Lyrics Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot

Cold Hands From New York

I came down through 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

Ah here a smile and 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

Beause 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 were hope

Or if it mattered what they 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 through 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'

And 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

And 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"

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"

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"