If there’s such a thing as love at first sight, then there’s love at first listen. This moving ballad from Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s album Christmas Eve and Other Stories brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. It’s a pared down musical arrangement, which is perfect, as it lets the story shine. I’ve always loved the way TSO weaves a storyline into their albums/performances. As an avid reader, it’s the best of both worlds for me 🙂 music and a story!
There are a number of great live performance videos on YouTube but truthfully, I fell in love with the album version, so that’s the recording I’m sharing.
(And if you’d prefer the lyrics all in one place, here you are…)
Old City Bar, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (written by Paul O’Neill)
In an old city bar
That is never too far
From the places that gather
The dreams that have been
In the safety of night
With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come in
And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The music was low
And the night
Christmas Eve
And here was the danger
That even with strangers
Inside of this night
It’s easier to believe
Then the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That no one in the bar
Had seen there before
And he asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Standing outside our door
Then the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze
Through the window and ice
To a corner streetlight
Where standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl the child said
Could no longer get home
And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The bartender turned
And said, “Not that I care
But how would you know this?”
The child said “I’ve noticed
If one could be home
They’d be all ready there”
Then the bartender came out from behind the bar
And in all of his life he was never that far
And he did something else that he thought no one saw
When he took all the cash from the register drawer
Then he followed the child to the girl ‘cross the street
And we watched from the bar as they started to speak
Then he called for a cab and he said, “J.F.K.”
Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away
And we saw in his hand
That the cash was all gone
From the light that she had
Wished upon
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Then he looked for the child
But the child wasn’t there
Just the wind and the snow
Waltzing dreams through the air
So he walked back inside
Somehow different I think
For the rest of the night
No one paid for a drink
And the cynics will say
That some neighborhood kid
Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they hid
But they weren’t there
So they couldn’t see
By an old neon star
On that, night, Christmas Eve
When the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
And in case you should wonder
In case you should care
Why we’re on our own
Never went home
On that night of all nights
We were already there
