Song Of The Day: Billy Joel ‘Summer Highland Falls’

Making my way these days – COVID, writing, life – Billy Joel’s “Summer Highland Falls” (from his 1976 album Turnstiles) recently bubbled up in my psyche. I have a real estate listing here in Las Vegas where the market is insanely hot for Sellers, but the flip-side to that is Buyers are having a tough, tough time getting offers accepted with so much competition. In a wider view, I’m reminded of life’s highs and lows, seeing the other sides — of arguments, positions, perspectives… “They say that these are not the best of times,” Billy got that right. And amid the pandemic, we find “there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own.” Watching the political landscape, my spirit resonates with the sentiment, “So we’ll argue and we’ll compromise, and realize that nothing’s ever changed…” And taking in the constantly roiling race relations across the country, I can hear the insight in Billy’s 1976 prose offering, “And as we stand upon the ledges of our lives with our respective similarities, it’s either sadness or euphoria…” Billy has said in interviews it’s one of his favorite songs he ever wrote. Mine too. The song began with the chords, but he developed the rolling piano figure to express the manic-ness he often feels. Humanity in three minutes.

They say that these are not the best of times But they’re the only times I’ve ever known And I believe there is a time for meditation In cathedrals of our own Now I have seen that sad surrender in my lover’s eyes And I can only stand apart and sympathize For we are always what our situations hand us It’s either sadness or euphoria

So we’ll argue and we’ll compromise And realize that nothing’s ever changed For all our mutual experience Our separate conclusions are the same Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity Our reason coexists with our insanity But we choose between reality and madness It’s either sadness or euphoria

How thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies Perhaps we don’t fulfill each other’s fantasies And as we stand upon the ledges of our lives With our respective similarities It’s either sadness or euphoria