They’re selling postcards of the hanging
Well, they’re painting the passports brown
And the beauty parlor’s filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Oh now look here comes the blind commissioner
Well, they’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other’s 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

Oh Cinderella, she seems so easy
“Well, it takes one to know one,” she smiles
And she puts her hands in her back pockets
Oh Bette Davis style
And now but here comes Romeo, moaning
“You Belong to Me I Believe”
And then someone says,”You’re in the wrong place, my friend
You better leave”

And then the only sound that’s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row

Yeah

Now at midnight all the agents
And superhuman crew
Go out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do (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

‘Cause right now I can’t read too good
Don’t send me no letters no
Not unless you’re gonna mail them
From Desolation Row