27th Street is a prominent street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. This one way street runs east to west from First Avenue to the West Side Highway. It is most noted for its strip between 10th and 11th Avenues, known as Club Row because it features numerous nightclubs and lounges.
Some of the most notable venues are Marquee, Bungalow 8, Suzie Wong, Cain, Guesthouse, Pink Elephant, and Home.
In recent years, the nightclubs on West 27th Street have succumbed to stiff competition from Manhattan's Meatpacking District about fifteen blocks south, and other venues in downtown Manhattan.
Heading east, 27th Street passes through Chelsea Park between 10th and 9th Avenues, with the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) on the corner of 8th. On Madison Avenue between 26th and 27th streets, on the site of the old Madison Square Garden, is the New York Life Building, built in 1928 and designed by Cass Gilbert, with a square tower topped by a striking gilded pyramid. Twenty-Seventh Street passes one block north of Madison Square Park and culminates at Bellevue Hospital Center on 1st Avenue.
Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella, November 7, 1942, New York City) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material. Rivers's greatest success came in the mid- to late-1960s with a string of hit songs (including the #1 hit "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", and "Secret Agent Man"), but he has continued to record and perform to the present.
The Ramistella family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana when Johnny's father lost his job while Johnny was still young. Without any formal music lessons, he began playing guitar, which he learned from his father and uncle, at the age of eight, and was influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana. While in junior high school he started sitting in with a band called The Rockets led by Dick Holler who later wrote a number of songs including "Abraham, Martin and John" and "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron".
Hi, can I help you?
I think it was a Sunday, sometime in January
I could be wrong and I guess it isn't necessary
But I remember that the ground was made of snow
And if you went outside, you better take your coat
I must have been nineteen years old
I had a cashier job at a convenience store
Working the counter making minimum doe
Selling discount smokes to the neighbourhood folk
I didn't pay much thought to his ski mask
It's Minnesota man, your face will freeze fast
But I bet that I looked sorta dumb
When I first caught sight of his bright orange gun
There I am, adrenaline high and
Tryin to decide how I feel about his right hand
Is that a goddamn? Wait a minute
It is a flare gun and guess where he's aiming it
You probably ain't here to win the lottery
So you obviously gotta be robbin me
He nodded his head so opened up the till
And grabbed a paper bag for the money cause I know the drill
I handed him the cash and the food stamps
He just stood there looking all confused and
I'm thinking 'Yo, why the fuck ain't he movin?'
C'mon crazy white boy, don't do somethin stupid
That bag is worth maybe two-thirty
Not enough for you to pull the trigger back and burn me
By now you should be down the street
Ain't you never seen the way they do this shit on TV?
Yeah it was fun but it's done, now get out
'Ah, do you want me lay down on the ground and start countin crops?'
Before the ski way even started noddin
I was already on that, one one-thousand, two one-thousand
The front door beeped, I heard him leave
So I called my boss and the Richfield police
Gotta close the shop and lock the doors
Cause some trailer trash just robbed the store
Everybody acted so suspicious
I guess the flare gun story seemed fictitious
Are you accusing me of petty embezzlement?
Don't you see my left over adrenaline?
Bosses and cops can't be my friend
Never felt loyalty to either again
And to keep it real, the irony didn't set
Until a year later when I got fired for stealing cigarettes
You've got my lost brother's soul
My dear mother's eyes
A brown horse's mane
And my uncle's name
You walked me down 14th Street
For the doctor to meet after thoughts of the grave
In the home of the brave and of the weak
But why'd you have to break all my heart
Couldn't you have saved a little bit of it?
Why'd you have to break all my heart?
Couldn't you have saved a minor part?
I could have clipped and saved and planted in the garden
Damn you guess I'll have to get a new one
I'd love to sit and watch you drink
With the reins to the world, gripping a smoke
Vaguely missing link
Don't ever change you hungry little bashful hound
I got the sheep, poor little Bo Peep
Has lost and filed for grounds.
