send me no more letters no Not unless you mail them From Desolation Row.