Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DCII--Billy Joel: Piano Man

 I took my time, 'cause I felt so all alone, not far away, I heard a funny sound, took a look around, and...I'm (only six days?) late again....

Back in the day, when I became enamored of an artist (this would include writers as well as actors), I would want to read, watch, and listen to as much of their past (and sometimes their future, relative to its release date) works as I could.  Sometimes this worked well (say, Bruce Springsteen), and sometimes not so well (the German novelist Hermann Hesse, who I took a chance on because of great reviews from Kurt Vonnegut, and then decided after reading two of his books that he was not for me and have had about nine of his novels sitting on my bookshelves for close to fifty years that will never be read).  All of which is a (really) roundabout way of saying my introduction to this week's tune came because I very much enjoyed this week's artist's album The Stranger , and after reading a number of good reviews about his second album, took a chance...and the rest, as they say, is history....

I wrote about William Martin Joel in Vol. CDLXXIV, and over the course of the last two years the only real news was that Joel was diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus in 2025 which caused him to cancel all of his upcoming shows.  Joel has since stated that the condition is treatable, he has been getting better and hopes to return to performing.  Here's hoping the best for him!

"Piano Man" was the first single from Joel's 1973 album, the rather deftly entitled, Piano Man.  The song would be the first hit of his career, peaking at #25 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album would also prove to be hit, reaching #27 on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  Due to contractual problems, Joel moved to Los Angeles in the early seventies and performed under a pseudonym at a small club while the contract issues were being resolved.  Under the name Bill Martin, Joel would play for three years, during which time he says he met or knew all of the people mentioned in this week's tune.  Any gig that leads to a hit song is one hell of a gig....

There are songs that are fun, songs that speak to the human condition, songs with a historical resonance, and there are slice of life songs (among numerous other types), and "Piano Man" is a very fine example of the latter.  Joel spins the tale of a piano player in a bar taking stock of not only the lives of those around him, but his life as well.  There's a certain pathos to the song--most of the characters in the song (unlike Joel) will not live out their dreams.  Still, there's also a bit of hope--though they may not live out their dreams, there's a chance that their lives will still be well worth having lived.  Joel's piano playing is wondrous, there's a heavy helping of harmonica (emaycee fave!) that along with the la la la di di da da dums give the song the feel of a lullabye, which might just get these folks through theit loneliness.  In the end, Joels provides the background music to their disappointments, which is a hell of a tribute to the hopes and dreams of us all.

Lyric Sheet:  "There's an old man sittin' 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'..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCLXXI--The Statler Brothers: Flowers on the Wall

 My introduction to this week's tune came, surprisingly enough, from a Kurt Vonnegut essay in his book Palm Sunday.  Vonnegut's piece (he considered the song poetry and related how it reflected his life at that point in time) caused me to seek it out and give it a listen.  While the song didn't have quite the effect on me it had on Vonnegut (he'd just gone through a divorce from his first wife and felt the song accurately portrayed the end of his usefulness...about which I'm sure Vonnegut changed his mind after his second marriage), I did come to love it and appreciate its take on the newly divorced man....

The Statler Brothers got their start in the mid-fifties singing Gospel Music before catching a humongous break in 1964 when they became the opening act (and backing vocals) for Johnny Cash.  They would remain with Cash (though recording their own material) through the mid-seventies before amicably parting and taking their career to another level in the Country Music world.  They would have a number of hits through the seventies and eighties, culminating in their own weekly variety show (the cleverly named The Statler Brothers Show) on TNN for seven years from 1991-98.  Like Jo Stafford a few weeks back, the Statlers became known for incorporating comedy in their act and became a popular touring band.  For their career, the Statler Brothers released 38 studio albums and 96 singles (and had four #1 hits on the Country singles chart).  The Statlers won three Grammy Awards, and have been inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Gospel Hall of Fame.  The Statler Brothers had a farewell tour in 2002 before retiring that same year.

Fun Fact:  While Harold and Don Reid were brothers, Phil Balsley and Lew Dewitt were not, and none of them had the name Statler.  The band was actually named after a brand of tissue that was in a hotel room in which they were staying.  The Statlers would joke in later years that they just as easily could have been named the "Kleenex Brothers."

"Flowers on the Wall," released in 1965, was the first single from the Statlers first album, the aptly named Flowers on the Wall.  The single would reach #2 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and #4 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album peaked at #10 on the country album chart, but only reached #125 on the Billboard 200.

"Flowers on the Wall" is the story of a recently single man who is mustering all the bravado (and self-deprecation) he can muster to convince his friends (and himself) that his life is going swimmingly without his lady love.  The song is delivered with a jaunty melody (and plenty of an emaycee fave, the banjo), and the Statlers make the most of their respective voices (lead, tenor, baritone, and bass).  As I've noted a time or two here, it takes some talent to perform a song that has all the earmarks of being a novelty hit and not let it become one, and the Statlers do it with aplomb on this one.  "Flowers on the Wall" is another featured tune that might not be for everyone (especially if you're not a fan of Country Music), but it's definitely one of Country's all-time great tunes, and another in a long line of poignant songs about the end of a relationship that capture its sorrow and heartache with grace and great care.

Lyric Sheet:  "Counting flowers on the wall, that don't bother me at all/Playing solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one/Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo/Now don't tell me I've nothing to do..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

A Legendary Heart

"And you've got to fight to make what's right...."  Lou Reed, "Legendary Hearts"

I titled my second novel (unpublished, and deservedly so--suffered the same fate as my first, also unpublished, that of its being overwrought horseshit) from a lyric in the above noted song.  There are probably millions of people today--most of whom can wax much more poetically than I can about his career--writing about him and like them I mourn Reed's passing.  While I've read today of people who started bands because of him (mostly because of the Velvet Underground), learned how to to be a rebel from him, or took art to heretofore never done before heights because of him, I myself took from his music that a sort of happiness comes to you as you get older and that's okay.  It's a lesson I've learned over and over again as I've aged.

The last few years have not been kind to many of those I've admired and whose work I've enjoyed.  John Updike.  Kurt Vonnegut.  George Carlin.  Levon Helm.  And now Lou Reed.

All of whom have left me with one irrefutable fact.

I'm getting old.

Peace,
emaycee