Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant ( German scenes from an Italian restaurant ) is a rock song of the U.S. musician Billy Joel, who first appeared on his 1977 released album The Stranger.
Genesis
Although Scenes from an Italian Restaurant was never released as a single, it is now one of Joel's most famous pieces. In an interview Joel stated that one of the major influences in the development was the second side of the Beatles album Abbey Road. On 6 May 1977 about four months before the publication of The Stranger, Joel presented the song on the Long Iceland University CW Post Campus in Brookville, New York. He says that he dedicated the song to the restaurant Christiano 's in Syosset. At 7 minutes and 37 seconds of the song is the longest of Joel's studio recordings.
After years of speculation as to what the restaurant had served exactly as inspiration for the song, Joel said in an interview that Scenes from an Italian Restaurant RELATES from a restaurant called Fontana di Trevi, across from Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. During a concert series in June 1977, he visited the place frequently. Although several courts have served as a template, was in his mind when writing mainly the Fontana di Trevi.
Content
The song is made up of three different pieces which were assembled. He starts with a melodic piano ballad, followed by a faster, jazz -heavy midsection with a clarinet and saxophone solo, which eventually merges Roll- piece in a Rock ' n', which was described by Joel as The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie and after his details on the contrary to the other passages already existed long before the Stranger.
Restaurant Scene
The first part of the song is about a former couple that meets in the restaurant, which they have already visited earlier (I'll meet you any time you want / / In our Italian Restaurant; German Whenever you want, I meet you) and now entertain in our Italian restaurant on the selection of drinks. The inspiration for the line A bottle of white, a bottle of red, / / Perhaps a bottle of rosé instead? (Eng. A bottle of white, a bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of rosé instead? ) should have served by its own account the identical question of a waiter in a restaurant Joel.
As reprise the opening theme in the Italian restaurant at the end of the piece was added again, so this gets a very quiet statements in accordance with the rapid middle section and the internal narrative is completed.
Jazz - part
In the second part, the narrator tells of his life today ( Things are okay with me thesedays / / I got a good job, I got a good office / / I got a new wife, got a new life / / And the family is fine, dt with me everything is okay these days / / I have a great job, a great office / / I have a new wife, a new life / / and the family 's fine ), but also looks at the common mid-teens with. Compared to his back (I remember those days hanging out / / At the village green [ ... ] My sweet romantic teenage nights; German I remember the days when we are hanging out in the Village Green [ ... ] My sweet romantic teenage nights). The Village Greens, bordered by trees green spaces, this can be found in most cities of Joel's home Long Iceland.
The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie
The third part of the piece, by Joel himself is called The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie, are Brenda and Eddie, king and queen of the prom ( eng. Prom) who are the heroes and role models for all of high school. Later, the two get married, master the one or other life crisis, but ultimately fail in itself and their own dreams and get a divorce. The lines That's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie / / Can not tell you more than I told you already ( dt This is everything I have heard from Brenda and Eddie / / I can not tell you when I'll 've already told ) suggest towards the end of the third part, that the narrator of his counterpart reported only by the models from the youth and it is not even is Brenda and Eddie at the former couple in the Italian restaurant.
Joel even said that they want to show with the song that life can fail even if one is already on the school the acclaimed Star:
"I was trying to tell the story of the king and the queen of the prom. These are our heroes. But they're Typically people who peak too early. If you're too popular in high school you're probably going to go downhill from there. That's what the story I was trying to tell. Watch out for what you wish for 'cause you might get it, and this is what might also happen "
"I wanted to tell the story of the king and queen of the prom. They were our heroes. But they were the typical people who reach their life climax too early. If you're in high school too popular, it can probably only go downhill from there. That was the story I wanted to tell: Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it and that's what comes out. "
In the Broadway production of Movin 'Out the lyrics were slightly changed so that the story of Brenda and Eddie in 1965, instead of taking place in the original 1975, to install Scenes from an Italian Restaurant in the overall history of the musical can.