The Big Apple Top Ten: Cold Hands From New York (#10)

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Good evening! I’m back from a wonderful time. Fed, bathed, and folded the clothes that I forgot about Sunday morning, and I’m ready to get into the top ten songs mentioning the nation’s biggest city: Falls of Rough, Kentucky! Here we go with the Big Apple top ten. #10: Cold Hands From New York - Gordon Lightfoot Surprised? Anyone at all?? Didn’t think so. Yep, if Gordon Lightfoot can make the list, he’s gonna make the list. Now you understand why Don Henley was relegated to the alphabetical list. This is early (1960s) Gordon Lightfoot. That’s when I first discovered him, although not from his own recordings. It was mostly country singers like Waylon Jennings, Bill Anderson, and George Hamilton IV covering his songs. I didn’t actually hear Gordon himself until “If You Could Read My Mind.” And, let’s face it, that’s a fabulous place to start! This is a song about the stereotype of New Yorkers who are distant and uncaring. I didn’t find that at all in my day there. I was initially surprised when a man at the diner counter talked to me at breakfast, but I quickly discovered that we’re all the same, small town or big city. Go to a small town and you might find no one willing to offer you help, too. They had a greatest hits album for Lightfoot called Gord’s Gold, but he had so much gold in his discography that it’d be impossible for me to narrow it down to a dozen. Cold Hands From New York Written by Gordon Lightfoot Recorded by Gordon Lightfoot From Back Here on Earth, 1968 NYC LYRICS: title There were preachers of the Word and poets who were never heard: