WWTBAM Bored

82. PIANO MAN-BILLY JOEL (1973)

His second album and the one that introduced us to his work. I'm pretty tired of the title track, but there are many other
songs here I still enjoy tremendously. With his usual mix of lively ("Worse Comes To Worst") and beautiful ("You're My Home"),
as well as the classic "Captain Jack", I can put up with hearing "sing us a song, you're the piano man" for the gazillionth time.
No video link, audio only...click on the arrow in the center of the album icon.

http://tidido.com/a35184372112108/al560 ... 686aaf46e1

This song made me want to become a real estate novelist.

Yes, he still performs it in concert and pretty much lets the audience sing most of it.

Vandal wrote:This song made me want to become a real estate novelist.

Yes, he still performs it in concert and pretty much lets the audience sing most of it.

It may be the only way he gets through it with his sanity intact. I saw an interview in which his distaste is obvious..well, maybe embarrassment is more like it, as he points out that it's the same musical phrase repeated endlessly throughout the song. But he's stuck singing it for the rest of his life, it's his signature song. It would be like going to see James Taylor and he doesn't do "Fire and Rain". Luckily JT and Billy J have such massive catalogs that they can pull out a few rarities to buffer the old warhorses.

We had a student from Nigeria working with us a few years ago (those from the chat days will remember him) named Ike (Real name: Ethelbert!). That was back in the days when we could still turn the stereos on in Automotive, and he seemed to be enjoying the education he was getting of American music via the variety station I listen to. Anyway, I can remember him taking a special liking two to different songs... one of which was "Piano Man." The other was Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody." There was no accounting for his taste...

lb13

The only album of his that I like better is Glass Houses.