Old City Bar

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 draw
 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