Up on the white veranda
 She wears a necktie and a Panama hat
 Her passport shows another face
 From another time and place
 She looks nothing like that
 And all the remnants of her recent past
 Are scattered in the wild wind
 She walks across the marble floor
 Where a voice from the gambling room is calling her [bad word] on in
 She smiles, walks the other way
 As the last ship sails and the moon fades away
 From Black Diamond Bay.

 As the morning light breaks open the [bad word] down
 And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write
 "Pardon monsieur" the desk clerk says
 Carefully removes his fez
 "I hearing you right ?"
 And as the yellow fog is lifting
 The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor
 She passes him on the spiral staircase
 Thinking he's the Sovjet Ambassador
 She starts to speak, but he walks away
 As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches away
 On Black Diamond Bay.

 soldier sits beneath the fan
 Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring
 Lightning strikes, the light blow out
 The desk clerk wakes and begins to shout
 "Can you see anything ?"
 Then the Greek appears on the second floor
 In his bare feet with a rope around his neck
 While a loser in the gambling room lights up a candle
 Says "Open up another deck"
 But the dealer say "Attendez-vous, s'il vous pl it"
 As the rain beats down and the cranes fly away
 From Black Diamond Bay.

 The desk clerk heard the woman laugh
 As he looked around the aftermath and the soldier got tough
 He tried to grab the woman's hand
 Said, "Here's a ring it cost a grand"
 She said, "That ain't enough"
 Then she ran upstairs to pack her bags
 While a horse-drawn taxi waited at the curb
 She passed the door that the Greek had locked
 Where a handwritten sign read, "Do not disturb"
 She knocked on it anyway
 As the sun went down and the music did play
 On Black Diamond Bay.

 "I've got to talk to someone quick !"
 But the Greek said, "Go away" and he kicked the chair to the floor
 He hung there from the chandelier
 She cried, "Help there's danger near
 Please open op the door"
 Then the volcano [bad word]  And the lava flowed down from the mountain high above
 The soldier and the tiny man were crouched in the corner
 Thinking of forbidden love
 But the desk clerk said "It happens every day"
 As the stars fell down and the fields burned away
 On Black Diamond Bay.

 As the island slowly sank
 The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room
 The dealer said "It's too late now 
 You can take you money, but I don't know how
 You'll spend it in the tomb"
 The tiny man bit the soldier's ear
 As the floor caved in and the boiler in the basemen blew
 While she's out on the balcony where a stranger tell her
 "My darling je vous aime beacoup"
 She sheds a tear and then begins to pray
 As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away
 From Black Diamond Bay.

 I was siting home alone one night in LA
 Watching old Cronkite on the seven o'clock news
 It seems there was an earthquake that
 Left nothing but a Panama hat
 And a pair of old Greek shoes
 Didn't seem like much was happening
 So I turned it off and went to grab another beer
 Seems like every time you turn around
 There's another hard-luck story that you're gonna hear
 And there's really nothing anyone can say
 And I never did plan to go anyway
 To Black Diamond Bay.