The shallow water shimmers in the street light The neon signs can't escape the eye The smell of fish and spice, a smell of which can mix so nice So take me back here 'fore I die And the greatest infection is that of affection And I wouldn't have it any other way But what can I say? ♪ Circumstance had brought her to the city She was left behind to try and find a cheap hotel to sleep at night Well, hard times fell, and she took to strippin' Just a 19-year-old girl in the grasps of middle-aged, married men And the Bourbon Street bullhorn boys bellowed boasts of beautiful girls Who dance behind black curtains in the night And, oh, how that stigma follows, just another slut on drugs And through the drunken slander, she held her pride And I'll come back to New Orleans And I hope to find that you're still waiting there for me 'Cause I'll be back in New Orleans If you still want me there ♪ She'd only been two weeks in the city It'd only been two nights for me And was it vacation high? It felt so real when we said goodbye And I hope this feeling never fades And the greatest infection is that of affection And I wouldn't have it any other way In a city full of devils, I found an angel there And fell in love with a stripper, but I never saw her dance But I'll come back to New Orleans And I hope to find that you're still waiting there for me 'Cause I'll be back in New Orleans If you still want me there ♪ And the shallow water shimmers in the street light The neon signs can't escape the eye And the city sleeps, but I keep on stirring So take me back here 'fore I die