WWW.AZCHORDS.COM | Bob Dylan - Desolation Row Chords | Ver. 1
CAPO: II
[Intro]
D D D D
[Verse 1]
D
They're selling postcards of the hanging
G D
They're painting the passports brown
A
The beauty parlour is filled with sailors
G D
The circus is in town
D
Here comes the blind commissioner
G D
They've got him in a trance
A
One hand is tied to the tightrope walker
G D
The other is in his pants
G
And the riot squad, they're restless
D G
They need somewhere to go
D A
As lady and I look out tonight from
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 2]
D
Cinderella, she seems so easy
G D
It takes one to know one she smiles
A
And puts her hands in her back pocket
G D
Bette Davis style
D
Then in comes Romeo, he's moaning
G D
You belong to me I believe
A
And someone says you're in the wrong place my friend
G D
You'd better leave
G
And the only sound that's left
D G
After the ambulances go
D A
Is Cinderella sweeping up on
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 3]
D
Now the moon is almost hidden
G D
The stars are beginning to hide
A
The fortune telling lady
G D
Has even taken all her things inside
D
All except for Cain and Abel
G D
And the Hunchback of Notre-Dame
A
Everybody is making love
G D
Or else expecting rain
G
And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing
D G
He's gettin' ready for the show
D A
He's going to the carnival tonight on
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 4]
D
Ophelia, she's 'neath the window
G D
For her I feel so afraid
A
On her twenty-second birthday
G D
She already is an old maid
D
To her, death is quite romantic
G D
She wears an iron vest
A
Her profession's her religion
G D
Her sin is her lifelessness
G
And though her eyes are fixed upon
D G
Noah's great rainbow
D A
She spends her time peeking into
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 5]
D
Einstein disguised as Robin Hood
G D
With his memories in a trunk
A
Passed this way an hour ago
G D
With his friend a jealous monk
D
Ah he looked so immaculately frightful
G D
As he bummed a cigarette
A
Then went off sniffing drain pipes
G D
And reciting the alphabet
G
You would not think to look at him
D G
But he was famous long ago
D A
For playing the electric violin on
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 6]
D
Doctor Filth, he keeps his world
G D
Inside of a leather cup
A
But all his sexless patients
G D
They are trying to blow it up
D
Now his nurse, some local loser
G D
She's in charge of the cyanide hole
A
And she also keeps the cards that read
G D
Have mercy on his soul
G
They all play on the penny whistle
D G
You can hear them blow
D A
If you lean your head out far enough from
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 7]
D
Across the street they've nailed the curtains
G D
They're gettin' ready for the feast
A
The Phantom of the Opera
G D
In a perfect image of a priest
D
They are spoon feeding Casanova
G D
To get him to feel more assured
A
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence
G D
After poisoning him with words
G
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls
D G
Get outta here if you don't know
D A
Casanova is just being punished for going
G D
To Desolation Row
[Verse 8]
D
At midnight all the agents
G D
And the superhuman crew
A
Come out and round up everyone
G D
That knows more than they do
D
Then they bring them to the factory
G D
Where the heart attack machine
A
Is strapped across their shoulders
G D
And then the kerosene
G
Is brought down from the castles
D G
By insurance men who go
D A
Check to see that nobody is escaping to
G D
Desolation Row
[Verse 9]
D
Praise be to Nero's Neptune
G D
The Titanic sails at dawn
A
Everybody is shouting
G D
Which side are you on
D
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
G D
Fighting in the captain's tower
A
While calypso singers laugh at them
G D
And fishermen hold flowers
G
Between the windows of the sea
D G
Where lovely mermaids flow
D A
And nobody has to think too much about
G D
Desolation Row
[Bridge]
D G D A G D D G D A G D G D G D A G D
(*no lyrics - harmonica solo - optional*)
[Verse 10]
D
Yes I received your letter yesterday
G D
About the time the door knob broke
A
When you asked me how I was doing
G D
Was that some kind of joke
D
All these people that you mention
G D
Yes I know them, they're quite lame
A
I had to rearrange their faces
G D
And give them all another name
G
Right now I can't read too good
D G
Don't send me no more letters, no
D A
Not unless you mail them from
G D
Desolation Row