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 time on Forty-second Street
They burned the churches up in Harlem
Like in the 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
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

So we'll argue and we'll compromise
And realize that nothing's ever changed
For all our mutual experience
Our separate conclusions are the same
Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity
And reason coexist with our insanity
And our reason coexist with our insanity
It's either sadness or euphoria

How thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies
Perhaps we don't fulfill each other's fantasies
And as we stand upon the ledges of our lives
With our respective similarities
It's either sadness or euphoria

Midnight masquerader
Shoppin' center heroes
Child of Eisenhower
New world celebrator

Streetlife serenaders
Have such understanding
How the words are spoken
How to make the motions

Streetlife serenaders
Have no obligations
Hold no grand illusions
Need no stimulation

Midnight masqueraders
Workin' hard for wages
Need no vast arrangement
To do their harmonizing

Hiding up in the mountains
Laying low in the canyons
Goin' nowhere on the streets
With the Spanish names
Makin' love with the natives
In their Hollywood places
Making up for all the time gone by

Los Angelenos
All come from somewhere
Cuz it's all so easy
To become acquainted
Electric babies
Blue-jeaned and jaded
Such hot sweet schoolgirls
So educated

Tanning out in the beaches
With their Mexican reefers
No one ever has to feel
Like a refugee
Going into garages
For exotic massages
Making up for all the time gone by
Hiding up in the mountains
Laying low in the canyons
Goin' nowhere on the streets
With the Spanish names
Makin' love with the natives
In their Hollywood places
Making up for all the time gone by

Los Angelenos
All come from somewhere
It's so familiar
Their foreign faces

She comes to me when I'm feelin' down
Inspires me without a sound
She touches me and I get turned around

She's got a way of showin'
How I make her feel
And I found the strength to keep on goin'
She's got a light around her
And everywhere she goes
A million dreams of love surround her everywhere
She's got a smile that heals me
Oh I don't know why it is
But I have to laugh when she reveals me anyway

You can walk away from your mistakes
You can turn your back on what you do
Just a little smile is all it takes
And you can have your cake and eat it too
Loneliness will get to you somehow
But everybody loves you now
Ah, they all want your white body
And they await your reply
Ah, but between you and me and the Staten Island ferry
So do I

All the people want to know your name
Soon there will be lines outside your door
Feelings do not matter in your game
'Cause nothing's gonna touch you anymore
So your life is only living anyhow
And everybody loves you now

Close your eyes when you don't want to see
And stay at home when you don't want to go
Only speak to those who will agree
Yeah, and close your mind when you don't want to know
You have lost your innocence somehow
But everybody loves you now

Ah, you know that nothin' lasts forever
And it's all been done before
Ah but you ain't got the time
To go to Cold Spring Harbor no more

See how all the people gather around
Hey, isn't it a thrill to see them crawl
Keep your eyes ahead and don't look down
Yeah, and lock yourself inside your sacred wall
This is what you wanted, ain't you proud
'Cause everybody loves you now

Johnny's takin' care of things for a while
And his style is so right for troubadours
They got him sitting with his back to the door
Now he won't be my fast gun anymore
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye to my baby
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye to my baby

Movin' on is a chance that you take
Any time you try to stay together
Whoa
Say a word out of line
And you find that the friends you had
Are gone forever
Forever

So many faces in and out of my life
Some will last
Some will just be now and then
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye to my baby
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye to my baby

Movin' on is a chance that you take
Any time you try to stay together
Whoa
Say a word out of line
And you find that the friends you had
Are gone forever
Forever

So many faces in and out of my life
Some will last
Some will just be now and then
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye to my baby

According to Billy Joel, Captain Jack was the neighborhood drug dealer in his neighborhood when he was growing up.

Saturday night 'nd you're still hangin' around
You're tired of livin' in your one horse town
You'd like to find a little hole in the ground
For a while
So you go to the village in your tie-dye jeans
And you stare at the junkies and the closet queens
It's like some pornographic magazine
And you smile

But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push 'n' you'll be smilin'
La da da, Oh yeah, yeah

Your sister's gone out, she's on a date
And you just sit home and masturbate
The phone is gonna ring soon, but you just can't wait
For that call
So you stand on the corner in your new English clothes
And you look so polished from your hair down to your toes
But still your finger's gonna pick your nose
After all

But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push 'n' you'll be smilin'
La da da, Oh yeah, yeah

So you decide to take a holiday
You got your tape deck and your brand new Chevrolet
Ah but there's no place to go anyway
And what for
You've got everything, but nothing's cool
They've just found your father in the swimming pool
And you guess you won't be going back to school
Anymore

But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push 'n' you'll be smilin'
La da da, Oh yeah, yeah

So you play your albums and you smoke your pot
And you meet your girlfriend in the parking lot
Oh, but still you're aching for the things you have not got
What went wrong
And if you can't understand why your world is so dead
And why you've got to keep in style and feed your head
Well, you're twenty-one and still your mother makes your bed
And that's too long

But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push 'n' you'll be smilin'
Yeah, Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Yeah, Captain Jack will get you by tonight

Well he started with a bank in Colorado
In the pocket of hist vest a Colt he hid
And his age and his size
Took the teller by surprise
And the words spread of Billy the Kid

Well he never traveled heavy
Yes, he always rode alone
And he soon put many older guns to shame
Well he never had a sweetheart
And he never had a home
But the cowboys and the ranchers knew his name

Well he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma
And the law just couldn't seem to track him down
And it served his legend well
For the folks they love to tell
'Bout when Billy the Kid was in town

One cold day a posse captured Billy
And the judge said string 'im up for what he did
And the cowboys and their kin
Like the sea came pourin' in
To watch the hangin' of Billy the Kid

Well he never traveled heavy
Yes, he always rode alone
And he soon put many older guns to shame
Well he never had a sweetheart
Tho' he finally found a home
Underneath the Boot Hill grave that bears his name

From a town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island
Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand
And his daring life of crime
Made him a legend in his time
East and West of the Rio Grande