45. Bruce Springsteen - Lost in the Flood





(epic live version)

"And there's nothin' left but some blood where the body fell, that is, nothin' left that you could sell
Just junk all across the horizon, a real highwayman's farewell"

Springsteen's first album "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" is his most Dylan inspired, at time stuffing more lyrics and poetic ambitions into the song than they're meant to fit. On some days it feels like the best thing he's done. The gem of the album for me is "Lost in the Flood", a densely lyrical song about America (basically one of the closest things to a song version of "The Wire") containing the downfall of several characters due to post Vietnam drug addiction, a motorcycle crash or being shot down by cops. Either way they all end up in the same place, lost in the flood due to their own self-destruction. I used to think the song was more literal and about a shootout all happening on the same street which made me like it more, but even if it's not it may as well be figuratively. Perhaps one of the reasons I thought this was the use of a mysterious first person narrator such as "He lays on the street holding his leg, screaming something in Spanish, still breathing when I walked away" or "And I said, "Hey kid, you think that's oil? Man, that ain't oil, that's blood. I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm, or was he just lost in the flood?" The song is meant to be a larger metaphor, yet the presence of an observer close enough to talk to those in the action or hear their breaths makes it seem more real, or represents the rest of humanity's roles as observers to their destruction

Entering the least snob friendly part of the list. I admit a part of me wondered if they were really top 50 songs over more masterpiece-y feeling ones that didn't make the list like Space Oddity or Take This Waltz, but there's nothing I value more than connecting to something and listening to it a lot, and that's what I got out of them. Sometimes the heart is the best quality detector, the brain gets distracted easier

So far the only good one has been "Karma Police".

List so far: C-

How close-minded of you.

But the 2 songs before and after, not really my thing.

Springsteen on the other hand, is great, but Lost in the Flood wouldn't feature in my top list, the live version ups the song a bit too indeed.

Yes, of course. Thanks for pointing that out. It naturally has nothing to do with the fact Karma Police is a great song. I'm sure most of the songs to follow would go straight into your Top 50 with you being so open minded. You should re-do it after everyone is done. You might get a decent list next time.

Ooh, catty.

Yesterday was a slow day, I just worked too many days in a row and had to decompress, I'll move through them pretty quick now

44. J. Cole - Born Sinner



"Ducking calls from my mother for days
Sometimes she hate the way she raised me but she love what she raised”

The track I keep coming back to from one of my favorite modern day rappers. I love the production on this song, the piano, bass and other instruments (keyboard?) in the background is beautiful combined with the chorus and his natural flow. Cole is introspective about his life, career, mother, girlfriend, lack of father, black community, church he didn’t go to enough, etc. often in just a few words at a time. His emotion and honesty while singing them helps sell it.

43. Macklemore - Cowboy Boots



"Hindsight is vibrant, reality: rarely lit
Memory's a collage pasted with glue that barely sticks"

Macklemore is nostalgic for his early 20s life revolving around the bar and his friends, in the time period when you they were no longer a teenager but not ready to become an adult yet. More complex than just treating his past as perfect, Cowboy Boots is about passage of time and memory giving you rose coloured glasses. Macklemore makes it clear elsewhere on the album he was an alcoholic making it the worst of times as much as the best, but the friends and girlfriends he met and lost during the struggle to grow up, no doubt fighting their own battle at the time, are all the more meaningful and pure to him.

42. Ke$ha - Party at a Rich Dude’s House



"Cigar in the caviar, come on let's do it"

My favorite song from Ke$ha is one of her most simple, an infectious hedonistic anthem she was put on this earth to write. The guitar riff plays a key role in the song’s catchiness, and the chorus bops too hard. The song just feels energetic, like the singer is truly excited to go get blackout wasted and embrace their youth, at least for the night before they have to go back to being broke and a real adult.

