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"