All of the drunks
Dressed up like Santa Claus
Ring Salvation Army bells
But the town square is quiet
The juke joints are empty
Everyone's buying
What no one can sell 

And the girl I loved once
Came to me last night
In a dream with a secret to tell
She whispered close
Can't you hear the ocean?
As she leaned her ear
Against a shotgun shell 

Dark was the night
Cold was the ground
I could barely make out the song
Of the Ghost Repeaters
Singing Hallelujah
His truth is marching on 

Willie Mae's crying
At the toll booth to heaven
With a bottle of gin
And a gold-toothed smile
Where the dreams pile up
All washed out and broken
As thick as the stars
On the Miracle Mile 

But the movie is over
The theater is empty
The credits are starting to roll
The wages of sin
Don't adjust for inflation
It's a buyer's market
When you sell your soul 

Dark was the night
Cold was the ground
I could barely make out the song
Singing Hallelujah
His truth is marching on

The plaza is dark
The picadors are dreaming
Of blood in the alleys
And rust on the vines
They sandbag the bulls
And prop up the matadors
It's a sweetheart contract
They're taking their time 

And all the ghost prisoners
Who aren't in the ghost prisons
Don't weep at the sound
Of your name
They just stare up at the clouds
Of passenger pigeons
Winging back home
To the cities of the plain 

Dark was the night
Cold was the ground
I could barely make out the song
Of the Ghost Repeaters
Singing Hallelujah
His truth is marching on

The star up above
The 5th Avenue Christmas tree
Is shining tonight
Through the cold and the rain
To light all the faces
In the live nativity
Down on the floor
Of the stock exchange 

Dark is the night
Cold is the ground
The armies march out to defend
And the Ghost Repeaters
Of the revelators
Are singing "Peace on Earth
And Good Will to all Men"