About The Song
The Statler Brothers released “New York City” in early 1971 as the second single from their 1970 album Bed of Rose’s. The album had appeared on Mercury Records the previous year. Don Reid wrote the song. Jerry Kennedy produced it. The single reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and number 34 on the Canadian country chart. The B-side was “This Part of the World.”
Bed of Rose’s marked a strong early chapter in the group’s Mercury years. The title track had already become a Top Ten country hit, and the album itself climbed the country charts. “New York City” followed as a quieter but memorable follow-up, sitting as the second track on the original record.
The story unfolds without decoration. Shortly after Christmas a woman comes to the narrator. She hates spoiling New Year’s Eve, but the truth does not wait for a convenient season. What they had feared is now certain. She plans to leave Monday morning. She will catch a plane if he will split the fare. She has friends in New York City. She will look them up and have the baby there.
The chorus finds her already gone. She is alone in New York City, living in ways the narrator can only wonder about. An angel in hell, he calls her, but he cannot let himself dwell on it. Later he addresses her directly. He asks her to tell the child Bible stories and give him the love the father never could. He asks her not to say too much about the daddy, because there is not much good to say. The boy will learn his letters and numbers from his mother. When she teaches him bedtime prayers, he asks her to leave off “God bless Daddy.”
By the final chorus both mother and child are alone in the city. Two angels in hell. The narrator repeats that he cannot think about it now.
The song runs under three minutes. Its plain details and restrained regret gave it a lasting place among the group’s early Mercury material. Years later it found a new audience when it appeared on the K-Rose country station in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, introducing the track to listeners who had never heard the original album.
Bed of Rose’s itself became one of the key records of the group’s early 1970s output. The title song drew most of the attention, but “New York City” remained a steady presence on compilations and in live sets. It never climbed into the top ten, yet it held its ground as a clear example of the kind of straightforward storytelling the Statlers handled so well in those years—ordinary people facing ordinary consequences, told without excess or apology.
Video
Lyric
She came to me shortly after Christmas
Said she hated spoiling New Year’s Eve
But the truth doesn’t wait to come in season
And what we had feared was now believed
She said she’d leave come Monday morning
Catch a plane if I split the fare
She had friends who lived in New York City
She’d look ’em up and have the baby there
And now she’s alone in New York City
Living like Lord I wonder how
An angel in hell in New York City
But I can’t think about that now
Honey will you tell him Bible stories
And give him all the love I never could
And never tell him too much about his daddy
‘Cause there’s not too much to say that’s good
He’ll have to learn it all from his mother
How to count and say his ABC’s
But when you teach him prayers to say at bedtime
Leave off “God bless Daddy” won’t you please
‘Cause now they’re alone in New York City
Living like Lord I wonder how
Two angels in hell in New York City
But I can’t think about that now
I can’t think about that now