Billy Joel
The Nylon Curtain (1982)
1. Allentown
2. Laura
3. Pressure
4. Goodnight Saigon
5. She's Right on Time
6. A Room of Our Own
7. Surprises
8. Scandinavian Skies
9. Where's the Orchestra?
Allentown
(Billy Joel)
Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay
Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
And chromium steel
And we're waiting here in Allentown
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
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
And it's getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Allentown
Laura
(Billy Joel)
Laura
Calls me
In the middle of the night
Passes on her
Painful information
Then these careless fingers
They get caught in her vice
Til they're bleeding
On my coffee table
Living alone isn't all that
It's cracked up to be
I'm on her side
Why does she push the poison on me?
Laura
Has a very hard time
All her life has
Been one long disaster
Then she tells me
She suddenly believes she's seen
A very good sign
She'll be taking
Some aggressive action
I fight her wars
While she's slamming her doors
In my face
Failure to break
Was the only mistake
That she made
Here I am
Feeling like a f***ing fool
Do I react the way exactly
She intends me to?
Everytime I think I'm off the hook
She makes me lose my cool
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
And she can push any button I was programmed through
Laura
Calls me
When she needs a good fix
All her questions
Will get sympathetic answers
I should
Be so
Immunized
To all of her tricks
She's surviving
On her second chances
Sometimes I feel like this
Godfather deal is all wrong
How can she hold an umbilical chord
For so long?
I've done everything I can
What else am I supposed to do
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
And she can push any button
I was programmed through
Laura
Loves me
Even if I don't care
That's my problem
That's her sacred absolution
If she had to
She would put herself in my chair
Even though I
Faced electrocution
She always says
I'm the best friend that
She's ever had
How do you
Hang up on someone
Who needs you that bad?
Pressure
(Billy Joel)
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
You used to call me paranoid
Pressure
But even you cannot avoid
Pressure
You turned the tap dance into your crusade
Now here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle
Pressure
All grown up and no place to go
Psych 1, Psych 2
What do you know?
All your life is channel 13
Sesame Street
What does it mean?
(I'll tell you what it means)
Pressure
Pressure
Don't ask for help
You're all alone
Pressure
You'll have to answer
To your own
Pressure
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
But here you are in the ninth
Two men out and three men on
Nowhere to look but inside
Where we all respond to
Pressure
Pressure
All your life is Time Magazine
I read it too
What does it mean?
Pressure
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
But here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle
Pressure
Pressure
Pressure
One, two, three, four
Pressure
Goodnight Saigon
(Billy Joel)
We met as soul mates
On Parris Island
We left as inmates
From an asylum
And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho
To lay down our lives
We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy
But our bellies were tight
We had no home front
We had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy
They gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ
With all of our might
We had no cameras
To shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe
And played our Doors tapes
And it was dark
So dark at night
And we held on to each other
Like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we'd write
And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together
Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre
And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight
We held the day
In the palm
Of our hand
They ruled the night
And the night
Seemed to last as long as six weeks
On Parris Island
We held the coastline
They held the highlands
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive
And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together
She's Right on Time
(Billy Joel)
Turn on all the Christmas lights
Cause baby's coming home tonight
I can hear her footsteps in the street
Turn the choral music higher
Pile more wood upon the fire
That should make the atmosphere complete
I've had to wait forever
But better late than never
She's just in time for me
She's right on time
She's right where she should be
She's right on time
I'm a man with so much tension
Far too many sins to mention
She don't have to take it anymore
But since she said she's coming home
I've torn out all my telephones
Soon she will be walking through that door
I may be going nowhere
But I don't mind if she's there
She's just in time for me
She's right on time
She's right where she should be
