Текст песни «Bob Dylan - Desolation Row»

b.dylan circa.1965

they're selling postcards of the hanging
they're painting the passports brown
the beauty parlor's filled with sailors
the circus is in town
here comes the blind commissioner
they've got him in a trance
one hand is tied to the tightrope 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 seemed so easy
"it takes one to know one" she smiles
and put her hands in her back pocket
betty davis style
and in comes Romeo he's moaning
"you belong to me - i believe"
and someone says "you're in the wrong place, my friend,
you'd better leave"
and the only sound that's left
after the ambulances go
is cinderella sweeping up on desolation row

now the moon is almost hidden
the stars are beginning to hide
the fortune-telling lady
has even taken all her things inside
all except for cain and abel
and the hunchback of notre dame
everybody is making love
or else expecting rain
and the good samaritan - he's dressing
he's getting ready for the show
he's going to the carnival tonight on desolation row

Ophelia - she's 'neath the window
for her i feel so afraid
on her 22nd birthday
she already is an Old Maid
to her death is quite romantic -
she wears an iron vest -
her profession's her religion,
her sin is her lifelessness
and though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah's great rainbow
she spends her time peeking into desolation row

einstein, disguised as robin hood,
with his memories in a trunk
passed this way an hour ago
with his friend, a jealous monk
now he looked so emmaculately frightful
as he bummed a cigarette
and he went off sniffing drainpipes
and reciting the alphabet
you would not think to look at him,
but he was famous long ago
for playing the electric violin on desolation row

doctor filth - he keeps his world
inside of a leather cup
but all his sexless patients
they are trying to BLOW it up
now his nurse - some local loser -
she's in charge of the cyanide hole
and she also keeps the cards that read
have mercy on his soul
they all play on the pennywhistle
you can hear them blow -
if you lean your head out far enough from desolation row

across the street they've nailed the curtains
they're getting ready for the feast
the phantom of the opera,
in a perfect image of a priest,
they are spoonfeeding casanova
to get him to feel more assured
then they'll kill him with selfconfidence
after poisoning him with words
and the phantom shouting't two skinny girls -
"get outta here if you dont know -
casanova's just being punished for going to desolation row"

at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
come out and round up everyone
that knows more than they do
and then they 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 nobody is escaping to desolation row

praise be to nero's neptune
the titanic sails at dawn
everyone is shouting "Which side are you on!"
and ezra pound and t.s.elliot
fighting in the captain's tower
while calypso singers laugh at them
and fishermen hold flowers
between the windows of the sea
where lovely mermaids flow
and nobody has to think to much about desolation row

-----powerful harmonica interlude------------------

yes, i received your letter yesterday
about the time the doorknob broke -
when you asked me how i was doing -
was that some kind of jOke
all these people that you mention -
yes, i know them, they're quite lame,
i had to rearrange their faces
and give them all another name
right now i cant read to good
dont send me no more letters - No!
not unless you mail them from desolation row

--------powerful harmica ending---------------