Well, you've seen your bright visions of glory
Where love built your cities on high
I have just seen your cold, lower dungeons
Where the victims of syphilis cry

They are called to the city of sorrow
To confess all the wrong things they've done
Their teardrops and meek weep much louder
When the city's blown down by the bombs

There's a street named for every disease here
Syph Alley and Clap Avenue
And the whores and the pimps and their victims
All past on the curbs from our view

Once young, once healthy and happy
Now a whirlpool of raving insane
Lost here in this wild VD City
Nobody knows you by name

Your eyes are too 'fested to see here
Your body is rotten by sores
Every window stands full of lost faces
Human wrecks pile the stairs and the doors

Must you pay your way to this city?
With an hour of passion and vice
I pray that I'll not see your face here
Where the millions now burn in this fire