Week 5: Piano Man

The song Piano Man by Billy Joel is my favorite song by my favorite artist. Thanks to my father’s extensive C.D. collection and my mother’s infatuation with Billy Joel, I was able to be exposed to and grow to love Billy Joel before I can remember. I would consider Piano Man to be one of the greatest songs in the 20th century. The setting is a bar where Billy Joel is the pianist. So it can be assumed that this is a time period for Mr. Joel before he had reached fame and fortune and was just getting his start in the music industry by playing in local bars. This idea of Billy Joel just starting as a novice playing in taverns already creates a bond for me with the song seeing how he had to start somewhere just like I am going to have to start somewhere with my career; success isn’t going to be a ‘gimme’. The song talks about the different people in the bar and why they’re there. His friend the bartender is a really nice guy, but he feels there is something missing in his life: he wants fame and fortune and to be a movie star. While on the other hand there is Paul the real estate novelist who “never had time for a wife”, along with the business men; it can be inferred that they are very successful financially. But those financially successful people are still unhappy for some reason. They still feel the need to go to bars and do drugs. So the bartender wants money, Paul who never had time for a wife needs something in his life, and who knows what the businessmen want. The point of this song to me is we don’t know what we want for ourselves. Making money took precedence over family at some point in Paul’s life, but now he realizes something is missing. Feels weird to relate this song to the gospel, but it shows me that I am not always going to know what I want in this life even when I think I do, and that’s the best time to rely and trust in the Lord.

Piano Man, Billy Joel:

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin

He says, "Son, can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes."

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Chorus:
Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us all feelin' all right

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he's quick with a joke and he'll light up your smoke
But there's some place that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As his smile ran away from his face
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place"

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Now Paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And he's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessman slowly gets stoned
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it's better than drinkin' alone

Chorus
sing us a song you're the piano man
sing us a song tonight
well we're all in the mood for a melody
and you got us all feeling alright

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been comin' to see
To forget about their life for a while
And the piano, it sounds like a carnivore
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Chorus:
sing us a song you're the piano man
sing us a song tonight
well we're all in the mood for a melody
and you got us all feeling alright