Won’t you let go, jailer, take off these chains

I’ve seen no light for a hundred days straight

You stole my tongue, so I’m talking with my hands

I blink and I wave and I hope you’ll understand

 

Detectives got my room upside down

And they look for clues and they sit and frown

They’d love to put me in a jailhouse van

And show me around as the elephant man

 

Everyone’s an oddity, can’t you tell

On a Wednesday night at the Cannibal Hotel

 

It’s nice and safe in a hospital bed

Where tricky stars don’t mess with your head

All the wailing women at the funeral fair

Came down on me like hounds on a hare

 

And they tuck me in and they nurse my head

Their needles sharp and my meters in the red

Every bruise I get from their righteous hands

Is like a velvet ribbon sayin’ ‘free from sin’

 

So listen people, ain’t it just like hell

To be stuck in here at the Cannibal Hotel

 

My wife’s a fury, she’s not having any of this

She’ll get you down on your hands and knees

She’s grab my wrist and drag me back home

Kiss me back to health and then break my bones

 

So listen people, I may just as well

Do my penance here at the Cannibal Hotel