[ti:Desolation Row (Live at TCN 9 TV, Sydney, Australia - April 1966)] [ar:Bob Dylan] [al:Live 1962-1966 - Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]Desolation Row (Live at TCN 9 TV, Sydney, Australia - April 1966) - Bob Dylan [00:05.05]Lyrics by:Bob Dylan [00:10.11]Composed by:Bob Dylan [00:15.17]They're selling postcards of the hanging [00:19.63]They're painting the passports brown [00:23.85]The beauty parlor is filled with sailors the circus is in town [00:32.09]Here comes the blind commissioner they've got him in a trance [00:39.30]One hand is tied to the tight-rope [00:41.51]Walker the other is in his pants [00:47.37]And the riot squad they're restless [00:51.59]They need somewhere to go [00:55.49]As Lady and I look out tonight from Desolation Row [01:09.48]Cinderella she seems so easy [01:14.02]It takes one to know one she smiles [01:18.08]And puts her hands into her back [01:19.83]Pockets Bette Davis style [01:26.08]And in comes Romeo he's moaning [01:29.61]You Belong to Me I Believe [01:34.12]And someone turns in the face TV here [01:37.28]My friend you'd better leave [01:41.54]And the only sound that's left after the ambulances go [01:49.82]Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row [02:00.48]Now the moon is almost hidden the stars [02:05.24]They are just pretending to hide [02:08.94]The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside [02:16.45]All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame [02:25.07]Everyone is he the making love or else expecting rain [02:32.36]And the Good Samaritan he's dressing [02:36.55]He's getting ready for the show [02:40.82]He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row [02:51.22]Ophelia she's 'neath the window for her I feel so afraid [02:59.13]On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid [03:06.56]Not to her death is quite romantic [03:11.35]She wears an iron vest [03:14.99]Her profession's her religion [03:18.94]Her sin is her lifelessness [03:22.84]And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow [03:30.91]She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row [03:43.36]Einstein disguised as Robin Hood [03:47.99]With his memories in a trunk [03:52.51]Passed this way an hour ago with [03:55.77]His friend a jealous monk [03:59.81]Now he looked so immaculately frightful [04:03.77]As he bummed a cigarette [04:07.80]And he when off sniffing drainpipes [04:11.65]And reciting the alphabet [04:15.49]You would not think to look at [04:19.05]Him but he was famous long ago [04:24.04]For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row [04:35.96]Dr Filth he keeps his world [04:40.55]Locked inside of a leather cup [04:44.56]But all his sexless patients they're trying to blow it up [04:52.03]Now his nurse some local loser she's [04:56.23]In charge of the cyanide hole [05:00.34]And she also keeps the cards [05:03.13]That read Have Mercy on His Soul [05:08.49]They all play on the penny whistles you can hear them blow [05:15.91]If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row [05:27.13]Across the street they've nailed the curtains [05:31.14]They're getting ready for the feast [05:35.72]The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest [05:42.82]They are spoon feeding Casanova to [05:47.03]Get him to feel more assured [05:50.97]Then they'll kill him with self-confidence [05:54.76]After poisoning him with words [05:58.68]And the Phantom's shouts to skinny girls [06:03.20]Get outta here if you don't know [06:06.71]Casanova he is just being punished [06:10.26]For going to Desolation Row [06:19.05]At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew [06:27.49]Come out and round up everyone [06:30.71]That knows more than they do [06:34.56]Then they bring them to the factory [06:38.85]Where the heart-attack machine [06:43.10]Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene [06:50.77]Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go [06:58.55]Check to see that noone is escaping to Desolation Row [07:09.64]Praise be to Nero's Neptune the Titanic sails at dawn [07:18.37]Everybody's shouting Which side are you on [07:25.52]And Ezra Pound and TS Eliot [07:30.42]Fighting in the captain's tower [07:33.79]While calypso singers laugh at [07:36.99]Them and fishermen hold flowers [07:41.68]Between the windows of the sea [07:45.78]Where lovely mermaids flow [07:49.88]And nobody has to think too [07:53.18]Much about Desolation Row [08:48.35]Yes I received your letter yesterday [08:54.39]About the time the doorknob broke [08:58.42]When you asked me how I was doing [09:02.26]Was that some kind of joke [09:05.83]All these people that you mention [09:10.02]Yes I know them they're quite lame [09:14.02]I had to rearrange their faces [09:17.69]And give them all another name [09:21.65]Right now I can't read too good [09:25.41]Don't send me no more letters no [09:30.30]Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row