Big Shot

I tend to believe that the song really is about Bianca, However, he may have his reasons to want to keep that out of the public now for whatever. Maybe Bianca has had her fair share of demons that she has overcome and asked him not to share that story anymore. Who knows. HOWEVER..... I have a hard time
picturing his Male Manager in a Halston Dress. BUT .....THEN AGAIN?! It was a WILD decade! And if you can remember it, then you probably weren't there! haha!

11/16/10 Billy Joel was interviewed by Howard Stern today. He said this song was about the time he went to dinner with Mick and Bianca Jagger and Mick and Bianca got into a fight. Mick said to her, "You had to be a big shot, didn't you!" Joel then went on to sing the song as Mick would. It was awesome. Baba Booey, and Stern rules.

Chuck from Houston, I agree, almost like Bennie and the Jets. I would add that in the end sounds a bit like Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, also from GBYBR

I thought the woman was his wife at the time.

I like this song,too.I know it's about a big shot,but I don't knnow who this woman is.

According to an interview Billy Joel gave in 2006, he has never had a date with Bianca Jagger, so the song is definitely not about her.

And obviously the spoon line is a cocaine reference.

The first album released on CD was Brothers in Arms. Cheers

I heard interviews with him where he said this about a hangover. You get up look at yourself in the mirror and say you had to be a big shot

What the comments don't consider is that the song could be about BOTH his business manager AND his ex-wife all in the same person. (Smile.) The timeframe works, as Joel married his business manager Elizabeth Weber in 1973 and divorced her in '82. (He mistakenly allowed her to continue repping him for awhile, but her brother embezzled all his savings. This according to Wikipedia.)

I've recently read where this song might have been inspired by Joel's first wife. After Joel became famous, she hit the New York party scene to show off as the "rock star's wife", which Joel detested.

Foolish Pride by Daryl Daryl
to Matthew, Milford, MA

To Annabelle, Eugene, OR:

The verse goes:

"When you wake up in the morning with your head on fire and your eyes to bloody to see...GO ON AND CRY IN YOUR COFFEE, but don't come bitchin' to me"...

Great line !

I'm a fan of both Billy Joel and Elton John, who have preformed together when I was in High School, which is why I must say the Piano rifs in this song sound very similuar to sir Eltons hit "Benny and the Jets" from the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album which predates this song by about 5 years... Inspired?.. Ripped Off... or maybe I'm just wrong.

"When I hear this line, it sounds something like, "Gonna cry in your carpet." I believe it's coffee not carpet. Reference to nursing a hangover the next morning.

There's one line in this song, that I have a hard time understanding. When I hear this line, it sounds something like, "Gonna cry in your carpet." How can you cry into a carpet? Won't it become soaked with your tears?

Another kick ass Billy Joel song ! Boy he had an attitude in his music back then.

Hmm... I thought this song was about the dangers of excessive pride... could you point me out to a song that is?

Bill Joel what a performer ...great stuff

I believe former MLB pitcher Steve Howe had this song played when he came in for relief during away games. Howe was suspended a record 7 times for substance abuse. The line "spoon up your nose" seems to be the line I remember.

It seems pretty clear to me - he's commenting on the excess of the late '70s party lifestyle. Get drunk, get coked out, go and make a general fool of yourself like everyone else, then wake up the next day feeling awful, irritated at all the stupid things you did. And there's no indication that it's going to change any time soon.

I love the way he struts around in the video... Billy's got a lot of character!

Sorry, but you're all wrong. I was at a concert of his in Hartford last week and he prefaced this song by saying: "This is about my former manager. God I hated him. (He ruined a lot of stuff for me) He was the complete opposite of the man I sang about in Downeaster Alexa"

All of these ideas about the meaning are possible.

I love a lot of Billy Joel's music, but I find this particular song anoying. The two best songs off 52nd Street, in my opinion of course, are Stiletto and Until the Night. Until the Night is sung like the Righteous Brothers, where Billy sings both the high and low parts. It's one of his best songs. Stiletto has great lyrics and a nice melody.

The lyric "...and the people that you knew at Elaine's": Elaine's is a posh NYC celebrity hang out that had it's heyday in the late 70's when this album was written. This is the restaurant in which Michael Caine introduced Woody Allen to Mia Farrow.

Billy Joel said this was about himself in his partying days in New York. He wanted to write it in 3rd person, though, and being a male singer, it worked better if it sounded like he was scolding a woman who had to be the "big shot".

This was the very first album ever released on Compact Disc! Sony? (1982)