Muffle the drums The hope of a new century comes Was it all the amphetamine presidents And their busy wives Or did Manhattan crumble The day Marlyn died All your life, dreamer of dreams Somehow connected with the silver screen Half closed eyes, you realize Loving the life that is paradise And the Technicolor I dream a parade like some club house Club house serenade Every dog must have his day Ramshackle Day Parade We're going on though This is the ramshackle day parade
Of all those lost, unborn, and unmade And who's heads got filled with a neon lava And remain buried underneath this road Ramshackle Day Parade Taken' the freight elevator And the incinerator To the hopped up G-men riding Refrigerated alligators Faces of the civil wars, and holograms holding 44's After the deranged cowboys Bring out the banners of Stalingrad Here come the marching band The band of the underhand This is the ramshackle day parade