A Few of My Favorite Billy Joel Songs: Part I

Apparently Samurai Frog and Chuck Klosterman aren't the only ones who like Billy Joel. I have always liked him too -- though there have been times when my affection seemed more of a love/hate thing due to the number of times Billy Joel's latest tunes have been overplayed on the local radio stations.

Among the most obvious favorites of mine from this artist:

1. "A Matter of Trust". I sent a copy of this video to my girlfriend yesterday by text message because I not only like it enough to want to share it with her but because it also reminds me of our relationship. We have been both burned in the past by former loves and yet we both keep trying to get along and thrive without getting hung up on the past. Plus it turns out that we both like the beat of this song...



I never noticed prior to yesterday how much Billy Joel's outfit in this video seems like a parody of Bruce Springsteen's traditional concert outfit. Deliberate or unintentional? You decide.

Plus there's the whole irony of Billy's relationship with Christie Brinkley at the time this song was recorded but then it's not Billy Joel's fault he's not psychic.

2. "Tell Her About It". One of the first CDs I ever owned was Billy Joel's An Innocent Man album, which, of course, had this song on it. And this was also one of the first music videos I recorded off cable TV back in the days when music videos were still a novelty.



I have always loved this song's video (see above) but I also liked the song's message. When my youngest brother first bought me the CD this song was on, I joked that he was trying to send me a message about the girl in my Catholic Singles group on whom I had had a crush at that time. And maybe he was. That still doesn't dilute the truth of the song's message. After all, if I had never told that Catholic girl about my feelings for her, I would have regretted it far more than her actual rejection. And of course part of the reason I was able to tell that girl about my feelings despite being usually very shy around women at that time was because I used this song to psych myself up.

As for the video, that Billy Joel really gets around, doesn't he? And I just love the Rodney Dangerfield cameo at the end.

3. "Laura". I actually have a cousin named Laura. In fact, I have two cousins named Laura and they're both on my father's side of the family. And fortunately -- as far as I know -- they're nothing like the title character of this song.



I have always thought it ironic that though Billy Joel comes right out and tells us the nature of his true relationship with "Laura" halfway through the song, the lyrics for the most part are ambiguous enough that I once thought the song was about an old girlfriend of Joel's. Then I thought it was about a platonic acquaintance. I was surprised as heck to realize that it was ultimately about his mother but then I have known enough "Lauras" in my lifetime who weren't related to me to understand the many reasons I would not have equated the title character with a mother even if Billy Joel had been more explicit in his lyrics.

For what it's worth, Blue October went for a similar hat trick with their song "Hate Me" but for some reason, they didn't pull it off as well as Billy Joel did with this song. But then it's hard to be human and not identify with the obviously mixed emotions Billy Joel describes in this song.

Edited to Add:

Just when I had the whole "what does this song really mean?" question answered to my satisfaction, I came across this video.

Then again I must confess that I find this "official" answer more convincing than Mr. Joel's.

As for the lines "Laura/ Calls me/ When she needs a good fix", I'm guessing we should not take that line too literally. Billy Joel never seemed like he was that plausible a drug dealer -- even in the context of the song -- and while I suppose a more charitable interpretation would have him being Laura's Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, that does not quite ring true either. Then again that just could be my own anti-drug biases speaking since I never played those roles with any of the Lauras in my life. For that matter, I never considered my own mother to be a Laura but that's a subject for another day.