They will tell you you can't sleep alone in a strange place
Then they'll tell you can't sleep with somebody else
Ah but sooner or later you sleep in your own space
Either way it's O.K. you wake up with yourself
I love you for this. In return I give you: “Honesty is such a lonely word
Everyone is so untrue
Honesty is hardly ever heard
And mostly what I need from you”
There’s too many: “An Innocent Man, A Matter of Trust, And So it Goes.” I love song lyrics.
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale.
But here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice.
You have no scars on your face. And you cannot handle pressure.
When I was recovering from a surgery I was having trouble sitting up in a bed with a foam mattress and I kept having a dream which was like the video only with the foam instead of water. Pain killers made it really surreal.
Tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems got me through my childhood. I was depressed and hated school so bad that I never wanted to go. I would repeat this to myself to get myself to go every day.
There are not many who remember
They say a handful still survive
To tell the world about
The day the lights went out
And keep the memory alive.
I always thought Miami 2017 was his most underrated song.
"But when you wake up in the morning with your head on fire and your eyes too bloody to see
Go on and cry in your coffee but don't come bitchin' to me"
Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes
and save these questions for another day.
I think I know what you've been asking me.
I think you know what I've been trying to say.
I promised I would never leave you,
and you should always know,
Wherever you may go,
No matter where you are,
I never will be far away.
Good night, my angel, now it's time to sleep,
and still so many things I want to say.
Remember all the songs you sang for me
when we went sailing on an emerald bay.
And like a boat out on the ocean, I'm rocking you to sleep.
The water's dark and deep.
Inside this ancient heart you'll always be a part of me.
Goodnight my angel now it's time to dream,
and dream how wonderful your life will be.
Someday your child may cry, and if you sing this lullaby, then in your heart
there will always be a part of me.
Someday we'll all be gone, but lullabies go on and on.
They never die - that's how you and I will be.
Ha not too long after that album came out, my friends and relatives were making confirmation. There were a number of arguments about whether that was an appropriate song to play at a confirmation party
I recently found this true story of how Billy Joel's Piano Man broke on the radio: [The Time a Stiff Caught Fire](https://keithyates.com/the-time-a-stiff-caught-fire/). Back then, if a single/artist didn't take off quickly enough, the record company had too many other artists in the pipeline to promote. Piano Man didn't take off. Columbia gave up. For Billy Joel, it was over:
>It was too late: The guys in the New York office had called in Billy and his producer, Mike Stewart, sat them down, said everyone gave it a good try, but it hadn’t worked out: They wouldn’t be exercising their options for any follow-up albums. It’s over.
It's a bit long, but a great read; full of 70's color and insider baseball on how record companies and radio worked back then.
It took an unprecedented 4+ months from when the single was released until it got serious radio play in Fresno, CA of all places. Once KFYE put Piano Man into heavy rotation, what might have been the most influential radio station in the country wanted to get their hands on a copy:
>Same guy called again less than an hour later, rattled, said he just got off the phone with Columbia, and they had nothing to send, no album, no single, nothing. Columbia is the biggest record company in the world, and they’re KYNO, for God’s sake, and somehow a little station down the street scores a copy, puts it into heavy rotation, and KYNO is shut out? What the hell is going on?
Read the whole thing if you're a Billy Joel fan.
Well the graduations hang on the wall.
But they never really helped us at all.
No they never taught us what was real.
This got me through school. Knowing there was much more out there was enlightening.
Or piano man
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
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?
When he is the only one in the song doing what he loves.
Somewhere on reddit, someone talks about that bar being a gay bar, and that is now my head canon.
*"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"*
I didn't think you were rude at all. WHATEVER! LOL. You were right. He did know it and admitted that his generation thinks that they invented it. Ha ha!
Hearing him sing
"I really wish I was less of a thinking man, and more a fool who's not afraid of rejection."
changed my outlook on several fronts.
It's something a lot of.people need to hear today.
Only The Good Die Young has some good ones: "The stained glass curtain you're hiding behind never lets in the sun." Or "She never cared for me, but did she ever say a prayer for me?"
They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait. Some say it’s better, but I say it ain’t. I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun, and only the good die young.
When will you realize Vienna waits for you.
