Vienna (Billy Joel song)

Vienna (Billy Joel song)

Infobox Single
Name = Vienna


Artist = Billy Joel
Album = The Stranger
A-side = She's Always a Woman
Released = 1977
Recorded = A & R Recording, Inc., New York City
Genre = Rock
Format = 7", 12"
Length = 3:34
Writer = Billy Joel
Label = Columbia Records
Producer = Phil Ramone

"Vienna" is a song from Billy Joel's breakthrough 1977 album The Stranger. Although released as the flipside of his She's Always A Woman single, it was played in a 1981 episode of "Taxi" called "Vienna Waits." Marilu Henner's character Elaine Nardo refers to the song while on vacation in Europe with Alex Reiger, played by Judd Hirsch. The song can also be found on the soundtrack of "13 Going on 30".

In a July 2008 New York Times article, Joel cites this as one of his two favorite songs, along with Summer, Highland Falls. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/arts/music/13barr.html?pagewanted=1 Music - Billy Joel Brings a Long Island Attitude to Shea’s Goodbye Concert - NYTimes.com ] ]

Quote|Why did I pick Vienna to use as a metaphor for the rest of your life? My father lives in Vienna now. I had to track him down. I didn't see him from the time I was 8 'till I was about 23-24 years old. He lives in Vienna, Austria which I thought was rather bizzare because he left Germany in the first place because of this guy named Hitler and he ends up going to the same place that Hitler hung out all those years! Vienna, for a long time was the crossroads. During the Cold War, between the Eastern Bloc, the Warsaw Pact nations and the NATO countries was the city of Vienna... Vienna was always the crossroads - between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. So the metaphor of Vienna has the meaning of a crossroad. It's a place of inter...course, of exchange - it's the place where cultures co-mingle. You get great beer in Vienna but you also get brandy from Armenia. It was a place where cultures co-mingled.

So I go to visit my father in Vienna, I'm walking around this town and I see this old lady. She must have been about 90 years old and she is sweeping the street. I say to my father "What's this nice old lady doing sweeping the street?" He says "She's got a job, she feels useful, she's happy, she's making the street clean, she's not put out to pasture". We treat old people in this country pretty badly. We put them in rest homes, we kinda kick them under the rug and make believe they don't exist. They [the people in Vienna] don't feel like that. In a lot of these older places in the world, they value their older people and their older people feel they can still be a part of the community and I thought 'This is a terrific idea - that old people are useful -and that means I don't have to worry so much about getting old because I can still have a use in this world in my old age. I thought "Vienna waits for you..."

There is also a lot of inside stuff on the song. The beginning and the end is the very Kurt Weill. That kind of sick, middle-European, kinky decadent thing.. cabaret kinda.... there's a lot of crazy stuff going on. We are seeing the result of it in this ethnic warfare in the Balkans which is a tragedy. This century started out with this Assassination of the Archduke in Sarajevo and that begat World War 1 which begat the Russian Revolution, then you had the Depression then that begat World War 2 and then that begat the Cold War and all that's over but they're "still" blowing each other to smithereens in Sarajevo. So this whole thing is going on in middle Europe - it's Kurt Weill. And some composers, Dvořák, Smetana - they captured it.|Billy Joel|"An Evening of Questions & Answers and Perhaps a Few Songs"

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Billy Joel — en 2009 Nom William Martin Joel Naissance …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Billy Joel — Infobox musical artist Name = Billy Joel Img capt = Billy Joel live on November 7, 2006. Img size = Landscape = Background = solo singer Birth name = William Martin Joel [http://www.billyjoel.com/biography Billy Joel Biography | The Official… …   Wikipedia

  • Vienna (disambiguation) — Vienna can refer to: Geography In Austria: * Vienna, capital and a federal state of Austria * the River Vienna, a small river meeting the Danube at Vienna; see Wien (river)In France: * Vienne, a city known in Roman times as Vienna In Canada: *… …   Wikipedia

  • Vienna (song) — Vienna as a song may refer to:*Vienna (Ultravox song) *Vienna (Billy Joel song) …   Wikipedia

  • Vienna — Wien redirects here. For other uses, see Wien (disambiguation). This article is about the capital of Austria. For other uses, see Vienna (disambiguation). Vienna Wien …   Wikipedia

  • Vienna (Lied) — Vienna Billy Joel Veröffentlichung 1977 Länge 3:34 Genre(s) Rockmusik Autor(en) Billy Joel Album …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Greatest Hits (álbum de Billy Joel) — Para otros usos de este término, véase Greatest Hits. Greatest Hits de Billy Joel son una colección lanzada en dos volúmenes. Los primeros, lanzados en 1985, contienen los primeros dos discos. La segunda fue lanzada en 1997. Todas las canciones… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Greatest Hits (Billy Joel albums) — Infobox Album Name = Greatest Hits Volume I Volume II Type = Compilation album Artist = Billy Joel Released = September 2, 1985 Recorded = 1973 1985 Genre = Rock Length = 108:03 Label = Columbia Producer = Michael Stewart, Billy Joel, Phil Ramone …   Wikipedia

  • Joel Nohnn — Proben zu Give Peace a Chance (1969) John Winston Lennon (später John Winston Ono Lennon), MBE (* 9. Oktober 1940 in Liverpool, England; † 8. Dezember 1980 in New York …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • performing arts — arts or skills that require public performance, as acting, singing, or dancing. [1945 50] * * * ▪ 2009 Introduction Music Classical.       The last vestiges of the Cold War seemed to thaw for a moment on Feb. 26, 2008, when the unfamiliar strains …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”