Joel wrote this from the point of view of an old man who moved to Florida in the year 2017 after New York was destroyed in an apocalypse. He figured Miami was a logical setting because that's where people go when they get old.
This took on new meaning when New York was attacked by terrorists in 2001, 25 years after Joel wrote this. He considered this a science fiction song, and never thought anything like September 11 would actually happen.
Joel performed this, along with "New York State Of Mind," at a benefit concert in Madison Square Garden that Paul McCartney set up to help victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Joel had a helmet from a fallen firefighter on his piano as he played.
This is the first track on Songs In The Attic, an album Joel released in 1981 made up of live performances of some of his lesser-known songs.
I've seen the lights go out on Broadway-
I saw the Empire State laid low.
And life went on beyond the Palisades,
They all bought Cadillacs-
And left there long ago.
We 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 see it all the time on Forty-Second Street.
They burned the churches up 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 watched 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,
They blew the Bronx away-
And sank Manhattan out to sea....
You know those lights were bright on Broadway-
But 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....
I guess i put this up because i find myself missing my life in NY. and because i am here in florida. Most of my friends there have moved on and i miss those times we had. you can't go home again
this song just kinda reflects how i feel, sad, lonely, and i feel i lost something i can never get back, just as if it had been stolen from me!!