41. The Killers - Losing Touch



"I'm in no hurry, you go run
And tell your friends I'm losing touch”

The standout track from the Killers Day & Age for me, I was initially drawn to the strange and dark lyrics of a man who seems to be telling another “Go ahead, tell everyone I’m doomed, sold my soul and losing touch”. Both the upbeat style of the song and words like “I’m in no hurry” “Fill the night with stories, the legend grows" seems like he’s sarcastically taunting the other person for believing all this is true, but perhaps it’s denial, and perhaps he wants them to go talk. Brandon Flowers voice is perfect for this possibly doomed and not letting it on protagonist or not, and the song is highly catchy with strong use of horns and bass line.

40. Taylor Swift - All Too Well



"But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
'Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me
You can't get rid of it 'cause you remember it all too well, yeah"

Taylor Swift’s best song is a simple ballad about remembering a past love. Little pieces of memory stick out to her, his scarf, little moments in the car, looking at a photo album. But the song is bittersweet and remembers that these two people are broken up and there’s an edge to their relationship. She talks about he specifically was the one that tore up their masterpiece, or the verse "Hey, you call me up again just to break me like a promise/So casually cruel in the name of being honest./I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here/'Cause I remember it all, all, all... too well.” There was good, there was bad and she remembers it all too well, and hopefully so does he.

39. The Beatles - A Day in the Life



"He blew his mind out in a car;
He didn't notice that the lights had changed”

Perhaps the Beatles most memorable line is “I read the news today, oh boy”, turning seemingly mundane into brilliant because of Lennon’s haunting vocal performance and the general vibe of the song that puts you in this otherworldly state. The song is truly a journey from the first part’s awareness of mortality and social issues, to McCartney’s section showing how hard the everyday bustle of life can pull you away from it. Small instrumental things in this song add to it like the piano keys or the Lost plane crash-like disorientating sound before the shift to the McCartney part. The title of the song A Day in the Life describes it, as it's a day in the life of our society.

38. Bruce Springsteen - The Wrestler



”Have you ever seen a one-armed man punching at nothing but the breeze?
If you've ever seen a one-armed man then you've seen me”

Bruce’s accompanying ballad was a perfect fit to the Mickey Rourke film, describing a broken and bruised man who’s spent his life and blood trying to make people smile but now realizes his gas tank is nearing empty. The imagery is great in this song, the scarecrow with nothing but dust, the one armed man punching, the man standing at every door, the man who makes you smile when his blood hits the floor. The piano and guitar and vocals work great.

37. Joni Mitchell - All I Want



"Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue”

The opening track to one of the best albums of all time, in it Joni wants many things at once, to love, to be loved, to be stronger, to be able to have more fun, to be more free. The relationship she sings about has both love and hurt and the song transitions between both as is true to life. The guitar is wonderful is the song, and her vocals play an integral song in making it feel like it’s straight from the heart or the mind.

36. 2pac - Life Goes On



"Be a lie if I told you that I never thought of death
My n*gga, we the last ones left”

In Life Goes On, 2pac pours out some liquor for the homies he’s lost to death or jail and foreshadows his own end. The subject of mourning a lost rapper is hardly unique, but by singing the song with love in his voice it makes the song, makes lines like "Remember gaming on dumb hotties at yo’ parties/Me and you, no truer two/While scheming on hits/And getting tricks that maybe we can slide into” more affecting than you would expect. The song extends not just to the death but those in jail. The backing female vocals add a lot to the song.

35. Macklemore - My Oh My



"I don't really collect cards anymore, just a box and some old cardboard
Memories embedded in the dust, in the fibres that age just like us”

As a lifelong sports fan, there have been few songs on the subject that matter to me. This is my favorite. Macklemore describes growing up as a Seattle Mariners fan and captures the emotional connection he had to a hero like Griffey, and the mythology and storytelling the team gave him. But what take the song to another level is connecting it to the journey of life itself and trudging through the base paths or mud, and imagery such as the worn out glove or baseball cards in the box collecting dust, representing the passage of time and us. Griffey and his Mariners are long gone, and some day so will we be too.