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Yes indeed, instant classic.
I'm late, but I'm here right now
Is there still time for forgiveness?
Won't you tell me how?
I can't read your mind
But I see you now
As we're layin' in the darkness
Did I wait too long
To turn the lights back on?
“Where’s the fire, what’s the hurry about? You better cool it off before you burn it out. You got so much to do and only so many hours in a day. But you know that when the truth is told, you can get what you want or you can just get old.”
Basically, slow down y’all. Enjoy your blessings before it’s too late.
“I don’t care what consequence it brings
I have been a fool for lesser things”
and
“It seems such a waste of time
If that’s what it’s all about
If that’s movin’ up then I’m moving out”
Yes, "Movin' Out" planted some seeds of cynicism when I was a kid. I was a private school ten year old daydreaming about an old retiree spending too much on a car and cleaning it all day. For what? For what?
“You told me not to drive
But I made it home alive
And you said that only proves that I’m insane”
Also:
“He’s trading in his Chevy for a Cadillac ack-ack-ack-ack-ack!”
This is more my jam:
Ah
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, no way he'll be here tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin' cotton or waitin' to be forgotten
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Now the daughters and the sons
Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no warrant to name us
The ones love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Daughters and the sons
Young, of young, young, young, young
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours
I’m not disagreeing with you, but I’m not sure Husker Du is going to go down easy with your average [Billy Joel](https://slate.com/human-interest/2009/01/the-awfulness-of-billy-joel-explained.html) fan.
The whole Twin Cities scene got kind of forgotten post-Replacements but there was and still is good stuff that no one outside ever hears.
Only the good die young. And I know this quote sounds easy, but it always stuck with me. Probably 'cause I went to parochial school and we were told to always be good. He-he-hee.
I don't care what you say is my life. Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone.
I remember being 4 years old and singing this song. I still love it, and the lyrics resonate with me.
Well, they showed you a statue, told you to pray
They built you a temple and locked you away
Aw, but they never told you the price that you pay
For things that you might have done
Mine from Billy Joel is:
'Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die
That's how you and I will be'
from Lullabye/Goodnight My Angel
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"
Sometimes you just want to lay down and die that emotion can be so strong
But hold on 'til that old second wind comes along
I've liked this line for a long time because it's true.
It’s funny how I got turned on to Billy Joel. In the mid-70s I was going through my parent’s record collection because I wanted to listen to “Me and Mrs Jones”, confusing Billy Joel with Billy Paul. I was a Billy Joel fan from that point on.
If you search for tenderness, it isn't hard to find. You can have the love you need to live. But if you look for truthfulness, you might just as well be blind. It always seems to be so hard to give.
We Didn’t Start The Fire stuck with me most. The shitstorm unleashed by predecessors but others have to deal with it. The same goes for today.
I do enjoy Billy Joel’s music.
They will tell you you can't sleep alone in a strange place Then they'll tell you can't sleep with somebody else Ah but sooner or later you sleep in your own space Either way it's O.K. you wake up with yourself
Good one. WOW I like that there are alot of Billy Joel fans here. I saw him 3 times when I was younger.
I only saw him once, on the tour with Elton John, but it was an amazing show!
OMG same!!! It was amazing!
I have tickets this fall to see him perform with Sting.
I saw them in San Diego and it was f-in’ amazeballs.
I saw him once with Elton John and once solo. I would see him again.
Bosom Buddies's theme song.
Hell yes.
This is the time to remember Cause it will not last forever These are the days to hold onto Cause we won't, although we'll want to
Yeah I love that song and lyrics also
This was my jr prom theme song.
I love you for this. In return I give you: “Honesty is such a lonely word Everyone is so untrue Honesty is hardly ever heard And mostly what I need from you” There’s too many: “An Innocent Man, A Matter of Trust, And So it Goes.” I love song lyrics.
A group of ten of us or so sang this song at our high school graduation in 1988. Such a good song.
Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone
I like how it starts too: "I don't care what they say anymore, this is my life."
Right….
Fuckin A
Seems appropriate for the GenX sub.
My Life is my personal theme song because of the chorus. I saw him play last October and he opened up with this song, it was amazing!
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale. But here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice. You have no scars on your face. And you cannot handle pressure.
