Billy Joel - (Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway) From 1976

youtube ^ | 2017 | Billy Joel

[bitt]

"Available for the first time digitally, Billy Joel Tonight is one of the earliest official video documents of Billy Joel in concert, recorded live at the University of Connecticut over two nights in 1976. Here, Billy and his band play songs from the recently released Turnstiles, plus favorites from his growing catalog of classic songs."

Lyrics:

Seen the lights go out Broadway

I saw the Empire State laid low

And life went on beyond the Palisades

They all bought Cadillacs

And left there long ago

They held a concert out in Brooklyn

To watch the island bridges blow

They turned our power down

And drove us underground

But we went right on with the show

I've seen the lights go out on Broadway

I saw the ruins at my feet

You know we almost didn't notice it

We'd seen it all the time on Forty second street

They burned the churches down in Harlem

Like in that Spanish civil war

The flames were everywhere

But no one really cared

It always burned up there before

I've seen the lights go out on Broadway

I saw the mighty skyline fall

The boats were waiting at the battery

The union went on strike

They never sailed at all

They sent a carrier out from Norfolk

And picked the Yankees up for free

They said that Queens could stay

And blew the Bronx away

And sank Manhattan out at sea

You know those lights were bright on Broadway

That was so many years ago

Before we all lived here in Florida

Before the Mafia took over Mexico

There are not many who remember

They say a handful still survive

To tell the world about

The way the lights went out

And keep the memory alive

#BillyJoel #Miami2017 #PianoMan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46IGAbJbykI&t=6s

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Society
KEYWORDS: billyjoel; nyc

[bitt]

Prescient!

[bitt]

p

[dfwgator]

The Songs In The Attic version is much better.

Liberty DeVitto is a beast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isG3qkQXBic

[Rummyfan]

Appropriate.

[montag813]

These lyrics are kind of crazy if you think about it. Comically apocalyptic and far too prescient.

[bgill]

NYC did it to itself and to the nation. Curses be upon them. They deserve all they’re going to get but the rest of us will have to pay for their misdeeds for years to come.

[Highest Authority]

Constitutional convention to remove New York as a state!

[Tom Tetroxide]

“Weird Al” Yankovic - It’s Still Billy Joel to Me (1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UAUCh5ocIg

[PGR88]

Great tune!

It sums up what I remember about NYC in the 1970s as a small child. We lived outside, just far enough that we didn’t go into the City regularly. For us kids, it encompassed the entire world - beautiful, ugly, cultured, brutal, rich, poor, exciting, dangerous

Now IMHO its just ugly and dangerous.

[TornadoAlley3]

https://youtu.be/QOq5QHkEyFk

This NYC sanctuary illegals. Looting stores. Selling the stolen merchandise on the sidewalks, fleeing when they hear sirens, only to return and repeat.

ZM will fight ICE so this criminal behavior will expand.

[edh]

Wait, all of this was supposed to happen in 2017, and Billy Joel should be living in Miami now! :-)

I also endorse the version of this on “Songs in the Attic” since his band at the time, especially his drummer (Liberty DeVitto as mentioned by dfwgator), make this song even better.