34. Bruce Springsteen - Gypsy Biker



"We rode into the foothills, Bobby brought the gasoline
We stood around the circle as she lit up the ravine”

One of his late career masterworks, Gypsy Biker builds to a wild intensity thanks to the guitar playing, drumming, piano, organ and emotional vocals. The lyrics appear to be about a soldier, former biker coming back from war in a coffin, while his former friends wait for his body to come home. The last two minutes of the song especially gives me goosebumps including the imagery of the quoted foothills part or “you slipped into your darkness” part.

33. Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard



"Richard, you haven't really changed" I said
It's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head”

This song is beautiful, I love the softness piano and how Joni sings it. But it’s really all about the lyrics and the story of the romantics in it and the disagreement between Joni holding onto hope for romance and Richard becoming jaded and settling. In the end she is still in the dark cafe and lonely like he said she would be while he is married, but she has hope and stayed true to herself, while he sold out and now lives an empty life.

32. The Killers - This River Is Wild



Or should I just get along with myself?
I never did get along with everybody else"

I always enjoyed the riveting speed and energy of this song, matching the imagery of a wild river taking someone forward in life, or things like “run for the hills before they burn". Later on I realized just how complex the lyrics was, containing a mysterious man in red (the devil?) giving advice and then self conflict from the character about how to see the world and to live. Capping it off is a great epilogue where the singer seems more vulnerable than ever saying things like “But there’s something pulling me, the circus and he crew, well they’re just passing through”. This is both a highly enjoyable song to listen to and poetic.

31. Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City



"Everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back”

The catchiest song off his darkest album, it uses the decline of the city to mirror the desperation of the man who has nothing left to lose. The song is about hope, he’s tried getting a real job and doing things the right way out of hope only to lose over and over again. He doesn’t know if everything that dies comes back, but he hopes it. Instrumentally both the guitar and harmonica are used well, and the cries in the background seems to bellow the character's pain.

30. Joni Mitchell - A Case Of You



"Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid”

This song seems to be set after the relationship or almost at the end, Joni makes fun of his Julius Caesar quote and leaves without him to the bar to draw on a coaster. Yet the effects of love and former intoxication are still in her blood and will always be a part of her to an extent. Whether she can drink a whole case of him and still be on her feet means she can’t get enough, or whether it’s because she can no longer get drunk off him any more and has now sobered up and sees what he is, is up for interpretation. I enjoy many little lines in this such as the lonely painter sequence, or the woman who tells her of him be prepared to bleed, and the guitar and singing is beautiful.

29. Bruce Springsteen - Downbound Train



"I rushed through the yard, I burst through the front door
My head pounding hard, up the stairs I climbed
The room was dark, our bed was empty
Then I heard that long whistle whine
And I dropped to my knees, hung my head and cried”

My favorite song off Born in the USA, Downbound Train is a darker song (Both it in and the “Born in the USA” the song were originally written for Nebraska, explaining the latter’s surprisingly depressing lyrics) about a man who’s lost his wife and his job and is haunted in his nightmares of having her leave on the train. Eventually would fate would have it he works on the railroad gang. The imagery is great in the song describing in simple terms how she left, the train metaphor and others like rain. The part of him dreaming she was back and running to her house to not finding her there is heartbreaking. The guitar riff is memorable.

28. ABBA - Another Town, Another Train



"Just another town, another train
Nothing lost and nothing gained"

One of their most underrated songs, Another Town, Another Train is about meeting a lover on the road but running away (similar to “Free Bird”) and using the excuse of being a touring musician, but really because of emotional commitment issues. The person in the song is self-loathing ("A no-good bum like me, to live is to be free”) and thinks his dreams were made of sand and he tries to deny the meaning of their time by saying “Nothing lost and nothing gained” even though they did gain something. I love the line “Lord give my soul a little patience” as well. Both his verses and the chorus are bittersweet. A great simple melodic song.

27. ABBA - When All Is Said and Done



"It's so strange, when you're down, and lying on the floor
How you rise, shake your head, get up and ask for more”

A song with some darkness to it, this appears to be about entering old age whether it means divorce or heading towards death. They are standing at the crossroads, looking to pay the bill, the summer’s over and the dark clouds hide the sun. They are thankful for the fun, but noting that neither of them is to “blame” also shows not everything is perfect. Yet the musical style of the song helps show that this is not just a sad song, but a celebration and a toast to an extent looking back at their life or relationship.

