All Along the Watchtower

Bob Dylan

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker

�to the thief,

�"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.

�Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my

�earth,

�None of them along the line know what any of it is

�worth."

�

�"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly

�spoke,

�"There are many here among us who feel that life is

�but a joke.

�But you and I, we've been through that, and this is

�not our fate,

�So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting

�late."

�

�All along the watchtower, princes kept the view

�While all the women came and went, barefoot

�servants, too.

�

�Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,

�Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

�

�

With God on Our Side

�

�Oh my name it is nothin'

�My age it means less

�The country I come from

�Is called the Midwest

�I's taught and brought up there

�The laws to abide

�And that land that I live in

�Has God on its side.

�

�Oh the history books tell it

�They tell it so well

�The cavalries charged

�The Indians fell

�The cavalries charged

�The Indians died

�Oh the country was young

�With God on its side.

�

�Oh the Spanish-American

�War had its day

�And the Civil War too

�Was soon laid away

�And the names of the heroes

�I's made to memorize

�With guns in their hands

�And God on their side.

�

�Oh the First World War, boys

�It closed out its fate

�The reason for fighting

�I never got straight

�But I learned to accept it

�Accept it with pride

�For you don't count the dead

�When God's on your side.

�

�When the Second World War

�Came to an end

�We forgave the Germans

�And we were friends

�Though they murdered six million

�In the ovens they fried

�The Germans now too

�Have God on their side.

�

�I've learned to hate Russians

�All through my whole life

�If another war starts

�It's them we must fight

�To hate them and fear them

�To run and to hide

�And accept it all bravely

�With God on my side.

�

�But now we got weapons

�Of the chemical dust

�If fire them we're forced to

�Then fire them we must

�One push of the button

�And a shot the world wide

�And you never ask questions

�When God's on your side.

�

�In a many dark hour

�I've been thinkin' about this

�That Jesus Christ

�Was betrayed by a kiss

�But I can't think for you

�You'll have to decide

�Whether Judas Iscariot

�Had God on his side.

�

�So now as I'm leavin'

�I'm weary as Hell

�The confusion I'm feelin'

�Ain't no tongue can tell

�The words fill my head

�And fall to the floor

�If God's on our side

�He'll stop the next war.

�

Desolation Row

�

�

�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 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

�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 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 door knob 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

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