Top Ten 1973 Songs: Captain Jack (#6)

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The VA appointment went great today. They’ll call me with my colonoscopy appointment in a few days. That’ll give you a crappy outlook on life. What won’t be so bad is another great song from 1973. Here’s a 50-year-old tune to start the weekend off. #6: Captain Jack - Billy Joel My favorite Billy Joel song is fifty! Ouch! Back in the 70s they didn’t have videos, so the songwriters had to write visual tunes. And boy, did Billy Joel hit the nail on the head here! He said he was inspired to write this when he lived in a poorer part of New York City in the early 70s. He said he could look out of his apartment window and see people from “the suburbs” and the fancy parts of the city coming into the area to buy drugs. it made him wonder, as he says in this song, “what went wrong” in their lives. If you’ve never heard this song (what’s wrong with you!! Just kidding), it’s brutal and not for the squeamish. “Just the Way You Are,” it ain’t. It’s dirty and gritty, “like some pornographic magazine,” as Joel walks through a 21-year-old’s search for a heroin fix. You might not know that Joel had a song like this in him. Oh, yeah, he did. Captain Jack Written by Billy Joel Recorded by Billy Joel From Piano Man, 1973 So you play your albums: