DESOLATION ROW Songwriter BOB DYLAN

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 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

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 Then he went 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 cyanide hole And she also keeps the cards that read “Have Mercy on His Soul” They all play on pennywhistles 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 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

HIGHLANDS Songwriter BOB DYLAN

Well my heart’s in the Highlands gentle and fair Honeysuckle blooming in the wildwood air Bluebelles blazing where the Aberdeen waters flow Well my heart’s in the Highland I’m gonna go there when I feel good enough to go

Windows were shakin’ all night in my dreams Everything was exactly the way that it seems Woke up this morning and I looked at the same old page Same ol’ rat race Life in the same ol’ cage

I don’t want nothing from anyone, ain’t that much to take Wouldn’t know the difference between a real blonde and a fake Feel like a prisoner in a world of mystery I wish someone would come And push back the clock for me

Well my heart’s in the Highlands wherever I roam That’s where I’ll be when I get called home The wind, it whispers to the buckeyed trees in rhyme Well my heart’s in the Highland I can only get there one step at a time

I’m listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound Someone’s always yelling turn it down Feel like I’m drifting Drifting from scene to scene I’m wondering what in the devil could it all possibly mean?

Insanity is smashing up against my soul You can say I was on anything but a roll If I had a conscience, well, I just might blow my top What would I do with it anyway Maybe take it to the pawn shop

My heart’s in the Highlands at the break of dawn By the beautiful lake of the Black Swan Big white clouds like chariots that swing down low Well my heart’s in the Highlands Only place left to go

I’m in Boston town, in some restaurant I got no idea what I want Well, maybe I do but I’m just really not sure Waitress comes over Nobody in the place but me and her

It must be a holiday, there’s nobody around She studies me closely as I sit down She got a pretty face and long white shiny legs She says, “What’ll it be?” I say, “I don’t know, you got any soft boiled eggs?”

She looks at me, says, “I’d bring you some But we’re out of ’m, you picked the wrong time to come” Then she says, “I know you’re an artist, draw a picture of me!” I say, “I would if I could, but I don’t do sketches from memory”

“Well,” she says, “I’m right here in front of you, or haven’t you looked?” I say, “All right, I know, but I don’t have my drawing book!” She gives me a napkin, she says, “You can do it on that” I say, “Yes I could, but I don’t know where my pencil is at!”

She pulls one out from behind her ear She says, “All right now, go ahead, draw me, I’m standing right here” I make a few lines and I show it for her to see Well she takes the napkin and throws it back And says, “That don’t look a thing like me!”

I said, “Oh, kind Miss, it most certainly does” She says, “You must be jokin’.” I say, “I wish I was!” Then she says, “You don’t read women authors, do you?” Least that’s what I think I hear her say “Well,” I say, “how would you know and what would it matter anyway?”

“Well,” she says, “you just don’t seem like you do!” I said, “You’re way wrong” She says, “Which ones have you read then?” I say, “I read Erica Jong!” She goes away for a minute And I slide up out of my chair I step outside back to the busy street but nobody’s going anywhere

Well my heart’s in the Highlands with the horses and hounds Way up in the border country, far from the towns With the twang of the arrow and a snap of the bow My heart’s in the Highlands Can’t see any other way to go

Every day is the same thing out the door Feel further away then ever before Some things in life, it gets too late to learn Well, I’m lost somewhere I must have made a few bad turns

I see people in the park forgetting their troubles and woes They’re drinking and dancing, wearing bright-colored clothes All the young men with their young women looking so good Well, I’d trade places with any of them In a minute, if I could

I’m crossing the street to get away from a mangy dog Talking to myself in a monologue I think what I need might be a full-length leather coat Somebody just asked me If I registered to vote

The sun is beginning to shine on me But it’s not like the sun that used to be The party’s over and there’s less and less to say I got new eyes Everything looks far away

Well, my heart’s in the Highlands at the break of day Over the hills and far away There’s a way to get there and I’ll figure it out somehow But I’m already there in my mind And that’s good enough for now

MISSISSIPPI Songwriter BOB DYLAN

Every step of the way we walk the line Your days are numbered, so are mine Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape

City's just a jungle, more games to play Trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away I was raised in the country, I been workin' in the town I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down

Got nothing for you, I had nothing before Don't even have anything for myself anymore Sky full of fire, pain pourin' down Nothing you can sell me, I'll see you around

All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme Only one thing I did wrong Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Well, the devil's in the alley, mule's in the stall Say anything you want to, I have heard it all I was thinkin' about the things that Rosie said I was dreaming I was sleeping in Rosie's bed

Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees Feeling like a stranger nobody sees So many things that we never will undo I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too

Some people will offer you their hand and some won't Last night I knew you, tonight I don't I need somethin' strong to distract my mind I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind Well, I got here following the southern star I crossed that river just to be where you are Only one thing I did wrong Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Well my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast I'm drownin' in the poison, got no future, got no past But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me

Everybody movin' if they ain't already there Everybody got to move somewhere Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow Things should start to get interesting right about now

My clothes are wet, tight on my skin Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in I know that fortune is waitin' to be kind So give me your hand and say you'll be mine

Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way Only one thing I did wrong Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

TRYING TO GET TO HEAVEN Songwriter BOB DYLAN

The air is getting hotter There’s a rumbling in the skies I’ve been wading through the high muddy water With the heat rising in my eyes Every day your memory grows dimmer It doesn’t haunt me like it did before I’ve been walking through the middle of nowhere Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

When I was in Missouri They would not let me be I had to leave there in a hurry I only saw what they let me see You broke a heart that loved you Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore I’ve been walking that lonesome valley Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

People on the platforms Waiting for the trains I can hear their hearts a-beatin’ Like pendulums swinging on chains I tried to give you everything That your heart was longing for I’m just going down the road feeling bad Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

I’m going down the river Down to New Orleans They tell me everything is gonna be all right But I don’t know what “all right” even means I was riding in a buggy with Miss Mary-Jane Miss Mary-Jane got a house in Baltimore I been all around the world, boys Now I’m trying to get to heaven before they close the door

Gonna sleep down in the parlor And relive my dreams I’ll close my eyes and I wonder If everything is as hollow as it seems Some trains don't pull no gamblers No midnight ramblers like they did before I been to Sugar Town, I shook the sugar down Now I’m trying to get to heaven before they close the door