Summer vacation rolled in quietly
But it was a day I’d always remember
I was finishing my third year of high school
And I’d be a senior when I’d come back in September
School was out, no place to find a job
Looking like a real bummer
But was I in for a surprise
It was not just another summer
Long August days get so damn hot and lazy
Especially when there’s nothing to do
So I took bus four three four to Jerusalem
Holy city blue
It was morning at the start of the two-hour ride
I got off in the noonday heat
It was night by the time I reached the crossroads
And was halfway across the street
I heard a voice calling out my name
I turned around and I saw you there
I walked you up to your dorm on the hill
But when we reached the place where it was supposed to be
It just wasn’t there
We turned the corner and found ourselves in Long Beach
That place where I lived for so long
We went up to the boardwalk and I showed you the view
But when the light rose in the west I knew something went wrong
I saw the Rockaways go under, I saw the Playland drop below
I went through the cloudless storm and saw the breakers grow
The lights on the Highlands blacked out in the night
They never lived to see the morning light
The waves swelled up to thirty feet and smashed into the shore
Tearing up the boardwalk with a shattering roar
I ran for refuge in the Promenade Hotel
Flying down five floors pursued
But the waters of hell
I grabbed you by the hand and ran twenty stories down
The wild Atlantic chasing us just wanting us to drown
We made it to the bottom and bolted the steel door
To try and stop the flood before it reached the bottom floor
I felt the wave’s impact and my heart took a fall
But then we found ourselves in this strange meeting hall
Where the Prophet Of The Night got up on this day
And spoke his last words—I thought I heard him say
Tonight in the City and all across the Island
From Point Pleasant on up to Atlantic Highlands
The darkness will come down and be with us forever
The streets will light eternally and become the land of never
The highways will be jammed with lonely young ones
Driving on to a morning that never comes
It’ll seem like paradise at first but that feeling will be lost
The tables will be turned and you will pay the cost
Lovers will wrestle but will never win
Lost souls wait for their ship but it won’t come in
This world is sick and it’s long past due
To pay for the sins
Thousands are missing, still more have died
With the passing of the last thirty-foot tide
There’ll be nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide
When the wave storm will subside
And the trains keep on rolling in the middle of the night
Trying to get their long run done before the morning light
The motormen will never know, they’ll never see the dawn
The daylight is forever gone
I know there’s a place we can go
Away from this cruel world
Where darkness is darkness, and light is light
Where I’ll be your guy, you’ll be my girl
And I know that a time will come
When we get to that place
We’ll live together forever in peace
And only the good life will show its face
It’s night in the City, the Island, the Shore
Although it’s daylight here it don’t shine there no more
The people still living there live in fear
But nothing in the world can make us
Want to leave here
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
One morning in late October 2012, several days after Hurricane Sandy pummeled and pulverized the part of the world that I consider my creative element, I woke up with some music I wrote long ago playing vaguely in the back of my mind. As I stared at myself in the mirror while washing up, the words to that music resurfaced in my memory with a lurch. And I felt an electric jolt course through my nerves.
I wrote this song in 1984—over two decades before Sandy. Growing up at the beach, near the ocean with its awesome power, had a strong effect on my subconscious, and the resulting dreams could become very frightening. This song was based on those dreams, especially one involving a violent storm.
"It was supposed to be science fiction," Billy Joel said when he introduced his song "Miami 2017" at a benefit for New York City after 9/11. He had no idea it was ever going to become real. Likewise, I never thought that the images that I remember so vividly from the dreams I had as a child and teenager would turn into something so real and devastating.
Musically, this is an epic, combining elements of The Who, Jim Steinman, Toto, and Springsteen. I banged this out on the piano numerous times but never actually performed it for an audience or recorded it.