"But still I feel I've said too much / my silence is my self defense."
Damned if ya' do, damned if ya' dont.
Ever find yourself heading home late at night with a police officer driving right down the road behind you? Inexplicably (and yet without fail) -- that old "Oh my God, what have I done wrong?" instinct kicks in, and you find yourself overcorrecting at every turn.
Such is the story of the Piano Man in this, arguably one of the few truly great songs on his (regrettably) uneven "Greatest Hits: Volume 3" collection.
By way of an extended metaphor of every heart being a series of rooms in which people build themselves an inner sanctum while past lovers come and go, Billy Joel paints for us a picture of a guy -- let's call him "Billy" -- who's finding it hard to figure out just how far to let somebody in when it comes to romance. Don't believe me? Just ask him:
"In every heart, there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds of lovers past
Until a new one comes along."Damn -- this guy's puttin' up some serious walls.
But really, who can blame him? When you've had as many ex-wives and alimony payments as The Entertainer, it's only natural to keep those Uptown Girls at something of an arm's distance whilst you sing us a song and drown your sorrows in a bottle of red (...a bottle of white).
(Yup, that's four -- count 'em, FOUR -- Billy Joel jokes in one sentence. Boo ya).
Let's be honest here: if you got dumped by *THIS*? You'd drink, too.
Boozy meanderings not withstanding -- the gist of the piece rings loud and clear: Billy doesn't quite know what to do or say when those familiar feelings of love start bubbling right back on up to the surface, and so he chooses to keep his mouth shut altogether. For (in his own words) "my silence is my self defense."
Not the worst play in the world -- well, until we get to this fun little wrinkle right here:
But if my silence made you leave...
Then *that* would be my worst mistake."Oh snap.
So *talking* didn't get the job done, but now poor old Billy boy is right back on the outside looking in simply because he WASN'T talking? Hey, that sounds an awful lot like...
"He who hesitates is lost."- Joseph Addison, "Cato" (1712)
Moral of the story?
While there's certainly merit to letting your heart "heal the wounds of lovers past / until a new one comes along," it looks as if Billy Joel's doleful ballad is a pretty solid example that there's also something to be said for striking while the iron's hot.
Or as that unrepentant ass clown* Oliver Cromwell once said:
"Not ONLY strike while the iron is hot... but make it hot by striking!"
*(re: "unrepentant ass clown" -- Look, the guy killed my ancestors by the thousands. Clearly, name-calling is well within the realm of appropriate recourse).
