On the main streets and the avenues
In the condos white as knuckles bruised
With the carmine of the busy liquor bars

There's a dark and mystic beauty
To these inner-city girls
That slide by in the velvet of their cars

Through the dance halls and the shopping malls
And the subways filled with Dresden dolls
To the school of fallen angels on the ground

The whole city's just an expensive whore
A forest nymph with a pompadour
But there ain't no woman around

No, there ain't no woman around
No, there ain't no woman around
Well, I'm surrounded by these girls
But there just ain't no woman around

And the girl that fills my bed
Will hear the words I should've said
To the only true love I ever found

I'll pretend that make-up in her purse
Is a day-dream, not a curse
That comes just to kick me down
I can still taste the youth of her kiss

Maybe it's the childhood that I missed
The first time around there's a weird shape to her charms
There's a strange meat on her arms
But there ain't no woman around

No, there ain't no woman around
No, there ain't no woman around
Well, I'm surrounded by these girls
But there just ain't no woman around

Sometimes I feel I'm running
Like a fever through the night
And I've run myself straight into the ground

I miss your smile, your name
And your breath on my skin
And I'm lost and alone in this crowd

From the locks and curls and strings of pearls
To the drunk and eager, jelly girls
It's an all-day floor show Matinee in town
And it suddenly occurs that I'm surrounded by these girls
But there ain't no woman around

No, there ain't no woman around
No, there ain't no woman around
Well, I'm surrounded by these girls
But there just ain't no woman around