Billy Joel finds the gay bar theory about ‘Piano Man’ interesting.
“Well, there’s this new theory there now, that it’s actually about a gay bar,” said the singer in a new interview on NBC’s Today programme. “I was reading this. And I said, ‘Oh, I see how that could be.’ Paul is talking to Davy, who’s in the Navy, you know. He doesn’t have time for a wife. I never considered that, but I see it now. It’s very funny, actually.”
‘Piano Man’ is a famous Joel song about a piano player at a late-night bar. A new theory says the song is about a gay bar. In this theory, everyone except the piano man is gay, and he doesn’t notice. Fans on Reddit point out a line that suggests he feels out of place.
The key line for this theory is ‘They sit at the bar and put bread in my jar / and say ‘Man, what are you doing here?'” The whole song’s verses together give the full picture.
It focuses on the people in the piano man’s world. John at the Bar is unclear but is probably the bartender since he ‘gets me my drinks for free.’ The line ‘Well I’m sure that I could be a movie star / if I could get out of this place’ shows he dreams of more than bartending.
John, the bartender, is unclear and lacks a strong personality. Paul, the real estate novelist, is said to never have had time for a wife. This could mean he never dated or didn’t want to marry a woman.
Davy, still in the Navy, fits an old stereotype about sexual preference from the 1970s. In the last part, Joel sings, ‘He knows that it’s me that they’re coming to see.’ This could mean the patrons think he plays well, so they say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’
In this theory, the patrons find the piano man both attractive and a good musician. They know he’s straight and clueless, so they tease him and give him money.
