Weekend Intermission – Greatest ever songs: Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’

Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.

We’ve covered some ground in this occasional sub-series over the last five years, embracing hard and soft rock, prog, classical, and metal themes.

Today NMC turns its attention to an enduringly favourite song for many over the last half century, one that has a certain poignancy for them because they can recognise themselves in it, and because it was the artist’s first major hit and his first single to break into the Billboard Top 40, projecting him onto a path to fame and fortune and recognition as one of the great musical talents of all time.

Before releasing ‘Piano Man’ in 1973, Billy Joel had previously released a solo debut album, ‘Cold Spring Harbor’, in 1971, but it failed to chart or gain commercial traction at the time.

‘Piano Man’ was released as the title track of his second studio album. It climbed to number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in April 1974 and reached number 10 in Canada. Thereafter, the rest is history. He actually achieved his critical and commercial breakthrough with ‘The Stranger’ (1977).

From 1971 to 1993, William Martin Joel to give him his full name and a genuine New Yorker born in The Bronx, released 12 entirely self-written studio albums spanning the genres of pop and rock, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of classical compositions. With over 160 million records sold worldwide, and a seven-time Grammy winner, Joel is one of the world’s best-selling music artists.

However he hasn’t released any albums since 2001 and although he continued to tour that was curtailed by illness in recent years.

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999) along with many other citations.

Most people would view ‘Piano Man’ as his signature song.

When released it was accompanied by a music video which has since been superseded by the official one here, which is as effective as the song in conveying its sentiments, and brilliantly acted by everyone concerned.

Some people refer to the fact that Joel is as much a ‘harmonica man’ in parts of the song but the scene is instantly set by that jazzy piano intro that immediately puts you somewhere in a smoky working man’s bar-lounge in New York at 9 o’clock on a Saturday evening and where the activity at and around that bar is as frenetic as you will find anywhere as “the regular crowd shuffles in”.

The clients are restless to enjoy themselves – their lives amount to little in their own estimation, they’re going nowhere fast and it’s later than you think – and their obsession revolves around the activities of the piano man in his corner, the way he makes them happy. Indeed, it’s the ‘Happy Hour at the Piano’.

And he knew what he was talking about. Billy Joel was literally a piano man in a Los Angeles lounge for six months in 1972 and 1973. While trying to escape a restrictive record contract he moved there and played the piano under the name Bill Martin (using his middle name) at a bar called the Executive Room. And he refers to himself as Bill in the song.

The patrons and staff in his song—including John the bartender who dreamed of being a movie star, a real estate novelist named Paul (today it might be a real estate negotiator called Steve), a sailor named Davy who will probably always be in the navy, the owner with his wandering eye over the waitresses’ best assets and one who would become his first wife (Elizabeth)—were all real people he observed during those shifts.

He used the gig to pay his bills while lawyers worked to free him from his old label so he could sign with Columbia Records.

The song tugs at the heart strings in so many ways and Joel’s magic is in how he works them all into a cohesive whole that ensnares just about everyone. We’ve all been there in one form or another and will be able to recognise ourselves in at least one of the characters.

Then there is loneliness, one of the principal themes. One of the most telling lines is “They’re sharing a drink called loneliness, but it’s better than drinking alone”.

Then there is thwarted ambition, as John the bartender’s smile runs away from his face as soon as his back has turned to his customers.

And then ageing: the entreaty by the old man who’s making love to his tonic and gin to “play me a memory/I’m not sure just how it goes/but it’s sad and it’s sweet and I knew it complete/When I wore a younger man’s clothes”.

“We’re all in the mood for a melody and you’ve got us feeling alright” is yet another potent line in a song that is riddled with them. The provision of bread and circuses to pacify the proletariat. Joel was perhaps more of a protest singer than he is credited for.

And how do we account for Joel’s opinion of his own role in the song? Is he merely recounting his LA experiences or is he an early commentator on the role of the ‘influencer’?:

“’cos he knows that it’s me they’ve been coming to see/ to forget about life for a while.”

The piano sounds like a carnival and that carnival is the social media of the 1970s.

I challenge you not to recognise yourself somewhere in this song and the video. There are elements of just about everyone in it; their hopes, fears and aspirations. Haunting yet comforting.

And Joel’s powers of social observation are peerless. Yes, even including Dylan.

One of my favourite novels, perhaps the most favourite, is Camus’ ‘L’Etranger.’ John Betjeman wrote of it thus – “Never have I read a work which says so much in so short a space’. And that is my take on ‘Piano Man’ too. It isn’t so much a song as a generational synopsis set to music.

And, with a nod to Camus it is existential to boot, dealing directly with the raw reality of being alive and mortal.

Find him on:

Website: https://www.billyjoel.com/