26. The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps



"I don't know why nobody told you
How to unfold your love"

The sound of this song is very cool and unique, I think due to the guitar along with the a great vocal by Harrison. It has one of the best intros of a Beatles song. I see this song as about Harrison believing the world has the potential to love and have greatness in it, but that potential is asleep right now, while he continues to play on.

25. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside



"Centuries are what it meant to me
A cemetery where I marry the sea”

This is a song I’ve been into since I was a kid. It has one of my favorite guitar/bass tracks, the main riff is very memorable and it continues to be key throughout the verses and bridge. The “How long, how long will I slide” emotionally resonates with me, as showing his desperation, but also hope he will stop sliding. Also credit to the awesome music video. Also until I looked it up today I always thought the line was “a cemetery where I married a thief”. That was my favorite line, though it’s still cool with sea.

24. Joni Mitchell - Amelia



"A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly”

Named after Amelia Earhart, the song uses her disappearance but more-so her desire to fly as a metaphor for Joni’s journey travelling while writing this album, and thinking about her past and relationships. The song is very beautiful with the guitar and other instruments in the background, poetic and I always loved the line “Amelia, it was just a false alarm”.

23. John Mellancamp - Jack and Diane



"Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone”

Another song I go back to my childhood with, I love the use of the guitar and piano in this song and the drum or clap or whatever it is. The storytelling in the song is great talking about Jack and Diane as kids but the long after the thrill of living song along with references like James Dean, reveals it’s in the past when the world felt like it was theirs before reality caught up.

22. Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer



"We've gotta hold on to what we've got.
It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not"

Possibly the most fun song to sing along to in history. But not only such a catchy melody, I love the lyrics too. They are about hope, valuing what you’ve got already and how love is all you need. I think that's part of what people have responded to all these years. I enjoy the intro of the song and when you hear it on the radio you always know it's Living on a Prayer. My favorite part of the song the last minute when the chorus kicks into high gear which carries him through to the end, it always gets me emotionally.

21. Tie - Talib Kweli - Get By and I Try



"Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable
Your position is pivotal, I ain't bullshittin you”



"You flirt 'til she came
Nothin' hurt like the pain and torture
Daughters of the dust lookin' for a vein”

I’m cheating to put these both on, because they’re so similar that I actually forgot they were different songs until I started my list already. Both have a sick piano beat (Kanye produced both songs), are about the black community/life and the title is easy to mix up phonetically. I don’t even remember which one I loved more in their time. The last couple years I think I just listened to Get By and I Try memories blended into it

Get By has the standout chorus of the two, I love the "This morning, I woke up/Feeling brand new and I jumped up/Feeling my highs, and my lows/In my soul, and my goals/Just to stop smokin, and stop drinkin/And I've been thinkin - I've got my reasons” sequence, which is something everyone can be inspired by and is beautifully written in general. I Try’s verses stand out to me more, imagery line the crying baby with mustard, “our uniforms are white sneaker sand white t-shirts, on top of wife beaters”, “some people using the noodle some people using the mustard” always stuck out to me. In general they are two of the best rap songs for me due to both the production and message.

This is a damn fine list so far. Love your Joni Mitchell fandom. And, in general, just a nice mix of big, undeniable anthems and less frequently mentioned deeper cuts.

#25 has my approval but the rest is meh. YouTube video overload in this thread.

#22 is a great pick, Bon Jovi just has such a widely accessible sound. This song isn't in my top 2 of theirs, but it's awesome in itself.

Jack and Diane is a nice song too. Talib Kweli on the other hand is not my kind of rap.

And Amelia is alright, I'm not really familiar with Joni Mitchell.

29. Good, but not a remarkable Springsteen.
28. A particular average Abba song.
27. Nice Abba song, you could fill a great album with their best songs and I imagine this one being on it.
26. OK Beatles song.
25. Nice pick, I'm not sure what's my fav. RHCP, Californication perhaps, but they've consistently made great music.

