Venice Beach is poppin'
Like live shrimp dropped on a hot walk
Hucksters, hustlers and hawkers
Set up their boardwalk shops
Home for all the homeless, hopeless
Well-heeled and deranged
Still, nothing here seems out of place or strange
There's an old smudge of a beatnik by the bay
Looking like a dog who's had his day
Like a dream he drifts away
He likes to go out on the pier
To hear the reedy carousel
It's got a melody that sets you free
And says, "Let's set a spell
Just to hear the heartbeat in L.A."