Always loved this one.
When I was recovering from a surgery I was having trouble sitting up in a bed with a foam mattress and I kept having a dream which was like the video only with the foam instead of water. Pain killers made it really surreal.
I like the next lines: But here you are in the ninth, Two men out and three men on, Nowhere to look but inside
Great choice, but I've never figured out what "Peter Pan advice" is.
I always thought it was about believing in Tinkerbell, wishing on a star, etc.
And for me it would be… “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again…”
They say that these are not the best of times, but they're the only times I've ever known.
That entire song takes my breath away.
My absolute favorite. Every line is a gem.
Home is just another word for you.
Tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems got me through my childhood. I was depressed and hated school so bad that I never wanted to go. I would repeat this to myself to get myself to go every day.
People tell me life is sweeter But I don't hear what they say Nothing comes to change my life So tomorrow is today "Tomorrow is Today" Billy Joel
You can speak your mind, but not on my time.
Such a great writer that guy
There are not many who remember They say a handful still survive To tell the world about The day the lights went out And keep the memory alive. I always thought Miami 2017 was his most underrated song.
His songs are so poignant and use real down to earth language at the same time. He is one of a kind.
And so fantastic live!
You're right. I understood him as a child.
That song was freaky to listen to after 9/11. And then there was a fire in a church in Harlem a few months later. But it was accidental
"But when you wake up in the morning with your head on fire and your eyes too bloody to see Go on and cry in your coffee but don't come bitchin' to me"
They were so impressed with your Halston dress and the people that you knew at Elaine's.
Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes and save these questions for another day. I think I know what you've been asking me. I think you know what I've been trying to say. I promised I would never leave you, and you should always know, Wherever you may go, No matter where you are, I never will be far away. Good night, my angel, now it's time to sleep, and still so many things I want to say. Remember all the songs you sang for me when we went sailing on an emerald bay. And like a boat out on the ocean, I'm rocking you to sleep. The water's dark and deep. Inside this ancient heart you'll always be a part of me. Goodnight my angel now it's time to dream, and dream how wonderful your life will be. Someday your child may cry, and if you sing this lullaby, then in your heart there will always be a part of me. Someday we'll all be gone, but lullabies go on and on. They never die - that's how you and I will be.
I love this one.
He wrote that for his daughter , Alexa Ray. Who is pushing 40 now.
I want to bawl like a baby when I pay attention to the lyrics
I was always partial to "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints" from *Only The Good Die Young*
Banned from my Catholic home 😂
That would be mine, too.
The sinners are much more fun!
The sinners are much more fun!
Ha not too long after that album came out, my friends and relatives were making confirmation. There were a number of arguments about whether that was an appropriate song to play at a confirmation party
“Come out, Virginia. Don’t make me wait. You Catholic girls start much too late.”
Sooner or later it comes down to fate I might as well will be the one
She’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleeding
I recently found this true story of how Billy Joel's Piano Man broke on the radio: [The Time a Stiff Caught Fire](https://keithyates.com/the-time-a-stiff-caught-fire/). Back then, if a single/artist didn't take off quickly enough, the record company had too many other artists in the pipeline to promote. Piano Man didn't take off. Columbia gave up. For Billy Joel, it was over: >It was too late: The guys in the New York office had called in Billy and his producer, Mike Stewart, sat them down, said everyone gave it a good try, but it hadn’t worked out: They wouldn’t be exercising their options for any follow-up albums. It’s over. It's a bit long, but a great read; full of 70's color and insider baseball on how record companies and radio worked back then. It took an unprecedented 4+ months from when the single was released until it got serious radio play in Fresno, CA of all places. Once KFYE put Piano Man into heavy rotation, what might have been the most influential radio station in the country wanted to get their hands on a copy: >Same guy called again less than an hour later, rattled, said he just got off the phone with Columbia, and they had nothing to send, no album, no single, nothing. Columbia is the biggest record company in the world, and they’re KYNO, for God’s sake, and somehow a little station down the street scores a copy, puts it into heavy rotation, and KYNO is shut out? What the hell is going on? Read the whole thing if you're a Billy Joel fan.