Wow lots of Bruce, you weren't kidding lol. Big props for The Wrestler though, one of his best.

Black mirror is a great opening track indeed.

Mosh is an interesting choice. As you said it was weird for Em to release a political track and even weirder that it had no effect on the politcal landscape. But yeah the beat and video are both very strong.

Karma Police is a classic and a top 5 Radiohead.

Sorry but Im have to take away points for J Cole and Maclemore.

Kesha ive come to like though

Losing Touch is awesome. Its weird that Day and Age was initially an album I was disappointed by but its actually almost flawless. So many great songs on it.

Taylor is the love of my life and Ill fully support any pick of hers.

20. The Killers - Read My Mind



"Oh well I don't mind if you don't mind,
Cause I don't shine if you don't shine”

I see this song as about a relationship where two people were on the same page when they were younger, but as they got older one person starts to have different dreams and anxieties than the other, and now struggling to communicate with her he wishes she could read his mind. A very enjoyable chorus and I enjoy little things like the synth and xylophone in this track. One of the standout songs on an album I blasted.

19. Elton John - Tiny Dancer



"Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand”

One of the Elton John songs I liked the earliest. His melody and the piano parts are beautiful, but this is also one of Bernie Taupin’s best songs, I love some of the lyrics like the ballerina line I quoted, or “count the headlights on the highway”. You can tell the tiny dancer is a romantic in the way she lives her life and that’s why she’s so nice to have around.

18. AFI - Silver and Cold



"As a rapturous voice escapes, I will tremble a prayer
And I'll beg for forgiveness”

The emotion in this song is great thanks to the vocal performance and the guitar riff building up to the intensity. I used to imagine he was saying “love sinks into me” in the chorus, even though deep down I knew he wasn’t, but he might as well be saying it. Much like a song such as Livin on a Prayer or Chop Suey, it feels like the earlier choruses are set up for the last one being the most extended and powerful, I am a fan of that structure when pulled off.

17. Tenacious D - Tribute



"He asked us: "(snort) Be you angels?"
And we said, "Nay. We are but men!”

This song may be intended as a parody of songs like “The Devil Went to Georgia”, but I think a key is the characters in it believe in this ridiculous story just seriously enough. Jack Black’s vocal performance is great doing lines like “Whip crack went his whoopy tail, and the beast was done”, the “We are but men!” part and pulls off the skat section. The guitar is important and fits the cowboy story type of theme perfectly. If the tribute is this song, one must only wonder how great the song they played on that fateful night was.

16. Don McLean - American Pie



"But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step”

Among the most epic lyrical accomplishments in history, American Pie is great not just because of the Dylan-esque symbolism in characters like “Oh and while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown” or “And while Lennon read a book on Marx, the quartet practiced in the park” but I always appreciated that the song’s first person verses making it a more personal and vulnerable song. Such as the feeling that Buddy Holly’s death caused with lines like “I can’t remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride, something touched me deep inside, the day the music died", and “I know that you’re in love with him, cause I saw you dancing in the gym”, and of course the good old boys singing this will be the day that I die. This makes it feel like the singer is personally connected to the loss of Americana, music, or whatever he is singing about. In spite of everything going on lyrically the song manages to be highly catchy too with its great chorus/melody. One of the 5 best written songs in history.

Any pick from Sam's Town would be a great pick. I truly believe that if they weren't that cocky back then and self-proclaimed ST as one of the greatest albums ever and just let it speak for itself it would get rave reviews. Unfortunately there was a slight backlash which you can very much clearly read in most reviews (you can't do critics job for them, they hate that and will bury you for trying) but overall it was still positively received for the most part.

American Pie is great. Always loved that song.

Good pick's from Sam's Town (and Day and Age).

Love that Tenacious D made your top 20. Good pick.

Enjoyable thread.

I prefer Madonna's "American Pie", and Tenacious D have better songs you should've chosen (but still GREAT that they even made your list - I completely forgot them when making mine though not sure if they would have made the Top 50). "The Road" and "Double Team" are excellent songs, and their debut album is by far the funniest album ever made.

