A Minor Variation

What, nobody's commented to this song yet? It's my favorite song from the River of Dreams CD... I suppose the meaning is about feeling bad is something we all go through, but it'll go away soon (but I'm not sure, really...)

My interpretation is that Billy Joel is saying that the difference between moods weather very happy or really down, like the speaker in this song, is only a minor variation. He is saying that your always yourself but your mood is what varies; so, if the speaker doesn't seem like himself it not a complete change but just a minor variation.

Seems to be that Mr. Joel is coming to terms with his life long battle with depression and understanding how to deal with it (although the foreshadowing of his self-medication (pass the wine) is creepy.

It's my 2nd favourite BJ song. I can so relate to this feeling. And "pass me the wine" doesn't have to mean he needs to drink to feel better, wine also stands for relaxing, enjoying...

So, let me relax, it's just a minor variation is probably the meaning, but Pass me the wine sounds way cool :-)

There's an underlying musical pun here, too:

Basic theory rundown: the most common two scales in Western music are the major and minor scales. Songs written in major keys tend to be described as positive or light--not always, but generally speaking. Think of "Only the Good Die Young" or "Uptown Girl"--or most pop music, really. Minor keys are often described as sad, somber, haunting, or dark. It's less common for a pop song to be wholly in a minor key; minor tonality in pop music is usually used to provide contrast to the rest of the song: "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" is primarily minor up until the car-revving part at the end, and the moody-sounding piano interlude in "Piano Man" is minor, while the rest of the song trends towards major.

The lyrics make reference to a "sad composition" (probably referring to this song, which is likely in a minor key, too), and a "blue situation"--the blues scale, which most blues musicians base their solos on, is a variation on the minor pentatonic scale. And in classical music, variations are when a part is repeated, but altered during the repetitions; so, a minor variation would sound familiar, but darker than its major counterpart. The lyrics indicate that, like a musical variation, this is an ongoing and recurring thing ("ain't nothing new," "more of the same thing," "it's just a part of the pattern," "it's not as though I don't know the condition").

So he's saying both that it's just a slight (minor) change (variation) in his condition, and that he's in a dark, brooding, minor-keyed mood, and a recurring one at that.