I think that Billy Joel is one of the greatest songwriters in modern American pop music. Joel stands along with Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Brown, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Smokey Robinson, and Bruce Springsteen. Of course your list may vary.
My favorite Billy Joel song? Summer Highland Falls, from his Turnstiles album released in 1976.
At Joel’s 2008 Shea Stadium concert he introduced the song as being, “for all the manic-depressives out here tonight.” Why? Because according to Joel, he wrote the music “to reflect the highs and lows of manic depression.” As he put it, the reference is not just in the lyrics but also the rising and falling arpeggios that make up the melody.
According to Songfacts: “The song has a musical piano theme: the left hand plays the depression part, going slowly up and down, while the right hand is the manic part, playing a bouncy bit.”
The song opens with a line that could be a simple distillation of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities:
“They say that these are not the best of times, they’re the only times I’ll ever know.”
While Joel may have written this song to describe a particular medical condition, I think it’s also a perfect description of the times we’re living in. What’s more, the more I listen to the words, the more I see the similarities.
“Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity. Our reason coexists with our insanity.”
Think about the news these days. Regardless of which end of the seesaw you’re sitting on, there’s a good chance you believe you are thinking reasonably and the people who disagree with you are insane.
Pick a side:
Global warming is real. Global warming is a hoax.
Masks are required for public safety. Masks are an infringement on your rights.
Racism is systemic. Racism is an excuse.
Whatever you believe, you believe it with all your heart and no one is going to change your mind. This phenomenon was neatly summed up in the 1945 periodical Advertising & Selling, “My mind is made up. Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
Or, as Billy Joel put it, “So we’ll argue and we’ll compromise, and realize that nothing’s ever changed.”
Thomas Friedman discussed this idea in August ninth’s New York Times, “If you believe that climate change is real, it must be because someone paid you off with a research grant. If you believe the president committed an impeachable offense trying to enlist the president of Ukraine to undermine Joe Biden, it’s only because you want power for your party.”
Billy Joel explained it in 1976:
“For all our mutual experience, our separate conclusions are the same.”
Friedman again, “…there is no center, there are only sides; there’s no truth, there are only versions; there are no facts, there’s only a contest of will.”
Yes or no? Good or bad? Black or white? Up or down? Right or wrong? Democrat or Republican? Bi-Polar disease or today’s global reality?
Go listen to Summer Highland Falls again or for the first time.
You’ll see that just as Joel summed up almost 50 years ago:
“Though we choose between reality and madness, it’s either sadness or euphoria.”
Spot on Bruce spot on and thanks for bringing this song to my attention.
As a board member of an organization called WOW that supports the special needs population, this post is ever more relevant.
Thanks for your weekly reflections that bring so much to light !
Thank you Henry!
Bruce – I love this post. So true, I was thinking today how sad it is that I people I love – family members – we cannot speak about this because our “sources” give us such different views of the world. I talk comfort in believing that I trust our journey, and we will find the path forward.
Thank you Medidith.
Bruce, as a guy who grew up on Long Island, just a stone’s throw from Cold Spring Harbor (ring a bell?), I’ve always been a huge fan of Billy Joel. Whenever I’ve requested my faviorite Billy Joel song, “Summer Highland Falls,” most can’t play it, even Billy Joel tribute bands. I’ve always loved the piano line and the music, but tried not to think about the lyrics because they’re a tad depressing. However, you’ve put it into a different perspective for me. The song is about now and the dichotomy of choices where people cling unyieldingly to each. I’ll never listen to the song the same way again. Now I love it even more, because I see its relevance. Thank you.
Oyster Bay?
Great taste in music, though I would add a few, i.e. Lennon & McCartney, and a few others. But, I do love Billy Joel and I had actually forgotten about this song. Yes, love it and ever so relevant today. Love that your blog really give one something to think about. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Of course I agree with you about Lennon & McCartney 100% Cheryl. That’s why I was so careful to include the word “American” in my description.
Thank you for weighing in.
My favorite Billy song as well! Interesting analysis. I need to listen again. Great job!
Thank you David.
WOW!! You got that right! One thing I noticed after seeing a friend from the opposite party melt down right before my eyes a few months ago – she feels her feelings as strongly as I feel mine. In the flash of an instant as she stood in my kitchen and cried I knew we felt the same pain. She looked at it from her “side” and me from mine and we were both horrified by what was happening.
It was that day that I realized that the one thing I wanted to feel, moving forward, was compassion. We are all in pain somehow, we are all watching our vision of how we want the world to be desecrated before our eyes.
This whole situation has forced me to go deeper – into myself. That’s a good thing as I learn to find my center inside, to find my peace and my happiness inside.
Thank you JoAnna.
I find that it helps me, whenever confronted by an intransigent idiot, to say to myself “You’re entitled to your wrong opinion” while hoping he or she is thinking the same thing.