I was there in the rain when the tent went up
Seventeen the trapeze or my mother
The ringmaster smiled and smy hand
'You will be magic,' he said to me.
The strong man smiles and he takes me in
And the tamer in sequins
All is well when the crowd is breathless as I pursue the trapeze
So step right up to the small town big top
One way out of a small town's the big top
The ringmaster winks from the funhouse door
The smell of the animals fills the floor
The next thing I know I'm in South Carolina, or Cleveland
With the boy next door
The ringmaster winks from the funhouse door
And the flea-bitten horses
The next thing that I know, I'm in bed
With the boy next door
Cuz I was there in the rain when the tent went up
I know the routine when the tent goes up
Always there, in the rain
(God damn the circus, god damn everything but the circus)
Houston is a rotten dump, I don't mind New Orleans
Or the holes in my fishnets, but I mind
The rain, when the tent goes up
Seventeen the trapeze
The ringmaster smiles and takes my hand
'You will be magic,' he says to me.
I was there when the tent went up
All the cages and trailers
Seventeen, the trapeze, or my mother
So step right up to the small town big top
One way out of a small town's the big top
So step right up to the small town big top
One way out of a small town's the big top
God damn the circus
God damn everything
God damn the circus
God damn everything but the circus
Big top big top big top