Billy Joel
Globally-recognized pianist, singer and songwriter.
You have to learn to pace yourself.
Pressure.
You're just like everybody else.
Pressure.
You've only had to run so far,
So good.
But you will come to a place
Where the only thing you feel
Are loaded guns in your face.
And you'll have to deal with
Pressure.
Streetlife serenaders
Have no obligations
Hold no grand illusions
Need no stimulation.
Advice is cheap you can take it from me.
It's yours to keep 'cause opinions are free.
Nobody knows about the trouble I've seen.
Nobody's perfect, mister, nobody's clean.
It cost too much and takes too long to find out too late.
Some words are not heard 'til after they're spoken.
Your role was protective, your soul was too defective.
Some people just don't have a heart to be broken.
Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood.
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I'm talking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line.
I'm in a New York state of mind.
I remember those days hanging out
At the village green
Engineer boots, leather jackets
And tight blue jeans
Drop a dime in the box play the
Song about New Orleans
Cold beer, hot lights
My sweet romantic teenage nights.
Well, we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell.
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger?
Did you ever let your lover see
The stranger in yourself?
Seen the lights go out Broadway
I saw the Empire State laid low
And life went on beyond the Palisades
They all bought Cadillacs
And left there long ago.
Tell her about it
Let her know how much you care
When she can't be with you
Tell her you wish you were there.
Tell her about it.
Every day before you leave
Pay her some attention
Give her something to believe.
I am the entertainer, I've come to do my show
You've heard my latest record, it's been on the radio
It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life
It was a beautiful song but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05.
They will tell you, you can't sleep alone in strange place.
Then they'll tell you, you can't sleep with somebody else.
Ah, but sooner or later you sleep in your own space.
Either way, it's okay, you wake with yourself.
It's nine o' clock on a Saturday
Regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Making love to his tonic and gin.
They say that no one's gonna play this on the radio
They said the melancholy blues were dead and gone
But only songs like these
Played in minor keys
Keep those memories holding on.
Brenda and Eddie had had it already
By the summer of '75
From the high to the low
To the end of the show
For the rest of their lives.
They couldn't go back to the greasers.
The best they could do was pick up the pieces.
We always knew they would both find a way to get by.
That's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie.
Can't tell you more than I told you already.
And here we are wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye.
All your life you had to stand in line
Still you’re standing on your feet.
All your choices made you change your mind
Now your calendar's complete.
Don't wait for answers
Just take your chances
Don't ask me why.
These days there's a million ways
To be pulled and torn, to be misdirected.
These times there are sins and crimes
On the morning shows for the disconnected.
I look and I write my book
And I walk away with the wrong impressions.
I don't care 'cause I've done my share. And I need some time for my own obsessions
It doesn't matter, I've let that life go by.
It's been forgotten 'cause all I wanted was you.
Well I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting up today.
Well I'm shameless when it comes to loving you.
I'd do anything you want me to
I'd do anything at all.
And I'm standing here for all the world to see
There ain't that much left of me
That has very far to fall.
It was so easy living day by day
Out of touch with the rhythm and blues
But now I need a little give and take
The New York Times, The Daily News.
I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight
I once believed in causes too
I had my pointless point of view
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right.
I'm so romantic
I'm such a passionate man
Sometimes I panic
What if nobody finds out who I am?