Billy Joel and the Good Eye

One of my favorite artists of the last 3 decades has been Billy Joel. It's not really hard to say why, either. Billy always has a way of seeing things that always gets my attention.

It started with "Piano Man". Check out the lyrics:
Its nine o'clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in,
There's an old man sittin next to me, makin love to his tonic and gin.
He said "son can you play me a memory, I'm not really sure how it goes,
But its sad and its sweet, and I knew it complete,
When I wore a younger man's clothes.

Oh the feeling there! This old guy had a life, or thought he did, but he feels like it's behind him, and its all memories now. He wants to connect to happier days in his life with this song he can barely remember. What a Baby Boomer's flashback! All of us kids, 78 miillion of us, we've gotten to our fifties, and where are we?

Get into the chorus with me:

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 feeling all right!

Billy has a real talent for catching the exact idea of a situation in song. He gave us so much of a perception that really strikes a chord with so many people. He had a way of seeing and expressing things well. He did it so well I have always felt his lyrics as he sang them.

Some people didn't have the life they'd imagined they'd have in their earlier years, and they're wondering how they missed it. Maybe they haven't, they just think so, somehow. Billy Joel catches the sense of restlessness in the human soul better than most rock lyricists around. And he catches the exact spirit with music to match the lyrics.

His song, "everybody has a dream" has a good take on it:

While in these days of quiet desperation,
As I wander through the world in which I live
I search everywhere for some new inspiration
But its more than cold reality can give
If I need a cause for celebration
Or a comfort I can use to ease my mind
I rely on my imagination
And I dream of an imaginary time

Don't we ALL do that? Isn't imagination and creativity a good way to deal with what we endure called life, sometimes? Someplace to get lost in, some street we can walk down and think? Billy does an amazing job of speaking for us all.

But you know, some people don't' see this. They build lives like houses of cards, full of emptiness and vulnerable to the vagaries of life that they don't want to see. Take "Movin Out". It's a song about people that get jobs to do things they feel a need to do. They've got a deep sense of self that's wrapped up around emptiness. He wraps up the song with a line that hits it dead square:
"it seems such a waste of time, if that's what's its all about. If that's movin up, then I'm movin out!"

He can see right through people and situations like they were all glass, and he's willin to call it all for what it is. "Getting Closer" has another similar take:

I went searching for the truth, but in my innocence I found
All the con men and their acrobats, who stomped me in the ground
If I count up their percentages, I know they're getting rich,
But they haven't taken everything, those paybacks are a bitch.

There's always a group of people called the something for nothing crowd. They're after the get rich quick schemes, and they fly for a while, but they never seem to stay up. Billy sees em for what they are. And he always nails the whole idea for what happens in the end.

When it comes to calling some shots well, Billy Joel's got a good eye!