This song keeps coming back to me, even if I have never once lived in New York.

It’s a personal story about Croce himself, who was encouraged to move to New York with his partner (fellow musician Ingrid Croce) in 1968 to check out the scene. It did not appeal to him and they couldn’t make rent; within a couple of years they moved back to Philadelphia.

In 1973, age 30, he died in a plane crash while on tour. It adds a special dimension to seeing such an intimate live recording - one cannot help but wonder what we were deprived of.