[Verse 1]
They're selling postcards of the hanging
Well, they're painting the passports brown
Yeah, the beauty parlor's filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Oh, now look, here comes the blind commissioner
Well, they got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other's in his pants

[Chorus]
And the riot squad they're restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight from
Desolation Row

[Verse 2]
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 here comes Romeo, moaning
"You belong to me, I believe"
And if someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend"
You better leave
[Chorus]
And then the only sound that's left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up on
Desolation Row
Yeah!

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 3]
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 going to bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene

[Chorus]
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that no one is escaping to
Desolation Row

[Outro]
'Cause right now, I can't read too good
Don't send me no letters, no
Not unless you're going to mail them from
Desolation Row
Ah!