[Verse 1]
Woman cry—chase a man down street crying
"No Chuckie, no, please don't"
Another girl comes they run along St. Andrew
Turn south on Kensington
Meanwhile Chuckie beats it down the alley by the chicken packer's
By the time I reach the corner they've all vanished
Just a deaf kid talking like Popeye
To a large fleshy laughing man in a blue shirt

[Chorus]
You pay your money and you take your chance
When you're dealing with love and romance
Pay your money and you take your chance
When you're dealing with love and romance

[Verse 2]
Down the alley past the fire escape
A woman is talking on the telephone
Kitchen light spills out, laughter riding on its beam
In the maze of Moebius streets
We're trying to amuse ourselves to death
Under the deep sky that's squatting so close over us tonight
You'd think it was trying to hatch us
The numb and confused
The battered and bruised
The counters of cost
And the star-crossed
[Chorus]
Well you pay your money and you take your chance
When you're dealing with love and romance
Pay your money and you take your chance
When you're dealing with love and romance

[Verse 3]
Confused and solo in the spawning ground
I watch the confusion of friends all numb with love
Moving like stray dogs to the anthem of night-long conversations
Of pulsing rhythms and random voltage voices
In spite of themselves, graceful as these raindrops
Creeping sperm-like across the car window
Stay or leave, give or withhold, hesitate or leap
Each step splashing sparks of red pain in every direction
And through it all, somehow
This willingness that asks no questions

[Chorus]
You pay your money and you take your chance
When you're dealing with love and romance
Pay your money and you take your chance
When you're dealing with love and romance