If you spend enough cash at the carnival games
You'll have a prize in your hand when you walk away
Let it slip through your fingers and you'll never know
What winning's really like, oh
I stayed there too long, now it's in my soul
And when the thunder rolls, I got nowhere to go
I keep going round on this carousel
Because it spins me so well
And I'll stay with you just a little while
There's so much for us to see and do

But don't mistake this for an adventure in paradise
Just because the rides look so good

Carnival games are so much fun to play, hard to just walk away from
And all you want, a pretty thing but the price you pay is
Always too much, you'll never dry up these tears
Crying from all the years playing carnival games

Do you know which way to look, all the shining lights
And your name on the postcard of your life
And everyone will say that you came to conquer
Yeah, you won the whole race

But don't mistake this for an adventure in paradise
Just because the rides look so good

Carnival games are so much fun to play, hard to just walk away from
And all you want, a pretty thing but the price you pay is
Always too much, you'll never dry up these tears
Crying from all the years playing carnival games
Carnival games

I wanna shed all of my skin, feel my blood as it takes the wind
I don't know where to begin

Carnival games are so much fun to play, hard to just walk away
When all you want are pretty, pretty things
You can't walk away once you play the game
You can't get back what you paid from all the years
Of playing carnival games, carnival games

You'll never really know what
You'll never really know what winning's like
You'll never really know what
You'll never really know what winning's like
You'll never really know what
You'll never really know what winning's like
You'll never really know what
You'll never really know what winning's like