Lyrics:

I was there in the rain when the tent went up
Seventeen, the trapeze or my mother
The ringmaster smiled and shook my hand,
"You will be magic," he said to me

The strong man smiles and 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

'Cause 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 coes up
Seventeen, the trapeze.
The ringmaster smiled and shook my hand,
"You will be magic," he said 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...

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,
Big Top,
Big Top

God damn the circus,
God damn everything but the circus