Highway 61 Revisited

Oh God said to Abraham 'kill me a son'
Abe said 'man you must be puttin me on'
God said 'no', Abe said 'what'
God say 'you can do what you wanna but
the next time you see me comin you better run'
Well Abe said 'where d'you want this killin done'
God said 'out on Highway 61'
Well Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose
welfare department wouldn't give him no clothes
They asked poor Howard where can I go
Howard said 'there's only one place I know'
Sam said 'tell me quick man I got to run'
Oh Howard just pointed with his gun
and said 'that way down Highway 61'
Well Mack the finger said to Louie the king
'I got 40 red white and blue shoestrings
and a thousand telephone that don't ring.
Do you know where I can get rid of these things?'
and Louie the king said 'let me think for a minute son'
Then he said 'yes I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61'
Now the 5th daughter on the 12th night
told the first father that things weren't right
'my complexion', she says, 'is much too white'
He said 'come here and step into the light'
He said 'hmm you're right let me tell the 2nd mother this has been done'
But the 2nd mother was with the 7th son
and they were both out on Highway 61
Now the roving gambler he was very bored
trying to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said 'I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes, I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
and have it on Highway 61'

You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say 'Who is that man?'
You try so hard but you don't understand
just what you will say when you get home
because something is happening here but you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
You raise up your head and you ask 'Is this where it is?'
and somebody points to you and says 'It's his'
and you say 'what's mine?' and somebody else says 'well what is?'
and you say 'Oh my god am I here all alone?'
but something is happening and you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
You hand in your ticket and you go watch the geek
who immediatly walks up to you when he hears you speak
and says 'How does it feel to be such a freak?'
and you say 'impossible' as he hands you a bone
and something is happening here but you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
You have many contacts among the lumberjacks
to get you facts when someone attacks your imagination
but nobody has any respect, anyway they already expect
you to all give a check to tax-deductible charity organizations
Ah you've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read, it's well known
But something is happening here and you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
Well the sword-swallower he comes up to you and then he kneels
He crosses himself and then he clicks his high heels
and without further notice he asks you how it feels
and he says 'Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan'
And you know something is happening but you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
Now you see this one-eyed midget shouting the word 'now'
and you say 'for what reason?' and he says 'how'
And you say 'what does this mean?' and he screams back 'You're a cow'
'Give me some milk or else go home'
And you know something's happening but you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
Well you walk into the room like a camel and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law against you coming around
You should be made to wear earphones
Cause something is happening and you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?
Whoooaaaooooh

They're selling postcards of the hanging
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is 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 tight-rope 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 seems so easy
'It takes one to know one,' she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette 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 Better leave'
And the only sound thats left
After the ambulences go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row

Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
the fortunetelling 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

Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second 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
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
As he when off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They're trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She's in charge of the cynanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
'Have Mercy on His Soul'
They all play on the penny whistles
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
A perfect image of a priest
They're spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls
'Get Outa Here If You Don't Know
Casanova is just being punished for going
To Desolation Row'

Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
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
And everybody's shouting
'Which Side Are You On?'
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
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 too much
About Desolation row

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 can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
]From Desolation Row

I got this graveyard woman, you know she keeps my kids
but my soulful mama you know she keeps me hid
She's a junkyard angel and she always gives me bread
Well if I go down diein' you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well when the pipeline gets broken and I'm lost on the river bridge
I'm all cracked up on the highway and in the water's edge
And then she comes down the thruway ready to sew me up with a thread
Well if I go down diein' you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much
She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch
She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead
Well if I go down dyin' you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well you know I need a steam-shovel mama to keep away the dead
I need a dump truck baby to unload my head
She brings me everything and more and just like I said
Well if I go down dyin' you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed