Album: The Nylon Curtain (1982)

Charted: 20

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• You have to learn to pace yourself
  Pressure
  You're just like everybody else
  Pressure
  You've only had to run so far
  So good
  But you will come to a place
  Where the only thing you feel
  Are loaded guns in your face
  And you'll have to deal with
  Pressure
  
  You used to call me paranoid
  Pressure
  But even you can not avoid
  Pressure
  You turned the tap dance into your crusade
  Now here you are with your faith
  And your Peter Pan advice
  You have no scars on your face
  And you cannot handle pressure
  
  All grown up and no place to go
  Psych 1, Psych 2
  What do you know?
  All your life is Channel 13
  Sesame Street
  What does it mean?
  
  I'll tell you what it means
  Pressure
  Pressure
  
  Don't ask for help
  You're all alone
  Pressure
  You'll have to answer
  To your own
  Pressure
  I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
  But here you are in the ninth
  Two men out and three men on
  Nowhere to look but inside
  Where we all respond to
  Pressure
  Pressure
  
  All your life is Time magazine
  I read it too
  What does it mean?
  Pressure
  I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
  But here you are with your faith
  And your Peter Pan advice
  You have no scars on your face
  And you cannot handle pressure
  
  Pressure, pressure
  One, two, three, four
  Pressure Writer/s: Billy Joel
  Publisher: Third Side Music Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 13

• John Gardner from CaliforniaI saw this concept-video on VH1 and/or MTV in 1982/3. There was an original sequence where the camera goes in close on the boy's head-&-shoulders just as the boy scowls and wipes lipstick off his mouth with his forearm. Seems this sequence has been edited out. Why are we censoring/editing The Eighties for future generations? (my birth year is 1963)
• Brian from ColoradoI swear as a kid this song had a baseball connotation. Strike 1 strike 2 and bottom of the 8th were in it.
• Cd from Chicago IllinoisWilliam Martin is talking about faith versus cosmic truth. Sesame Street programming on the children of gen x marks the spot. Then the martial take over nwo with guns pointed at you. Channel 13 all your life as reference to a significant number regarding the lucky number of the aristocracy. Cosmic rationale like the nasa or Hebrew deception. Psch 1 psch 2...like strike one and 2...now strike 3 is show down.. project bb...on the fairy tale life or reference Peter pan in which you've been lied to about in which u assume is reality...antartica...autec....and welcome to the new world. The truth. The new world. Your faith against cosmic reality. Ref to baseball....sacrifice...as we uselessly eat. Time magazine...most notable the company who owns the zapruder film...what does it all mean wishes for u to think about it all...in your own head.not Google or pbs thoughts..paranoid meaning someone always tells him that. He is frustrated..he needs to share is thoughts....joel
• Kevin from BostonEveryone in the early to mid 80s were trying to sound like David Bowie. I had to search to make sure bowie or even Brian Eno had nothing to do with this song. I love Bowie, but damn I'm glad the 80s are over.
• Bob from Farmington Hills, MiI remember reading Timothy White's interview with Billy Joel in Musician Magazine when this first came out. Billy related how that for one of the later instrumental bridges in this song they had the idea that some balalaika's (Russian stringed instruments) would be ideal; they figured you could find just about anything in New York City, when they stuck their heads outside the studio onto the street lo and behold a group of old, bearded Russians carrying balalaikas was walking by. They were able to coax them into the studio and these men laid down tracks for a little bit of money and then went on their way.
• Tacey from New Milford, NjG.: When you are a recording artist, under a label, it would not be all that uncommon to be in an office with a secretary. Also, many offices have secretaries, and you can write lyrics to a song anywhere. I think your assumption was WAY off. Also, Billy is human...for all we know, he was at the IRS.
• Randall from Delaware, OhHey, G, people that write songs write them anywhere that the inspiration hits them, including places where secretaries are.
  On a separate note, I don't think it's all that unusual for him to write songs to the second person. He did that a lot. Capiain Jack, Don't Ask Me Why, Big Shot. Those are ones right off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more.
• Richard from Somerdale , NjI like the thingy that makes that sound for each break. I know it's backed by a violin after the "here you are, two men out and three men on, nowhere to look but inside where we all respond to Pressure" verse, but it sounds really cool alone. I like this song.
• Randy from Reading, PaG - I saw the same interveiw as did Ken. That is what Billy said about it.
• April from Baltimore, MdI only recently saw the video for this song, (someone told me it was supposed to be "conceptual surrealism") I just thought it left my head spinning..anyone else seen it?
• G from Potomac, MdUh... so while he was a recording artist Billy Joel wrote songs in an office with secrataries? I don't think so, nice story though...
• Jay from Brooklyn, NyThe lyric "All your life is Channel 13/ Sesame Street, what does it mean?" refers to the New York City PBS station.
  The song is unusual not only because it is sung in the second person but also because it ends so abruptly. There is no fade out, just a jarring stop, almost like someone pulled the plug on the recording equipment.
• Ken from Louisville, KyBilly says he got the idea from a secretary seeing him struggling to write a song. She said "You seem like you're under a lot of pressure." He replied "Thank You!"

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