He could have stayed there the entire night For to him music was the voice of god For it never needed translation And could lift up lives that were often quite hard But then he heard a different kind of music From somewhere else close by And he followed the trail of those new notes Till he found himself outside The notes led him to a blues bar That was right next to the hotel And the angel watched some lonely people enter it And wondered if this Was where all the lonely people did dwell Then another guardian angel Who happened to be near Told him about the old blues bar And whispered in his ear "here the tragically beautiful And the beautifully tragic Drift through this night In a last quest for magic Their faces are masks That so artfully disguise The wounds in their hearts The scars in their eyes Now these scars in their eyes Never hurt, never bleed But like cracks in a mirror They distort all they see For when the heart's an open wound Its greatest threat, i fear Is that the salt rubbed into it Does come from one's own tears Now there are many places on this earth That one thinks that god has forgot But one can often find an angel or a saint Where one assumes angels and saints are not" And then the other angel reminded him Of their lord's point of view "you'll know them not by how they appear You'll know them by what they do" So when the next patron went inside The angel followed him undetected But what he found within that bar Was not quite what he expected There was an old piano player there Playing with a honky-tonk sound And everyone who entered that place depressed That piano player turned their night around And one by one he'd draw each person Out of their self-imposed cage And before they realized it He had them singing on the stage Just another night in new york city Snow comes down looks real pretty Don't know how but suddenly there you are With jelly roll morton playin' for the bar Inside here, lights are low But each song has its own glow As he floats them through that smokey air You just can't believe he's really there How old is he? Cannot say But claims he taught cab calloway And on this night i somehow believe him Knows every song that christmas got Even ones my brain has dropped Just him and that old fir tree All lit up this night Electric blue Just another night in new york city Snow comes down looks real pretty Can't believe but somehow there you are Talking with strangers sittin' cross the bar Suddenly, all are laughin' This night's smart, always craftin' Building bridges nearly everywhere Hits a wall, it just builds a stairs Outside colored lights they bleed For snow is white and colors need As it just comes down like pure salvation It offers all its amnesty And makes your neighbor different see By the light of that fir tree And this old bar Electrified in blue I gotta drop dead simple Childhood view of salvation Perhaps that's how it was always meant to be And the more i add up all this information It seems it all comes down in the end to you and me And you look around till you find a phone Then you call your mom and everyone at home And the bar looks on and they start to cheer When you talk to folks you haven't seen in years And the snow comes down And the children play And they pray to god It never goes away And a childhood prayer Should never be denied And the night rolls on Till it's carolized Carolized Carolized Carolized Carolized And on this tree The lights are done But the colors here are down one I guess it kind of fits the situation Ornaments still shining bright Watch them glitter in the light Just this old fir tree and me All lit up this night Electric blue