Desolation Row

Desolation Row easy guitar chords by Bob Dylan

1965Pop
Guitar
Tuning

E A D G B E

Capo

Fret 2

Capo

Transpose

0

Capo
  • D

  • G

  • A

  • D

  • G

  • A

  • Intro 1
    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 parlor 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 tight-rope 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 pockets
    G
    D

    Bette Davis style
    D

    And 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 ex cept 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 getting 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 a fraid
    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
    D
    G

    upon 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

    Now he looked so immaculately frightful
    G
    D

    as he bummed a cigarette
    A

    And he went off sniffing drainpipes
    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

    Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
    G
    D

    in side of a leather cup
    A

    But all his sexless patients,
    G
    D

    they're 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 whistles,
    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 getting 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 to
    G
    D

    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 Ti tanic sails at dawn
    A

    Everybody's shouting,
    G
    D

    "Which side are you on?!"
    D

    And Ez ra 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

    Be tween 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
    Solo 1
    D
    D
    G
    D

    A
    A
    G
    D

    D
    D
    G
    D

    A
    A
    G
    D

    G
    G
    D
    G

    D
    A
    G
    D
    D

    Verse 10
    D

    Yes, I received your letter yesterday,
    G
    D

    about the time the doorknob 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
    Solo 2
    D
    D
    G
    D

    A
    A
    G
    D

    D
    D
    G
    D

    A
    A
    G
    D

    G
    G
    D
    G

    D
    A
    G
    D

    How did you like the song?

    5.0 (4)
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