But why'd you have to break all my heart
I could have ripped apart and thrown into the river
Wonder if there's hearts that will deliver
Don't ever change, don't ever worry
Because I'm coming back home tomorrow
To 14th Street where I won't hurry
And where I'll learn how to save, not just borrow
When 8 o'clock rolls around
and the same old shit is gettin' down
go to 10th street, yeah 10th street
If you don't want D and you don't want that crap
but you gotta get the monkey off ya back
go to 10th street, 10th street
chorus:
We got what ya need
I'll go back with much to many seeds
Up on 10th street
Baby, baby keep it down
I believe I see the man
Look around as much as you like
smell your bags and hold on tight on 10th street
yeah, 10th street
They'll gladly snatch your cash, ... shouldn't call it hash on 10th street
That's right on 10th street
Chorus
Downtown never looked so lonely as it does tonight
And like the wind that's blowing I long for home tonight
To tell the truth I've never felt so lonely as I do tonight
But I'm alright
I just keep thinking about the words I want to say to you
Just to tell you how I feel
If I could write down what is written on my heart
I'd give anything to hold you in my arms
4th Street has never looked or felt so empty as it feels right now
Not a soul, not a sound has risen from the street tonight, tonight
To tell the truth I don't want to feel this lonely, this lonely ever again
This emptiness has to end
Downtown never looked so lonely as it does tonight
I'm alright
Just to tell you how I feel
Seventeenth Street
Ruthless! Ruthless!
Look through the window no one is there
No one is watching and nobody cares
All of your wishes and all of your prayers
Dead in the letters down on the stairs
Dreaming in the counting house
Watching the price per ounce
Dreaming in the counting house
Watching the dead cats bounce
Seventeenth Street
Ruthless! Ruthless!
In chapter seven surrounded by thieves
A thousand cuts later by chapter thirteen
There is a place for you somewhere they say
Down on the sidewalk or far far away
predator, I am game
Citizen is my name
Haunting a shadow house
Watching the dead cats pounce
Seventeenth Street
I see you walking up 14th Street and you don't know
That I'm walking right behind you, walking real slow
I don't want to catch up with you 'cause once we got started
We'd have to see it through
I see you on the street, you kiss my cheek
My knees go weak
It's clear you've got nothing to lose
While I'm losing sleep
I see you walking up 14th Street and you don't know
I'm following behind you counting my steps as I go
Maybe ten steps or twelve, divide us in two
Not counting the blocks between me and you
I see you on the street, you kiss my cheek
My knees go weak
It's clear you've got nothing to lose
While I'm losing sleep
People said watch out for that situation
It's nothing more than crazy infatuation
Insisting it was love, I weighed common sense
I played with my heart 'til I saw how much I spent
I see you walking up 14th Street and you don't know
Now I'm so close behind you, almost in your shadow
Maybe one step or two and I'd be walking next to you
Not counting the blocks between me and you
I see you on the street, you kiss my cheek
My knees go weak
It's clear you've got nothing to lose
While I'm losing sleep
I see you on the street and my knees go weak
As we lie here in bed
Your eyes run right through me
Did you hear what I said
I'm falling
I'm falling down
Falling down
She said
And I thought that you would listen
We were not meant to end
I still dont know
What we always were
And I thought that you would give in
you told me love would never die
But you lied
You always lied
There was a time
I thought you were something
Something that I would never be
Now is the time
I know that you're nothing nothing
That I would want to be
Did you hear a thing I said?
Your eyes roll right through me
And I thought that you would listen
We were not meant to end
I still dont know
What we always were
And I thought that you would give in
You told me love would never die
But you lied
You always lied
There was a time
I knew you were something
Something that I would never be
Now is the time
I know that your nothing
Nothing that I would want to be
I feel like I am falling into my needs
I need for you to open your eyes
So give me one more try
I'll show you i can this time
To give my life
So give me one more try
So give me one more try
I feel the sun now
You always saw the best in me
Even when you knew the worst in me
Always something I forgot to say
You took a while to say what others said
Even when I walked away
We all know
When sinners fall
So what's the point
In a wind drowned call
I'm just a sinner
Falling out of your life again
You took a while to set me free
Especially knowing how happy I'd be
There's always some who'll only say
What a mess better leave him be
Let the devil take the rest and then we'll see
We all know
When sinners fall
So what's the point
In a wind drowned call
I'm just a sinner
Falling out of your life again
First you say wheels
You're wanting them to carry you
Next you say leave
Find a place to hide away
Then you say blood
Soon enough we all do
Then you've had enough
We'd better tell the waiting ones
I only acted like they said I'd always done
It's no surprise
This sinner fell
They're only glad
'Cause they could always tell
He's just a sinner
They're only mad because I crashed
Into your arms again
Into your arms again