They're selling postcards of the hanging   Where they're painting the passports brown   Yeah, the beauty parlor's filled with sailors   The circus is in town      Oh now but 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      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 she puts her hands in her back pockets   Bette Davis style      Now but 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 then only sound that's left   After the ambulances go   Is Cinderella sweeping up   On Desolation Row      Now at midnight all the agents   And super-human crew   Go out and round up everyone   That knows more than they do      They gonna bring 'em 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 gotta mail them   From Desolation Row