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 to come 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 Greek comes down
  And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write
  "Pardon monsieur" the desk clerk says
  Carefully removes his fez
  "Am 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.
    A 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 erupted
  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.