THE PIANO MAN

A lyrical analysis by Krisha Kalsi

It has become a part of ‘Shuffles’ implies the heavy, lumbering walk of the crowd as though
their routine- to come to they were dragging their feet with great effort. This implies that the
the bar to drink and dance burden of expectations, jobs, unfulfilled desires, and regrets is
their sorrows away; weighing over them.
perpetuates how the sense
of sorrow is deeply-rooted
in the generation’s daily
lives. It’s 9 o’clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There’s an old man sitting next to
me
Making love to his tonic & gin
Wooing, embracing or Lonely to such an extent that his
kissing a loved one alcohol has become his lover; his life
(archaic English); is devoid of a romantic companion
passionate act.
 “playing a memory” as though it were a melody.
The particular old song takes him back to a time
i c t on e he treasures and wants to experience again.
Nost al g

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"
Longs for his youth; reminiscent of a
Alliteration paired with juxtaposition shows
time when he perhaps abandoned an
how vivid this memory was and how he’d like
opportunity that he now regrets
to experience this exciting rollercoaster of
emotions again in his now dull life.
The repeated use of collective The use of the word ‘tonight’
pronouns brings about a sense of emphasizes the people’s choice to live in
togetherness amongst the crowd the moment and not think about
despite their loneliness tomorrow’s worries

Sing us a song, you're the piano

man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a
melody
And you've got us feelin' alright
Merely feeling ‘alright’ seems to satisfy the
previously dejected audience. This specific
word choice over ‘good’ shows how low their
expectations of happiness are.
 Quick to serve the customers at the bar and make them
have a good time. Consequently, disregarding his own
The act of running happiness.
is a personification
for his lively façade Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
that disappears
immediately when He gets me my drinks for free
he turns his back And he's quick with a joke or to light up It isn’t his choice to
away form the be at the bar but
customers. your smoke rather an obligation
But there's someplace that he'd rather be perhaps due to
financial concerns.
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing
me"
Skilled at
As the smile ran away from his face pretending
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie
star
The verb ‘could’ here is used to indicate Doesn’t even utter the name of the place,
If Ia could get out of this
annoyance at something that is only place"
showing his shame and contempt for the bar
possibility. that he waste his life at
 A writer who also works in real estate. Paul’s passion is
perhaps writing, but his job is of a real estate broker. He is
unwilling to give up his aspirations of writing a novel and
thus introduced himself as a novelist at the bar
It is ironical that he
never had time for a
wife as he is whiling
away time at the bar
Now Paul is a real estate novelist
instead of looking for Who never had time for a wife
a significant other.
And he's talkin' with Davy, who's
still in the Navy
And probably will be for life Recurring theme of
stagnancy in Davy’s
life
Davy is comfortable with his job, and
doesn’t have an ambitious disposition
due to which he will choose to stay
in his comfort zone for his entire life.
The waitress is being skilfully diplomatic while handling of the customers. She is being
nice to the patrons, simply deflecting flirtatious comments and jokes with laughs so as to
not offend them. She isn’t sincere. She is playing nice with a financial benefit in mind as
the patrons are likely to order more frequently and she will be paid more.

And the waitress is practicing

politics
As the businessmen slowly get
stoned
Yes, they're sharing a drink they
call loneliness
But it's better than drinkin' alone
There are a myriad of personalities at the bar, yet they are all toasting
to the same thing - loneliness. It’s ironical that they’re ‘sharing
loneliness’
Main theme of the
song; the narrative It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
revolves around a It sounds like a
bar where people And the manager gives me a smile festival; the people
come to drink their 'Cause he knows that it's me they've been are celebrating in
worries away and hopes that they’ll
forget their
comin' to see someday escape this
unhappiness To forget about life for a while bar, that they’ll
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival someday escape this
cycle of frustration
The smell of beer is And the microphone smells like a beer and fulfil their
in the air; the piano And they sit at the bar and put bread in my dreams.
man himself is so
drunk that his mic jar
smells like beer And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"
Bread is symbolic of money. The crowd is encouraging
the piano man to put his skills to better use and want him
to succeed. They all want to escape the bar and wasn’t the
piano man to d o so to.