Mando in "Piano Man"

[mehrsam]

We've heard Billy Joel's "Piano Man" probably thousands of times, but it was not until recently I started listening to the mandolin part in the background. Has anyone ever charted and/or tabbed this out?

[chipmafia]

Anyone?

[Ed Goist]

Here you go (http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/b/billy_joel/piano_man_ver2_tab.htm).
I have no idea how this sounds...Just found it on-line today.

[journeybear]

Dang! All these years later, long after this song has worn out its welcome with me, and become a fixture on my Top Ten List of overrated, overdone, over-requested songs (perhaps an amusing topic for a thread, that), I find out there is mandolin on it? :disbelief: I mean, i knew there was harmonica and occasional accordion, drums, and of course piano, but somehow I never heard mandolin. So thanks to Mark's question and Ed's research, and my curiosity, I have been forced to listen to this in its entirety for the first time this century. Now I have conflicted feelings about it. It's still a decent song, as done by Billy Joel; it's just so often requested by tourists at bars and so badly done by those who attempt to cover it. :mad: Anyway ... the mandolin sure sounds pretty tinny on my wee little laptop. I am impressed someone took the time to tab it, and Ed found it. Thanks for, um, bringing it up, youse guys! :grin:

[catmandu2]

http://www.slate.com/id/2209526/

[Nat]

I had an argument with someone about this about 12 years ago, and I think the upshot was that the liner notes indicate it is a tenor banjo, rather than a mandolin.

I can't substantiate it, but that's what my memory says.

[journeybear]

I don't have a burning desire to slag Billy Joel. My beef is with those who drunkenly request "Piano Man" with utter disregard for the type of music they have been hearing and the instruments on which this was being played, and to a lesser extent, those who accede to these demands - or worse, who do it as a matter of course. He's OK, no great shakes, and there are a few songs of his I like. I saw him once, on the tour with Elton John, and he paled in comparison. (Actually, the best that night was Elton John's guitarist - kicked butt when it was his time to play, got right back into the groove when done, a real pro.) All that said, if I ever meet him, I hope to summon the nerve to say, "OK, Mr. Joel, if, as you said, only the good die young, where does that leave you?" :disbelief: :) :whistling:

[chipmafia]

Whether the song is good or bad is a matter of opinion at the end of the day. I simply wanted the tab because it brings back childhood memories of trips to the ice skating rink, where the song, along with "She's Always a Woman" played incessantly. Connecting my instrument to my memories makes it very personal, even if the song is done by someone that some consider bad.

Thanks for finding the tab, and helping to satiate my odd desire to reopen long closed threads with unanswered questions. :)

[journeybear]

Hey, didn't mean to cause you any disturbance. I really did not know there was mandolin on this song until now. (And knowing that my beloved instrument is somehow associated with it is a heartache I shall have to bear. Not as bad as sharing a birthday with Dan Fogelberg, but of similar insignificance. ;) ) And I really am impressed that the tab exists, and that it was able to be found. Sometimes the interweb is indeed a very helpful place.

Have fun with it!

[Dan Hulse]

Play me a song, you're the mando-man, play me a song tonight...
Likewise my mostly Irish folk group has had this song requested of us.
We just tell them that we didn't bring a piano.

[michaelpthompson]

Play me a song, you're the mando-man, play me a song tonight...
Likewise my mostly Irish folk group has had this song requested of us.
We just tell them that we didn't bring a piano.

Our Irish pub band gets this request from time to time as well. Not as often as Free Bird or Stairway to Heaven, but still.

Actually, I kind of like the song, and journeybear, if you think about it, the sort of thick drunken sots you're upset about are the subject of the song, as much as anything.