Piano man gay bar

Billy Joel has recently discovered the fan theory that his defining song “Piano Man” is about a clueless straight man performing in a gay bar (We covered that theory extensively, but it’s not. In a new interview with NBC Today, Billy Joel addresses the 'Piano Man' gay bar theory and retirement now that his Madison Square Garden residency has come to an end. I recently heard a funny theory that Piano Man is about a pianist who plays in a gay bar but who isn't aware that he's in a gay bar.

Paul, never had time for a wife. Billy Joel's 'Piano Man' is open to countless interpretations, but one that commonly appears is the idea that the song is set in a gay bar. Billy Joel said he can understand the thinking behind the idea that his signature song “Piano Man” is set in a gay bar. He’d recently discovered the suggestion that the track’s narrator is a. They belt out the entire song from memory, unironically, as if they were overcome with religious fervor.

It was a transformational and challenging time for both straight and gay men. Gay men, on the other hand, had to reevaluate and reorient their lives after Stonewall broke all of the paradigms and conventions of dealing with society. No one knew how to navigate this new world. Freedom went hand-in-hand with fear.

But at least we avoided the leisure suits. They saw things that would have been unimaginable just a few years earlier, including the first Pride parades. To be fair, it was a pragmatic and calculated approach led by realists who understood the politics and culture of the time. Stonewall ignited a new type of activism: We no longer wanted to be polite and non-threatening in the hopes that the majority would reward us with rights and dignity.

We would go out and win rights and demand dignity. Gay is good was supplanted by Out of the closets and into the streets! This new attitude changed the way many gay men socialized. They were done hiding in the dark and in the closet. A gay bar in San Francisco tore down walls literally and figuratively and installed windows. Think about what that meant!

For the first time, gay men were willing to be seen publicly in a gay bar. We also stopped hiding when we turned out en masse for disco. Our celebrations were louder, bigger, more visible — and much more fabulous — than ever. Many people had no option but to remain in the closet. Their livelihoods and very lives were on the line. They needed to seek refuge in a familiar place where they would feel safe and comfortable.

The men at this bar feel life is passing them by. This is because they are locked out of the joy, excitement, and validation now open to so many others. They have always known the misery of exclusion from the straight world, and now they also had to deal with the weight of feeling left out of an exciting new gay world. This customer feels out of place today, so he wants to be reminded of a time when the world made sense.

I picture him as a WW2 veteran who found some degree of happiness and security in California after the war. First, John is hitting on the piano player. I know of what I speak.

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Gay men learn how to compartmentalize early. It also helps explain why Paul, like every other customer, is miserable. The damaging part of learning to live your life in two parts, whether in reality or fantasy, cannot be underestimated. It is an infectious skill that you learned, one that would eventually spread beyond the bedroom of your life.

Nothing could be trusted for what it appeared to be.