My best friend used to play this on our school piano while we ate our lunch, but I never heard the lyrics until years later. I happened to play it late at night, a few months after a very complicated, painful breakup. I was stopped dead because the girl in the song reminded me very much of my ex. She was a little hot-tempered, but she had an enigmatic and irresistible charm. I was drawn to her in a way I could never explain.
This song held a mirror up to me, and showed me that I was responsible for the death of the relationship. I’d never been in love before, and tried to constrain her to my blinkered idea of how I thought a partner should behave, stripping her of her personality. I realised much too late that I’d been the selfish one.
This is obviously Billy Joel’s best song, but it’s always a difficult listen for me. Hearing it forces me to wonder how different my life would be now had I given her more room to be herself.
My best friend used to play this on our school piano while we ate our lunch, but I never heard the lyrics until years later. I happened to play it late at night, a few months after a very complicated, painful breakup. I was stopped dead because the girl in the song reminded me very much of my ex. She was a little hot-tempered, but she had an enigmatic and irresistible charm. I was drawn to her in a way I could never explain.
This song held a mirror up to me, and showed me that I was responsible for the death of the relationship. I’d never been in love before, and tried to constrain her to my blinkered idea of how I thought a partner should behave, stripping her of her personality. I realised much too late that I’d been the selfish one.
This is obviously Billy Joel’s best song, but it’s always a difficult listen for me. Hearing it forces me to wonder how different my life would be now had I given her more room to be herself.