Cold Hands From New York - Gordon Lightfoot

I came down from Albany to New York to find what I’d been missin'

I looked across the river to the city where the windows all stood glistenin'

I stood listenin'

Into a tunnel I did rise, like a grave inside, but I was young and able

When I came out the other end, ah through the smoke the winter light was feeble

Unreadable

I was optimistic though, a cabbie told me where to go

I thanked him

A face of white a face of brown, here a smile, there a look of danger

For a stranger

It was too unreal for me

I found no one who trusted me

There was no man could offer me

A cold hand from New York

Cold hands from New York

A voice within you cries won’t someone please help me

I’ll do the same for you one day

If you should ever pass my way and need me

I came down to live alone in New York the city of the living

There were fortunes at my feet but most of men were taking, none we giving

Or forgiving

Children ran and children played and roses grew in alleyways

I saw them

There were men who lived in style and others who had died where no one knew them

'Cause they couldn’t win

There were parks where old men slept and dingy rooms where babies crept unwanted

Till I began to ask myself if there was hope or if it mattered what the did

Or if they lived

It was too unreal for me

I found no one who trusted me

There was no man could offer me

A cold hand from New York

Cold hands from New York

A voice within you cries won’t someone please help me

I’ll do the same for you one day

If you should ever pass my way and need me

I came down from Albany to New York to find what I’d been missin'

I looked across the river to the city where the windows all stood glistenin'

I stood listenin'

There were prophets in the squares and people there who smiled and said forget

it

There were lovers in the park and there was danger in the dark, I felt it

So afraid of it

There were preachers of the word and poets who were never heard

I heard them

There were those who would not try to learn the measure of the lie

They’re livin'

I heard a young musician play in a place where they paid you not to listen

I heard a woman scream for help while men stood by and offered their best wishes

That’s how it is

It was too unreal for me

I found no one who trusted me

There was no man could offer me

A cold hand from New York

Cold hands from New York

A voice within you cries won’t someone please help me

I’ll do the same for you one day

If you should ever pass my way and need me