Say "Goodbye" to the secret

Those of you who were kind enough to show up at The Cornelia Street Café on Friday already know the little secret embedded in my set list.

It was a song I didn’t write. Or rather I should say a song for which I didn’t write the lyric.

A dear friend of mine, Michael Vines, recently decided to try his hand at songwriting – having been a very successful writer of other things, including a novel.

He was kind enough to share with me some of his early efforts. And while his musical style is a little different to mine, his words really struck a chord. Literally. I felt compelled to put my own tune to one of his lyrics.

I didn’t even tell him I was doing this and I certainly didn’t tell him I was performing it on Friday. I knew that he was scheduled to be watching, with his son, his beloved Cardinals play the Mets. (Sadly they lost 9 – 1). There was no way I was going to spoil that evening by making him feel he had to be at my gig instead. Although, as he said later, with that score perhaps he should have changed his plans!

Anyway, I have since come clean about my commandeering his words and he says he’s thrilled that I liked them enough to do this. Of course, he has yet to hear the song but luckily he will be able to because Friday night’s performances were recorded.

For now, here are the words to “Goodbye New York City.”

And thanks Michael! 

GOODBYE NEW YORK CITY

 

This was once a place of possibility

You could make of yourself whatever you wanted to be

But now it’s not the town that I used to know

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

This was once a place where you could find anything

We even had that store with a million kinds of string

But now the metal workers have had to leave old SoHo

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

Kids used to come here with just the shirt on their backs

Now you need a job with Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs

That artist loft is now a luxury condo

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

They closed all the bookstores put ATMs everywhere

And don’t even get me started on what they did to Times Square

The Lower East Side shops – the mom and pops – they just had to go

To make way for a bigger, brighter, better-known logo

Goodbye old friends...hate to see you go

 

This was once a place of possibility

It held lots of promise for the likes of you and me

But now it’s not the town that we used to know

Goodbye New York City…I hate to see you go

Goodbye old New York…hate to see you go

 

© 2008 Michael Vines