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Rosalinda's Eyes Lyrics
I play nights in the Spanish part of town
I've got music in my hands
The work is hard to find
But that don't get me down
Rosalinda understands
Crazy Latin dancing solo down in Herald Square
Oh Havana I've been searching for you everywhere
And though I'll never be there
I know what I would see there
I can always find my Cuban skies
In Rosalinda's eyes
When she smiles she gives everything to me
When she's all alone she cries
And I'd do anything to take away her tears
Because they're Rosalinda's eyes
Senorita don't be lonely, I will soon be there
Oh Havana I've been searching for you everywhere
I've got a chance to make it
It's time for me to take it
I'll return before the fire dies
In Rosalinda's eyes
All alone in a Puerto Rican band
Union wages, wedding clothes
Hardly anyone has seen how good I am
But Rosalinda says she knows
Crazy Latin dancing solo down in Herald Square
Oh Havana I've been searching for you everywhere
And though I'll never be there
I know what I would see there
I can always find my Cuban skies
In Rosalinda's eyes
I've got music in my hands
The work is hard to find
But that don't get me down
Rosalinda understands
Oh Havana I've been searching for you everywhere
And though I'll never be there
I know what I would see there
I can always find my Cuban skies
In Rosalinda's eyes
When she's all alone she cries
And I'd do anything to take away her tears
Because they're Rosalinda's eyes
Oh Havana I've been searching for you everywhere
I've got a chance to make it
It's time for me to take it
I'll return before the fire dies
In Rosalinda's eyes
Union wages, wedding clothes
Hardly anyone has seen how good I am
But Rosalinda says she knows
Oh Havana I've been searching for you everywhere
And though I'll never be there
I know what I would see there
I can always find my Cuban skies
In Rosalinda's eyes
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Billy Joel wrote this song about his mother.
Are you sure? I don't really see anything in the song that would lean towards that... I'd see it more as a long to his Latin lover. ;-)
Song, sorry
I never really liked this song, until one time I was stuck in traffic in New York City, and it just calmed me down and the song made sense to me in that setting. Now I think of it as underrated Billy Joel song.
I have a live bootleg of him doing this song in Philly, probably 1973, and it is about his mother.
Yep, I also read in his biography that he wrote it for his mother.
Yep, I also read in his biography that he wrote it for his mother.
This is a great song, but Billy does not play it live and it is not played on the radio anymore. I don't recall if it was released as a single, but it did get some airplay when 52nd Street was released. Billy has said it is the song that his dad would have or should have written about his mother, Rosalind. His parents, Howard and Rosalind (not Rosalinda), did live in Cuba for awhile, or at least one of them did, before immigrating to the US. They are ethnically Jewish and German I believe (definitely not Cuban). Now, that said, it's not a biography by any means. Billy' dad did not play in a Puerto Rican band, though he was a talented pianist.
The sentiment behind the song is beautiful. Here is a talented guy, trying to make it as a musician, but he can only get gigs at weddings or for "union wages". But Rosalinda gives him the strength and inspiration to keep trying. He yearns for his homeland or the homeland of his parents, or perhaps more accurately for a "home", and while he may never get there, he can see it in Rosalinda's eyes.
I think today, as we are more politicaly correct, some people might cringe at or be upset at the "Crazy Latin" reference, but at the time it was probably not as offensive.