Back in the days of glitz and glamour when tinselltown was king
Anyone who was anyone could do most anything
They thought they were so godly, to their own selves they were true
What wasn't crude and ugly, wasn't worth to do
It's so odd that they were famous, their secrets hid so thin
Their agents made the payoffs to conceal who they had been
For some it was not easy, to care to be around
Found locked-up and forgotten, devoured by the hound
It wasn't in the screenplay or the dress rehearsal call
No make-up man was needed for that final curtain fall
The sidewalks all stayed crowded, the footlights were left on
And still today they stay that way in Hollywood Babylon
Before there were the Lakers, Belushi, or Monroe
Anyone could check out fine in a Hollywood bungalow
The telephones were ringing, prescriptions always filled
The ragsheets and Variety kept tabs on who'd been killed
Yes, they kept tabs on who'd been killed
Bright starlets leapt from windows to the fame that lay below
On their knees, the pansies pleased, and did all they could know
There was a different scandal for everyone in town
Mothers would hold their daughters prone so they could not make a sound
Oh, what a great white wonder, those letters on the hill
And overhead the living dead, the perfect perch to kill
While coroners stayed busy, casting couches were stained
As the have-nots paid their final dues to the rising cost of fame
Oh, the rising cost of fame
I wish I could have been there in that neighborhood
To catch the chars of falling stars that fell on Hollywood
I'd keep them in a haven, somewhere safe and strong
A museum for the living past of Hollywood Babylon
Now the directors are screaming for anyone who's left
From wrecked-up cars of fatal stars or the victims of a porcelain death
The ovens were less empty with someone's head inside
The quick cure for obscurity was rarely left untried
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Hollywood Babylon
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Lyrics: Charles Hazen
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