Ok, actually I’m not really blue. But this song sure fits that blues vibe. I will say that I ended up New Years Day in to the day after New Years day (i.e. around 2 a.m. today) being pretty blue. You’ve probably read that I play poker once in a while. Last night a buddy of mine and I visited The Bicycle Club in LA. We played some poker last night, but it was probably one of the worst nights of poker I’ve ever played. The entire night was one exceptionally bad beat after another for me. There was only one hand where I made a mistake after the flop. Every other hand was played as it should have been. What I’ve learned is that players in low level games (which I will now avoid, meaning under $100 buyin) will stay in any hand regardless if they have anything or not.
It didn’t help much when everyone at the table started commenting that the sheer number of bad beats was unbelievable. It’s not a comfortable feeling when you’ve got the dominating hand and you’re betting it as such and people are hangin on a hope and prayer against the odds and catch the 1 or 2 outs they could possibly have on the river. As they say, that’s poker. But as I said, it’s stupid play that will eventually bankrupt those players if they continue to play like that. I just happened to be on a very strange tangent of odds last night.
Oh well, I just have to Walk On, Baby and think about it another time. I realize that Dr. Joel is talking about a woman and not poker. That won’t stop me from making that connection. One of the stranger lines in a movie is “in the game of life, women are the fucking rake.” Maybe that’s the crazy tie I have between his song about women and my night of stupid odds.
The pure and simple of this song isn’t pop genius. Its not vocal perfection. It’s not musical perfection. What it is is just a good vibe and a group of guys playing good little blues song. The thing I like the most about the song itself is the electric piano. I don’t know why. I must be feeling a bit retro or something in that respect. I know that I’ve used the classic sounds of a Fender Rhoads and a Wurlitzer on past recordings of my songs. Actually they’re recreations, but they do sound very real. In similarity, Dr. Joel throws a little dirt on the sound and gets a good blue funk on it. That just grabs me.
Everyone can use a good blues song in their library. So pick this one up and have it pick you up when you’re down.