Upstate New York Waltz

Upstate New York Waltz
by Si Kahn & Tom Chapin
© 2009 Joe Hill Music & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

The wind from the Catskills
Blew colder than hell.
It was snowing above Middletown.
The streets grew so slippery
All over Poughkeepsie
We both lost our step and went down.

We'd met unexpectedly
Deep in Schenectady,
Falling in love at first sight.
By the time we passed Albany
I was in ecstasy,
But she drifted away in the night.
I was drowning in pain as she got on the train
With a ticket that said “To New Paltz”
I'll never forgive her 'til the band plays that old
Hudson River Upstate New York Waltz.

We reunited one night in Oneida,
We tarried in Tarrytown too.
I chased her through Utica up into Ithaca,
Sure that her love would be true.
But on a safari to Canajoharie
She was just climbing the walls.
We barely were speakin'
When we got to Beacon,
And broke up in Wappingers Falls.
I was drowning in pain as she got on the train
With a ticket that said “To New Paltz”
I'll never forgive her 'til the band plays that old
Hudson River Upstate New York Waltz.

Though she promised to take me back
One night in Nyack,
I feared there was trouble ahead.
We were still lovers
'Til we one night in Gloversville
She climbed alone into bed.
I was on fire as we passed Elmira,
On the Thruway she said we were through.
Though she'd left me in Seneca,
Potsdam and Plattsburgh,
Fredonia was our Waterloo.
I was drowning in pain as she got on the train
With a ticket that said “To New Paltz”
I'll never forgive her 'til the band plays that old
Hudson River Upstate New York Waltz.

All alone in Fredonia I work at a bar,
Having finally accepted my fate.
I suffered abuse,
But what an excuse
To travel the Empire State!

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Let The Bad Times Roll CD.

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