So you found yourself a corner apartment

With a view of the town all your own

All your friends say

The city's gonna kill you or cure you

Five flights of stairs to your home



And even now

It's changed how you walk in the street

Past cabbies and chimney sweeps

Be careful with strangers you speak to



(chorus)

What has this city done to you? 

Has it taken the small town out of you

And turned you into someone I never knew? 



When we were kids

In the warmth of a porch light

You'd smuggle out twin cigarettes

We'd blow smoke in the air

With typical hometown flair

Two futures we could not predict



And look at you now

The dreamer with the back porch plan

For the writer and the music man

Our faces on magazine stands



(chorus)



What has this city done to you? 

Has it taken the innocence out of you

And turned you into someone I never knew? 

Did I ever know you? 



Do you know how you light up these buildings? 

You can turn the head of a man whose grown old

You're a candle when the streets grow cold



I can hear a cricket in your fifth floor apartment

It's 3 am

Back home he'd put me to sleep

But he's fighting to be heard

He can't get in a word

'cause there's a fool

Laughing outside in the street



Where are you now? 

I lost you outside on montague street

To the city that never will sleep

Is it the sideshow in you

That it speaks to? 



(chorus)



Hey did I ever know you? 

Did I ever know you?