Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

"Lonely Financial Zone" by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, from the album Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers (1977).

Lyrics:

In the lonely financial zone

By the sea

I have walked under moon and stars.

Skyscrapers shone in their dark majesty.

In this otherwordly land of ours.

I've walked by the buildin's, I've walked by the malls,

I've walked by the skyscrapers, lonely and dark.

In the lonely financial zone

By the sea

I have walked under moon and stars.

In the lonely financial zone

By the sea

I have walked on cold winter nights.

I've stood in awe, so silently

Under the buzzing electric light.

Boats in the harbor, gulls on the pier,

Ships and trucks and sailors in the bars.

In the lonely financial zone

By the sea

I've often walked under moon and stars.

Comments

11 years ago

edmund184

this is a really great song, his best after Pablo Picasso.

11 years ago

Joe Harvard

The Financial Zone is easy to locate, lying under the Federal Bldg clock in downtown Boston, right across the street from the docks and the Harbor & NE Aquarium. Corner of Broad and State is a good start point to get a sense of it. Take the blue or orange lines to State St. & ask which way is the ocean. It was more desolate there when jonathan wrote, especially after business hours

12 years ago

fido969

"Is it New York, is it Boston, is it San Francisco?" Boston, I'm pretty sure. Richman's from Boston, and this describes the Boston Financial zone pretty well when I lived there in the late '70s and early '80s. I always thought he wrote it about that part of Boston.

12 years ago

philthepowerfan

Timeless

12 years ago

Neil Ryan

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant

12 years ago

suzukiSJ88

he looks like a young bob saggat

12 years ago

mrwibbles1

Such a desolate and exotic song. Is it New York, is it Boston, is it San Francisco? Of course, it does not matter. It is a lonely financial zone, it has no location.

13 years ago