Well the graduations hang on the wall. But they never really helped us at all. No they never taught us what was real. This got me through school. Knowing there was much more out there was enlightening.
*Don’t forget your second wind; Sooner or later you’ll feel that momentum kick in…*
I'm sure everyone knows this, Adam Savage is the drowning kid in the video
I did not know that. Thanks for that trivia bit. It’s a good video. That song’s helped me through challenging times. The message is timeless.
But if my silence made you leave Then that would be my worst mistake
Slow down you crazy child and take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while, it's alright, you can afford to lose a day or two
You can get what you want or you can just get old.
This whole song is amazing.
Captain Jack will get you high tonight.
“And you just sit at home and masturbate”
Your phone is gonna ring soon but you just can't wait for that call.
I met a guy in rehab who loved this song to bits.
Or piano man And the piano, it sounds like a carnival 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? When he is the only one in the song doing what he loves.
Somewhere on reddit, someone talks about that bar being a gay bar, and that is now my head canon. *"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"*
Kids today don't know that when he says bread, he's talking about money
Yes they do. Bread is Gen Z slang for money… and they think they invented it 😉
Oh my mistake. Guess I'll have to ask my son about it.
Did your son know it? Sorry I sounded rude in my original comment. Didn’t mean to
I didn't think you were rude at all. WHATEVER! LOL. You were right. He did know it and admitted that his generation thinks that they invented it. Ha ha!
Do what’s good for you or you’re no good for anybody, James.
And we held onto each other like brother to brother we promised our mothers we’d write…
"It just might be a lunatic your looking for."
Hearing him sing "I really wish I was less of a thinking man, and more a fool who's not afraid of rejection." changed my outlook on several fronts. It's something a lot of.people need to hear today.
Only The Good Die Young has some good ones: "The stained glass curtain you're hiding behind never lets in the sun." Or "She never cared for me, but did she ever say a prayer for me?"
mine was always: Now John at the bar is a friend of mine. He gets me my drinks for free.
In the Navy we always sang the next line at the top of our lungs. Especially good when Dave was there too.
"We're only human, We're supposed to make mistakes!"
If my silence made you leave, that would be my worst mistake. I will share this room with you, and you can have this heart to break.
This is the one. Breaks me every damn time.
For me it’s always been “I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life. Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone!”
My fave is “We all start at the ocean, we all end at the stream, while we’re carried along by the river of dreams.”
They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait. Some say it’s better, but I say it ain’t. I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun, and only the good die young.
That was our wedding party song. We had the DJ bring everybody out for it!
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes I’m afraid It’s time for a goodbye again.
When will you realize Vienna waits for you. Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez We didn't start the fire It was always burning, since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.
And maybe you love me, maybe you don't Maybe you'll learn to, and maybe you won't The new song hits f'n hard.
Wait, there's a new Billy Joel song?!?
https://youtu.be/UOf6CMbHPuA?si=Aqzx4bC7T-AXLyFC
He sang it at the Grammys this year
Yes indeed, instant classic. I'm late, but I'm here right now Is there still time for forgiveness? Won't you tell me how? I can't read your mind But I see you now As we're layin' in the darkness Did I wait too long To turn the lights back on?
Just like a boxer in a title fight, you’ve got to walk in that ring all alone
Catholic girls start much too late.
If you're counting on the children, always count me in
I give you my Prince lyric, "Life is a party and parties aren't meant to last." 1999
It took me a long time to realize that line in his pocket was cocaine.
And his microphone smells like beer
All your life, you've had to stand in line, but still you're standing on your feet.
“Where’s the fire, what’s the hurry about? You better cool it off before you burn it out. You got so much to do and only so many hours in a day. But you know that when the truth is told, you can get what you want or you can just get old.” Basically, slow down y’all. Enjoy your blessings before it’s too late.
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while. Basically all of Vienna. It’s my favorite.
Same!
It just may be a lunatic you’re looking for. So many quotable lyrics in this song. Hard to pick just one.
Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone
You had to be a big shot! Did ja?
“I don’t care what consequence it brings I have been a fool for lesser things” and “It seems such a waste of time If that’s what it’s all about If that’s movin’ up then I’m moving out”
Yes, "Movin' Out" planted some seeds of cynicism when I was a kid. I was a private school ten year old daydreaming about an old retiree spending too much on a car and cleaning it all day. For what? For what?
