Vienna

Honestly Such a Gem

Vienna by Billy Joel

Recommended by Skye

"Sorta sage advice. Tugs on me heartstrings a little."

Real talk about the "sage advice." It was hard to pick a favorite line from this song because Joel is out there dropping T bombs all over the place.

You better cool it off before you burn it out.

Slow down, you're doing fine.
You can't be everything you wanna be before your time.

Don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true.

This is a guy who's got it all figured out.

But, okay, it wasn't always like that. Joel actually wrote this song about a time when he went to visit his estranged father 15 years after he took off to Austria when Joel was 8 years old (x).

The song's not about his father, though.

When Joel went to visit his dad in Vienna, they watched an elderly woman, maybe 90 years old, outside sweeping the sidewalk. Joel commented that it was sad for such an old lady to be put to work like that. His father replied, "No, it isn't. She's being useful...she's happy...she's not just sitting at home wasting away, and she's got dignity" (x).

So Joel wrote this song, really, about the "observation that you have your whole life to live" (x). Contrary to U.S. pop culture, life doesn't end at 30 or 40 years old:

We treat old people in this country pretty badly. We put them in rest homes, we kinda kick them under the rug and make believe they don't exist. They [the people in Vienna] don't feel like that. In a lot of these older places in the world, they value their older people and their older people feel they can still be a part of the community and I thought, "This is a terrific idea - that old people are useful - and that means I don't have to worry so much about getting old because I can still have a use in this world in my old age." I thought, "Vienna waits for you..." - Billy Joel (source)

I like that the song is in Joel's classic style. There's a little percussion and a hint of harmonica, but the track is largely based upon smooth and steady vocals over a piano. It's a sleek and sophisticated combination that lends an extra level of authority to the excellent advice.

It's some seriously easy listening, and I mean that in the best way.

I can't help but believe this guy has his life perfectly together. Somehow, I'm not put off by the way he kind of talks down to the listener because I want him to tell me what to do. Teach me your ways.

The song was used, quite appropriately, in the soundtrack for 13 Going On 30, and there's a good cover by Miss Ariana Grande that you can listen to here. (It's an old video, so she hadn't reached her full potential yet, but it's still pretty good.)

Overview:

Genre:
Pop Rock

Favorite Lyrics:
You can get what you want,
or you can just get old.

Verdict:
another hit from the piano man himself