Saturday, April 20, 2002
Listen
Once I was living on Central Park West
In a fine prewar building, an exclusive address.
Had a terrace to sit on on a nice summer day.
DR, LR, 3BR and E.I.K.
Then late one night my lady and I
Decided to bid New York City goodbye.
We put the place up for sale and it sold
And the very next day was so cloudy and cold,
Nobody knows you when you move away,
Once you had pals from downtown to the Bronx,
Now nobody waves, or smiles, or honks.
There's something about me and the way I am dressed,
New Yorkers can see that I'm from the Midwest.
I love this city and I wish I could stay,
But nobody knows you when you move away.
Before I went back to the Range to get a home on it,
I always went to the Met and the Vivian Beaumont
New York was a place for which to die,
From Battery Park to the 92nd Street Y
I ate at the Oyster Bar and Aquavit
And Allison's on Dominick Street
And with shopping bags on both my arms
I went to Fairway Foods and Broadway Farms.
But nobody knows you, when you're out of town.
Out of towners, New Yorkers ignore em
From Central Park to the Film Forum,
Out of towners are bad news
They send you away on a Circle Line cruise,
I love New York but I'm feeling down,
Nobody knows you when you're out of town.
Nobody knows you when you're not from here.
You migrate upstream like a salmon or coho
They forget all about you especially in Soho.
But as soon as I get me four million bucks
I'll buy an apartment and a brand new tux
And we'll move back to New York, my dear,
Cause nobody knows you if you're not from here.
© Garrison Keillor 2002
