They're
Selling postcards
Of the hanging

And they're painting
The passports brown
And the beauty parlor

Is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
And now here comes

The blind commissioner
Well 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
"Well it takes one to know one"

She smiles
And puts her hands
In her back pockets

Bette Davis style
And now in comes Romeo
moaning

"You Belong to Me I Believe"
And someone says
" You're in the wrong place

My friend
You better leave"
And the only sound that's left

After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row



Now at midnight all the agents

And the superhuman crew
Go out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do

They're gonna 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 no one is escaping
To Desolation Row


Because right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no

Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row