The Dead covered this song a bunch in the 60’s and I think Pigpen did it equal justice.
RIP Pig.
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I like balladeers. In the 70s I went on a date to a concert in the Special Events Center (remember when it was called that?). We went to see Seals and and Croft, who were pretty hot back then. The opening act was some guy named Billy Joel, who I had never heard of. I sat impatiently with my date, hoping he would not take too long to get through his set. I saw he was just one guy with a grand piano. No band. I rolled my eyes. Then he played “Piano Man.” After he finished there was a few seconds of silence, then the SEC audience erupted. I didn’t even want to listen to Seals & Crofts anymore that night.
Billy wrote 'Piano Man" when he was working in a piano lounge in mid-Los Angeles. He was playing under an assumed name because he was in a fight with his first label and didn’t want anyone to know he was playing publicly in such a venue.
It’s funny that Billy didn’t really think “Piano Man” was a very good song:
“I have no idea why that song became so popular. It’s like a karaoke favorite. The melody is not very good and very repetitious, while the lyrics are like limericks. I was shocked and embarrassed when it became a hit. But my songs are like my kids and I look at that song and think: ‘My kid did pretty well.'”
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Did he play the harmonica part as well?
As I recall, yes, he did. It was fascinating to watch.
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Heres Pigpen with the dead. I think the above show gets a little cumbersome with all the horns and players. This is essential Dead with one drummer. A tighter more agile and uptempo feel
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Out of all of his songs I hate that one the most.
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Wow… Brutal!
I sort of thought it was customary to reward the poster with a star for music you enjoyed, and since this isn’t a political category, silently move on otherwise. .
On the other hand, many years ago I had my favorite Billy Joel song playing on a CD in the car when I offered a ride to the Pastor of my Catholic Parish. I turned the music down so we could talk, but left it on. As a musician, I rarely pay any attention to lyrics or a songs message if it has one, instead, I like or dislike a song based upon it’s musical structure, melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.
Father asked me after a minute if I wouldn’t mind finding something else to listen to.
Only after the fact did I ever pay any attention to anything but the title line.
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I always loved this tune, in both the instrumental and the original vocal versions. 1968 was a great year to be a kid with a transistor radio and an earphone.
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You just triggered a mutual childhod experience; listening to southern and west coast radio on nights when the atmospher allowed the signals to “skip” all the way to Boston.
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About 5 years ago I saw Billy Joel & Elton John in concert together at (what is again called) the Delta Center.
Great show. Legendary talents. Not many duets, they just kind of alternated playing their big hits, which was enough for way over 2 hours. Billy did play harmonica & piano at the same time with a little stand that held the harmonica up where he could play it.
He was pretty funny, looked way up in the rafters at those fans. “Hello, Logan! I see you up there!” (A loud cheer from the folks way up there, they got the joke.)
Great tune. I like to listen to it while traveling down the highway.
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I have a soft spot for Billy Joel. I’m pretty sure his “Greatest Hits” cassette was played on repeat for every single road trip we ever took as kids. Lots of fond family memories around those songs, and I’ll still fire it up in my car when driving around with my kids. Which always gets me really weird looks, considered they’re used to listening to stuff like this.
(History of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem set to middle eastern themed metal…a very cool combination.
Bonus: I got to meet these guys after a show a couple years ago and they were some of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met.)
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Yes. A teenager back then couldn’t turn on the transistor radio, clock radio (remember those?) or car radio for 30 minutes without hearing that tune.
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That’s OK. Philistine opinions about great music are accepted here. 
Seriously, the sheer pathos of that ballad just grabs me every time I hear it. It’s not a happy song, but it is thought-provoking.
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I really have come to like Billy Joel, actually. I just hate that one song. I like this one, and many others.
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Weird Al Yankovic made a fun parody out of that one.
#ItsAllBillyJoelToMe
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Weird Al has done some great stuff over the years, usually of otherwise great tunes, and great bands - my personal favorite is:
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As someone who is entirely out of the loop of popular music, seeing the media reactions and news bits about the Grammys the following day is always kind of hilarious.
Madonna has a new face. ABBA is somehow a thing again. Ben Affleck is every dude at their wife’s work party. Beyonce was…robbed by Harry Styles wearing a sequined jumpsuit? Muse is now somehow “metal”. Something called Sam Smith is corrupting our children with an entirely “satanic” performance (this one was particularly funny to me. 30 seconds of a Belphegor live show would have these people running screaming for the hills. )
Anyhoo, I’ve been digging the new Oak Pantheon album over the past week. This track has some The Ocean mixed with early System of a Down vibes. I dig it.
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I’m not a Metal fan per se… but I like the way you think and write
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This one owns a true place in history, and Black History Month is a great time to recognize it. I have long known about this record, but I had never seen Markham performing the song live until fairly recently when I came across this clip.
In 1968, a well-known old vaudeville showman named Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham recorded Here Comes the Judge. It represented a style of chant, or rap, that had been known for ages in some circles, yet none had ever thought to put it on wax. This music had a mesmerizing prose delivered in a cocky, boastful manner while carrying a socially conscious message. And the rest, as they say, is history…
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