She's right on time
Left to my own device
I can always make believe
That there's nothing wrong
Still I will choose to live
In the complicated world
That we shared for so long
Good or bad, right or wrong
And it occurred to me
While I set up my Christmas tree
She never missed a cue or lost a beat
Everytime I lost the meter
There she was when I would need her
Greeting me with footsteps in the street
I guess I should have known it
She'd find the perfect moment
She's just in time for me
She's right on time
She's right where she should be
She's right on time
Turn the choral music higher
Pile more wood upon the fire
That will make the atmosphere complete
I've had to wait forever
But better late than never
She's just in time for me
She's right on time
She's right where she should be
She's right on time
She's right on time
She's right on time
A Room of Our Own
(Billy Joel)
You've got diamonds and
I've got spades
You've got pills
And I've got razor blades
You've got yoga honey
I've got beer
You got overpriced
And I got weird
But it's alright
We're the same even though we're alone
It's alright
Yes we all need a room of our own
You've got love, darlin'
I've got sex
You've got cash, mama
And I've got checks
You've got business, baby
I've got the kids
You got crowded just the way I did
But it's alright
Cause we all need a place to call home
It's alright
Yes we all need a room of our own
I can still remember packed together
Like a can of sardines
No, no, no
Pushin', shovin'
That's when lovin'
Starts to come apart at the seams
Oh no, no, no, no
You've got the day shift
I've got nights
We go wrong at times
But we've got rights
You've got TV shows
I've got crime
But you've got your room honey
And I've got mine
It's alright
It's the one thing that we should have known
Yes, it's alright
Yes, we all need a room of our own
And it's alright
Yes we all need a place to call home
It's alright
It's alright
To have a room of your own
No, no, no, it's alright
Yeah it's alright mama
To have a room of our own
Sometimes you've got to get away
Got to get away
Got to get away
Got to get away to a room of our own
Got to have a room
Got to have a little elbow room of my own
Surprises
(Billy Joel)
Don't get excited
Don't say a word
Nobody noticed
Nothing was heard
It was committed discreetly
It was handled so neatly
And it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
Break all the records
Burn the cassettes
I'd be lying if I told you
That I had no regrets
There were so many mistakes
And what a difference it makes
But still it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
I said it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
Don't look now but you have changed
Your best friends wouldn't tell you
Now it's apparent
Now it's a fact
So marshal your forces
For another attack You were so young and naive
I know it's hard to believe
But now it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
No it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
What has it cost you
What have you won
The sins of the fathers
Are the sins of the sons
It was always within you
It will always continue
But it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
I said it shouldn't surprise you at all
You know
Scandinavian Skies
(Billy Joel)
The sins of Amsterdam
Were still a recent surprise
And we were flying over
Scandinavian skies
We climbed towards the sun
We turned and cursed as one
We pulled the shades
And closed our eyes
The Stockholm city lights
Were slowly starting to rise
And we were strapped against
Those Scandinavian skies
The landing gear came down
And touched the Swedish ground
And we were all so paralyzed
On the plane
We were mainly sound and lights
In the veins
We could play the blues all night
The tour of Germany
Was bleeding into our eyes
And we were sailing over
Scandinavian skies
We had the Midas touch
Until we met the Dutch
And they exhausted our supplies
Who's to pay?
For this international flight
Who could stay
We were only there for the night
We watched the power fall
Inside the Oslo hall
While all the cold Norwegians cried
Who could say
What was left and where was right?
By the way
I could play the blues all night
Where's the Orchestra?
(Billy Joel)
Where's the orchestra?
Wasn't this supposed to be a musical?
Here I am in the balcony
How the hell could I have missed the overture?
I like the scenery
Even though I have absolutely no
Idea at all
What is being said
Despite the dialogue
There's the leading man
The movie star who never faced an audience
Where's the orchestra?
After all
This is my big night on the town
My introduction to the theatre crowd
I assumed that the show would have a song
So I was wrong
At least I understand
All the innuendo and the irony
And I appreciate
The roles the actors played
The point the author made
And after the closing lines
And after the curtain calls
The curtain falls
On empty chairs
Where's the orchestra?