Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#256) "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel - Most ballads travel toward a certain emotional pitch, rising to a climax as they progress. In "And So It Goes", Billy Joel does things differently, achieving the improbable by getting the song where it needs to go without it ever really sounding like it's going to....or even has the stuff to.

From the first few introspective chords it stays quiet, just artist and piano, slowly filling the room with tension, right up to the rafters. It releases that tension just as quietly with five slightly less introspective/slightly more emotional piano chords, leading the listener to a calm internal catharsis that flashes up and flickers out a second later.

This is not easy to do without becoming overwrought. The result is a song that can, in my opinion, take its place among the loveliest ballads ever recorded.

Whatever you may think of his style or image through the years, Billy Joel is a superb songwriter, songcrafter...

"And so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows..."

#257) "Where's the Orchestra?" by Billy Joel - Less emotional in this one, more stunningly philosophical. Listen closely to the lyrics and try to argue that it's not, word for word, a seamless metaphor for life itself. It might be the most appropriate "road song" I've put on this list. At least for the road trip I will take, at the time in life when I will take it.

"Here I am in the balcony / How the hell could I have missed the overture?"