One Last Song About the Chelsea Hotel
(in memory of Stanley Bard, 1934-2017)
They’re closing down the Chelsea Hotel
The renovations hit a snag, they didn’t go so well
And no one wants to live where famous poets, and musicians used to dwell
They’re closing down the Chelsea Hotel
They’ve taken up the old mosaic floor
There’s plywood where there used to be a stately beveled door
The giant, blinking sign that you could see halfway to Brooklyn is no more
They’ve taken up the old mosaic floor
They’ve piled up all the furniture as well
The rotten wood and couches that weren’t good enough to sell
The rats have taken over and the neighborhood is shot and gone to hell
They’ve piled up all the furniture as well
They’re closing down the Chelsea Hotel
They’ve turned it into condominiums, all priced to sell
They’ll keep the older name but you can bet that they won’t keep it very well
They’re closing down the Chelsea Hotel
There’s no one left to shed a single tear
The legends that you read that tell about what happened here
Will be limited to lines in songs and stories no one’s read in many years
There’s no one left to shed a single tear
They’re closing down the Chelsea Hotel
The ghosts of the departed will remember it so well
‘Till someday someone comes along and stands upon the place it used to dwell
And says, “Hey! Wasn’t this the Chelsea Hotel?”
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