SOTD #5: Better than drinking alone

Let's talk about a song that reads more like a straight up poem than almost any other song I've ever heard.

I'm talking rhyme scheme, rhythm, the works.  If you sit down and read this song without music, it's still pretty fabulous.  Put it with its music, and it's classic.  Move over, everyone else.

What song is this, you ask?  Well, you probably know it... *carnival-like piano music plays*

Piano Man - Billy Joel

(Personal fave lyrics in bold, but let's be real, EVERY lyric of this one is my favorite)

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, de de da
La la, de de da, da dum..."

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 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, or to light up your smoke
But there's someplace that he'd rather be

He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me,"
As a smile ran away from his face
"But I'm sure that I could be a movie star
"If I could get outta this place."

La, la la, de de da
La la, de de da, da dum...

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

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call Loneliness
But it's better than drinking alone

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 feelin' all right

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 coming to see
To forget about life for a while

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?"

La, la la, de de da
La la, de de da, da dum...

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 feelin' all right

*

The aviators analysis:

I could probably go on about this song for several pages, but it's a school night.  So, to summarize, I love everything about the way this song's lyrics are put together.  Do you notice that flawlessly consistent rhyme scheme?  A, B, C and C same line, back to B?  Almost the whole way through.  It's so perfect, it's essentially witchcraft.  I don't write a lot of rhyming poetry, in case you couldn't tell.  It's so difficult, it's like trying to write rhyming poetry.  Wait, what?

I also love the interwoven characterization in this one.  Whenever I get to the verse about John at the bar, I want to jump into the song and give him a hug.  "Chin up, bud!  You'll get your big break!"  Similar emotions about Davey.  I just love that cynical, life's-tough-get-a-helmet little addition of, "And probably will be for life."  Poor John and Davey.  (Davy?  Davie?)  I am so emotionally invested in the characters of this song, I've thought on multiple occasions about writing an interpretive short fiction piece concerning them.  The only reason I don't is because nothing could possibly express the characters and point of this song...better than this song.

Note that even when simply retyping the lyrics here, I had already made a decision about interpretation.  Do you see it?  The placement of quotations around the first La, la la, de de da.  Honestly, I had never ever thought before about attributing the recurring La, la la thing to the "old man" sitting next to him.  But if you type it out and look at it, then listen again, it makes sense.  Why else have the La, la la in the first place?  I'd always just taken it for granted as part of the song.  Maybe I'm just weird, and everybody else already noticed that the old man could be the one humming it while trying to convey the forgotten "melody" to Billy Joel.  It's a minor thing, but it's still a good example of reader (listener) interpretation.

Last thing: Yes, they're sharing a drink they call Loneliness / But it's better than drinking alone.  Possibly the best song lyric instance of antithesis ever?  Yeah.  Probably so.  Good work, piano man.