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Desolation Row by Bob Dylan - Guitar Chords

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            Desolation Row
words and music by Bob Dylan


[Verses]
D
They're selling postcards of the hanging
         G                     D
They're painting the passports brown
    A7
The beauty parlour's filled with sailors
G                     D
 The circus is in town


Here comes the blind commissoner

        G            D
They've got him in a trance
    A7
One hand's tied to the tightrope walker
G                    D
 The other is in his pants
        G
And the riot squad they're restless
     D
They need some where to go
   D               A7
As lady and I look out tonight
G              D
 On Desolation Row


Cinderella she seem so easy
It takes one to know one she smiles
Then puts her hand in her back pocket
Betty Davis style
Then in comes Romeo he's moaning
You Belong to me I believe
And someone says your in the wrong place my friend
You 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 already taken all her things inside
All except for Cane and Able
And the Hunch Back of Notre Dame
Everyone is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the good samaritan he's dressing
He's gettin ready for the show
He's going to the carinval
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

Einstien 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 frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then went off sniffing drain pipes
And reciting the alphabet
No you would not think to look at him
That he was famous long ago
For playing electric violin
On Desolation Row

Doctor filth he keeps his word
Inside a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
Are trying to blow it up
Now his nurse a local looser
She's in charge of the cyanaide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
Have mercy on his soul
They all play on 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 gettin ready for the feast
The phantom of the opera
A perfect image of a priest
They're spoon feedin Casonova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they'll killed him with self confidence
After poisoning him with words
And the phantom shouting to skinning girls
Get outta her don't you know
Casanova is just being punished
For going to Desolation Row

Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crews
Round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart attack machines
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men that go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody shouting
Which side are you on
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
Fighting in the captains tower
While calypso signers 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 door knob broke
When you asked me how I was
Was that some kind of joke
All those 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

Be seeing you,
Kelwyn.
_________

He said that's alright babe,
I love you too.
But we were Tangled Up In Blue.
       - Bob Dylan


D
They're selling postcards of the hanging
D       G                      D
They're painting the passports brown
D   A
The beauty parlour's filled with sailors
G                D
The circus is in town
D
Here comes the blind commissioner
D    G            D
They got him in a trance
D   A
One hand is tied to the tightrope walker
G                   D
The other is in his pants
D       G
And the riot squad they're restless
D                     G
They need somewhere to go
D                  A
As lady and I look out tonight
A  G          D
On desolation row

Use Dsus4 as appropriate.
We also have 173 songs by Bob Dylan

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