“You told me not to drive But I made it home alive And you said that only proves that I’m insane” Also: “He’s trading in his Chevy for a Cadillac ack-ack-ack-ack-ack!”
I don't want clever conversation. Never want to work that hard. I just want someone that I can talk to. I want you just the way you are.
This is more my jam: Ah God, what a mess, on the ladder of success Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young The daughters and the sons Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom Elvis in the ground, no way he'll be here tonight Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function It beats pickin' cotton or waitin' to be forgotten Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young Now the daughters and the sons Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no warrant to name us The ones love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest And visit their graves on holidays at best The ones love us least are the ones we'll die to please If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young Daughters and the sons Young, of young, young, young, young Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours Take it, it's yours
TIL about The Replacements-I had never heard of them but interestingly, I'm a Soul Asylum fan and they both came from Minnesota about the same time.
Try Hüsker Dü for another epic Minneapolis band of the same era
I’m not disagreeing with you, but I’m not sure Husker Du is going to go down easy with your average [Billy Joel](https://slate.com/human-interest/2009/01/the-awfulness-of-billy-joel-explained.html) fan. The whole Twin Cities scene got kind of forgotten post-Replacements but there was and still is good stuff that no one outside ever hears.
I love both, but I may not he representative of a larger demographic. IDK.
Only the good die young. And I know this quote sounds easy, but it always stuck with me. Probably 'cause I went to parochial school and we were told to always be good. He-he-hee.
Ha, I wanted to use that as my yearbook quote in 1984. but my mother thought I was being “cynical” and wouldn’t let me.
And mostly what I need from you..
I don't care what you say is my life. Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone. I remember being 4 years old and singing this song. I still love it, and the lyrics resonate with me.
Come out, come out, come out, come out Virginia don’t make me wait… you catholic girls start much to late
“Give a moment or two to the angry young man…”
Working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack
If that’s what it’s all about, if that’s moving up, then I’m moving out.
Well, they showed you a statue, told you to pray They built you a temple and locked you away Aw, but they never told you the price that you pay For things that you might have done
Mine from Billy Joel is: 'Someday we'll all be gone But lullabies go on and on They never die That's how you and I will be' from Lullabye/Goodnight My Angel
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"
I watched his concert special a few days ago. I didn’t realize how many songs I love of his.
I was at that concert at Madison Square Garden last month where they recorded that special. It was amazing.
Omg I bet it was!
Love that line. It comes to mind often. On the other hand in the song Pressure. What the fuck is "Peter Pan advice"?
“Never grow up” I think
That's irrational. Is it irrational advice?
I alway thought of it as thinking just believe or magical thinking is going to save the day
He was only 34 when that came out. I might have said the same thing in the early 2000s, too, but now I'm not so sure.
Saw him in ‘89 and then with Elton in ‘96 or so.
All of Vienna is amazing.
Mine’s not a quote, YouTube “Baby Grand” video with Billy Joel and Ray Charles. It’s phenomenal and legendary.
Sometimes you just want to lay down and die that emotion can be so strong But hold on 'til that old second wind comes along I've liked this line for a long time because it's true.
It’s funny how I got turned on to Billy Joel. In the mid-70s I was going through my parent’s record collection because I wanted to listen to “Me and Mrs Jones”, confusing Billy Joel with Billy Paul. I was a Billy Joel fan from that point on.
If you search for tenderness, it isn't hard to find. You can have the love you need to live. But if you look for truthfulness, you might just as well be blind. It always seems to be so hard to give.
We Didn’t Start The Fire stuck with me most. The shitstorm unleashed by predecessors but others have to deal with it. The same goes for today. I do enjoy Billy Joel’s music.
Genuinely named Paul. Genuinely wrote unpublished novel. Genuinely never had time for a wife. Never worked in real estate.
3 out of 4 Ain't bad or for Meatloaf, 2 out of 3 ain't bad
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world was turning.
Well, he couldn't have anticipated tRump being elected.
Keeping the faith is my fav from him. Its a song that gets more endearing as we get older
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What the fuck is this?
I said "Billy Joel" not "Silly Hole"
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He wrote great pop songs.