(intro) E Esus4 E Esus4 E Esus4

E
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
        A                       E
They’re painting the passports brown
    B7
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
A                   E Esus4
The circus is in town
E
Here comes the blind commissioner
        A             E
They’ve got him in a trance
    B7
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
A                    E
The other is in his pants
        A
And the riot squad they’re restless
     E                 A
They need somewhere to go
   E               B7
As Lady and I look out tonight
    A            E   Esus4 E Esus4
From Desolation Row

E
Cinderella, she seems so easy
    A                           E
“It takes one to know one," she smiles
    B7
And puts her hands in her back pockets
A                E Esus4
Bette Davis style
E
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
        A              E
“You Belong to Me I Believe"
    B7
And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend
A              E
You better leave"
        A
And the only sound that’s left
E                    A
After the ambulances go
E             B7
Is Cinderella sweeping up
  A            E   Esus4 E Esus4 E Esus4
On Desolation Row

E
Now the moon is almost hidden
A                          E
The stars are beginning to hide
    B7
The fortune-telling lady
    A                           E Esus4
Has even taken all her things inside
E                            Esus4
All except for Cain and Abel
        A                   E
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
B7
Everybody is making love
   A              E
Or else expecting rain
        A
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
             E             A
He’s getting ready for the show
      E            B7
He’s going to the carnival tonight
  A             E   Esus4 E Esus4 E Esus4
On Desolation Row

E
Now Ophelia, she’s ’neath the window
A               E
For her I feel so afraid
    B7
On her twenty-second birthday
     A                 E
She already is an old maid
E
To her, death is quite romantic
    A             E
She wears an iron vest
    B7
Her profession’s her religion
    A                    E
Her sin is her lifelessness
    A
And though her eyes are fixed upon
E                 A
Noah’s great rainbow
    E               B7
She spends her time peeking
    A             E   Esus4 E Esus4 E Esus4
Into Desolation Row

E
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
      A                 E
With his memories in a trunk
B7
Passed this way an hour ago
         A                  E
With his friend, a jealous monk
E
He looked so immaculately frightful
    A               E
As he bummed a cigarette
       B7
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
      A                E
And reciting the alphabet
A
You would not think to look at him
        E              A
But he was famous long ago
    E                     B7
For playing the electric violin
   A             E   Esus4 E Esus4
On Desolation Row

E
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
  A                  E
Inside of a leather cup
    B7
But all his sexless patients
         A                   E Esus4
They’re trying to blow it up
E                               Esus4
Now his nurse, some local loser
        A                      E
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
        B7
And she also keeps the cards that read
      A            E
“Have Mercy on His Soul"
A
They all play on pennywhistles
E                 A
You can hear them blow
       E              B7
If you lean your head out far enough
     A            E   Esus4 E Esus4 E
From Desolation Row

E
Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains
        A                      E
They’re getting ready for the feast
    B7
The Phantom of the Opera
     A                   E
In a perfect image of a priest
E
They’re spoonfeeding Casanova
   A                    E
To get him to feel more assured
            B7
Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence
       A                 E    Esus4 E
After poisoning him with words
        A
And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls
E                           A
“Get Outa Here If You Don’t Know
    E                  B7
Casanova is just being punished for going
 A               E   Esus4 E Esus4 E Esus4
To Desolation Row"

E
At midnight all the agents
        A          E
And the superhuman crew
     B7
Come out and round up everyone
     A                    E Esus4
That knows more than they do
E                                   Esus4
Then they bring them to the factory
          A            E
Where the heart-attack machine
    B7
Is strapped across their shoulders
    A              E Esus4
And then the kerosene
   A
Is brought down from the castles
   E                 A
By insurance men who go
         E                  B7
Check to see that nobody is escaping
   A            E   Esus4 E Esus4
To Desolation Row

E
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
    A                 E
The Titanic sails at dawn
B7
Everybody’s shouting
A                   E  Esus4
“Which Side Are You On?"
E
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
A                         E
Fighting in the captain’s tower
  B7
While calypso singers laugh at them
    A               E
And fishermen hold flowers
  A
Between the windows of the sea
     E                 A
Where lovely mermaids flow
   E               B7
And nobody has to think too much
     A              E
About Desolation Row

E
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
        A                      E
(About the time the doorknob broke)
    B7
When you asked how I was doing
A                   E
Was that some kind of joke?
E
All these people that you mention
        A             E
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
    B7
I had to rearrange their faces
A                    E
And give them all another name
        A
Right now I can’t read too good
     E                 A
Don’t send me no more letters, no
   E               B7
Not unless you mail them
A               E    Esus4 E Esus4 E
From Desolation Row