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Louis Lichtman had a bakery at 86th and AmsterdamYou'd smell the rising bread at least a couple blocks awayFor forty years a wedding cake of one kind or anotherWould occupy the Lichtman's Bakery window every dayThen the world turned from pastry and from challah and from cookiesFrom the independent merchant to the supermarket mallAnd the rents were rising faster than the loaves that they were earned onSo the "Going Out of Business" sign appeared on Lichtman's wallThe lights are out at Lichtman's nowThe building's cold and empty, with a cake stand in the windowYour credit's fine, no money downAnd the Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used toBack when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little townThe final day of business came and with it Lichtman's regularsPaying their respects and taking in the sad detailsMrs. Kaplan bought a dozen cakes, another, thirty strudelsAs the auctioneer prepared to start the saleSome sixty other bakers bid on ovens and on boxesThere were mixers, there was shortening, there were bowls, and there were pansAnd the years were sifting through the racks at Louis Lichtman's bakeryLike the flour and the sugar through his handsLetras de cancionesThe lights are out at Lichtman's nowThe building's cold and empty, with a cake stand in the windowThe Daily Special sign fell downAnd the Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used toBack when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little townThe last of all the lots was sold, the frosting tubes and freezerMr. Lichtman clutched his rolling pin and went to stand outsideHe didn't want to watch the auctioneer conclude his businessAnd he didn't want his friends to see him cryA note left hanging on the wallIt said that Mrs. Rosenthal still owed him 7 dollarsThat was a long, long time agoAnd the ceiling fan once spinning round for one last time was slowing downAs forty years came turning to a closeThe lights are out at Lichtman's nowThe building's cold and empty, Mr. Lichtman moved to JerseyThe neighborhood has changed aroundThe Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used toBack when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town From Letras Mania