If you love a city, will the city love you back?
If you celebrate the pretty, will it renovate the bad?
If you give it every penny, will it ever pay you back,
and if you love it with abandon, will it recognize the fact?

Oh, I don't know, I don't know why, but
all this time, all this heartache...

If you love a city, will the city love you back?
And if you take what you've been given, then will you give it all you can?
And if you tolerate the broken while you try to make it right,
then will it ever even notice while it keeps you up at night?

Oh, I don't know, I don't know why, but
all this time, all this heartache...

Why do I seek this fruitless passion of woe
while I insist on fighting imagined ghosts?

If you love a city, will the city love you back?
And will you know it when you see it? Do you know how you’d react?
While you tolerate the broken, will you recognize the fact
that the city lives without you? Can you leave yourself with that?

Why do I keep this static infatuation
while I insist on feeding the monsters of old?

If you love a city, will the city love you back?
(I don't know, I don't know why...)
If you love a city, will the city love you back?
(all this time, all this heartache...)
If you love a city, will the city love you back?
(I don't know, I don't know why...)
If you love a city, will the city love you back?
(all this time, all this heartache...)