Rated +1Â In Zanzibar, Joel uses sporting analogies in talking about life or women, as men often do, especially when hanging around in a bar. We do the same in my country, but here it is cricket and not baseball.Â
So I've only recently discovered who 'Rose' is. Pete Rose was good enough to enter the baseball Hall of Fame until he ruined his chances in a betting scandal about ten years after Joel wrote the song. He signs his autograph "I'm sorry I bet on baseball, Pete Rose". Now Joel has changed the lyric in his live concerts to, "Rose, he knows he'll never reach the Hall of Fame".
He also sometimes changes another line to, "She's waiting out in Shantytown. She's gonna pull her panties down for me," which makes it pretty clear where the thrust of the song is heading.
I object to someone earlier suggesting that Joel doesn't care too much about his lyrics since he writes the music first. Most Joel fans think his lyrics are great. Writing the music before the lyrics is just how it works best for him. Â
If you look at his early stuff (e.g. Summer Highland Falls) you'll see when he tried to do it the traditional way, and it came out a bit cheesy.
52nd Street is just about my favourite music album. I think it won the Grammy for best album that year. In Zanzibar he throws in an unusual augmented 5th chord (music theorists can help me out here). He does the same for one or two other songs on the album, such as 'Rosalinda's Eyes'. I suppose anyone can throw In an unusual chord, but Joel showed his music mastery in mixing those ingredients to create a distinctive new flavour and win a swag of new fans along with that Grammy.  Â
@DanSmerengue I always thought of the "panties" line in my head lol. I figured he must have cleaned up the obvious rhyme for the record. Glad to see it's not just me being perverted, lol.
@DanSmerengue I always thought of the "panties" line in my head lol. I figured he must have cleaned up the obvious rhyme for the record. Glad to see it's not just me being perverted, lol.
Rated +1Â In Zanzibar, Joel uses sporting analogies in talking about life or women, as men often do, especially when hanging around in a bar. We do the same in my country, but here it is cricket and not baseball.Â
So I've only recently discovered who 'Rose' is. Pete Rose was good enough to enter the baseball Hall of Fame until he ruined his chances in a betting scandal about ten years after Joel wrote the song. He signs his autograph "I'm sorry I bet on baseball, Pete Rose". Now Joel has changed the lyric in his live concerts to, "Rose, he knows he'll never reach the Hall of Fame".
He also sometimes changes another line to, "She's waiting out in Shantytown. She's gonna pull her panties down for me," which makes it pretty clear where the thrust of the song is heading.
I object to someone earlier suggesting that Joel doesn't care too much about his lyrics since he writes the music first. Most Joel fans think his lyrics are great. Writing the music before the lyrics is just how it works best for him.  If you look at his early stuff (e.g. Summer Highland Falls) you'll see when he tried to do it the traditional way, and it came out a bit cheesy.
52nd Street is just about my favourite music album. I think it won the Grammy for best album that year. In Zanzibar he throws in an unusual augmented 5th chord (music theorists can help me out here). He does the same for one or two other songs on the album, such as 'Rosalinda's Eyes'. I suppose anyone can throw In an unusual chord, but Joel showed his music mastery in mixing those ingredients to create a distinctive new flavour and win a swag of new fans along with that Grammy.  Â
@DanSmerengue I always thought of the "panties" line in my head lol. I figured he must have cleaned up the obvious rhyme for the record. Glad to see it's not just me being perverted, lol.
@DanSmerengue I always thought of the "panties" line in my head lol. I figured he must have cleaned up the obvious rhyme for the record. Glad to see it's not just me being perverted, lol.