Yeah, American Pie is of course a great song!

And Tenacious D is cool, Jack Black is awesome.

15. Elton John - Your Song



"I hope you don't mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world”

One of the most romantic songs, Your Song shows that being able to give love is better than any gift. The line about “If I was a sculptur” etc. shows it’s not just about music but no matter what he had to give he would. The piano in the song is wonderful and Elton’s vocal performance is simple but one of his best. It is of course used in a highly memorable way in Moulin Rouge.

14. 2pac - Changes



"I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself:
"Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?”

My favorite rap song, Bruce Hornby’s piano sample and the great chorus is used beautifully with Pac’s passion. The song understands that the subjects he’s dealing with are complex and have grey area. It’s on the people to start changing and treating each other better instead of just blaming it all on the white man or cops, but while understanding situation and the need to survive makes it hard, such as in the ""I made a G today,”/But you made it in a sleazy way/Selling crack to the kids/"I gotta get paid!”/Well hey, but that's the way it is” line.

13. Bob Dylan - Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right



"I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right”

One of the best relationship songs, the song is bitter and passive aggressive about how she didn’t stand up for the relationship enough, but still feels like one of the most romantic songs out there anyways by the way he sings it and lines in like “But I wish there was something you would do or say” revealing he secretly hoping the light will click on and they will get back together again. The guitar in this song is great, my favorite for a Bob Dylan song.

12. The Killers - For Reasons Unknown



"I said, my heart - it don't beat, it don't beat the way it used to
And my eyes don't recognize you no more”

A great existential song about change and waking up one day and realizing you’re not the same as they younger nostalgia inducing version of you. Describing his eyes, lips and heart as things that aren’t working as well is a nice metaphor for showing even the things that should never ever change about him are becoming foreign. The rhythm and lead guitar parts in this song are great and the organ or whatever it is in the background in the pre chorus adds a nice element to the song. This song has become even more relatable to me in the last year as I went through a minor depressive period and stuff I used to enjoy started to slip away from me, although I am almost back now.

11. The Eagles - Hotel California



"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave”

A no doubter masterpiece. I feel the vocal performance is key to this song making it feel like the protagonist is under the spell of the hotel. The guitar is tremendous and adds to the alluring hotel and vibe the hotel gives you, and is great in both the intro and solo. Of course it’s a lyrically driven song telling the story of the hotel. I know it has deeper meanings, but I like to imagine it’s literal. The intro to the song showing him arriving at the Hotel is great and sets the scene. Literally every verse is highly memorable to me, I can't tell which is my favorite between "Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends/She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends/How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat/Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" or “So I called up the Captain,/"Please bring me my wine"/He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine" or “And in the masters chambers/They gathered for the feast/They stab it with their steely knives/But they just can’t kill the beast”. Then of course the ending I quoted above is a classic and is a better horror movie ending than just about any movie's. A song I have been into since I was a kid.

I love all of the Sam's Town inclusions. For Reasons Unknown is my favorite The Killers track. It was actually written by Flowers about his grandmother's Alzheimer's disease, but the song does work on multiple levels like realizing you are not the same person you once were or like a lover realizing he doesn't have feeling towards his partner anymore...

Changes is of course an awesome song and Hotel California too.

Never been a fan of Elton John, but Your Song is OK, maybe because I love Moulin Rouge! and it's a really great song in that movie.

10. Billy Joel - Piano Man



"He says, "Son can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet
And I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes."

Billy Joel's greatest moment. A wonderful melody and song about people, in Piano Man how everyone has their own problems and feelings of unrealized potential, but can take solace in coming together for a night and listening to the same piano man. Revealing later on that the piano man himself is much like them and stuck at a place he feels he should outdo is a great touch. The verses describing the different patrons and their interacts with the piano man are my favorite, such as the bartender who could be a movie star if he could get out of this place or Davy who's still in the navy. Joel gives one of his best vocal performances and of course the piano part is great in the song, and I love the harmonica addition as well