Souvenir
Song: Souvenir
Album: Streetlife Serenade (1974)
This is a very good song.
I skipped the usual introduction because I wanted to emulate the song I’m talking about which gets in, paints a picture, sets a scene and then pulls the rug out from under the listener, all in a span of two minutes.
This is some straight up Raymond Carver science that Billy Joel has dropped on us here.
Here is the entire song:
A picture postcard, a folded stub
A program of the play
File away the photographs of your holiday
And your mementos will turn to dust
But that’s the price you pay
For every year is a souvenir
That slowly fades away
Every year’s a souvenir
That slowly fades away
What you have there is a clinic in minimalist songwriting. Set the scene with mementos of good times, back it with a sparse piano arrangement and then remind us were all going to die and someday everything we do will be forgotten.
This is the first song on Streetlife Serenade that feels both complete and authentic. There is nothing further that Billy Joel needs to say here and there is not a doubt in my mind that this song reflects exactly how he feels.
Billy Joel, just when I think I finally understand what you’re all about you pull some piece of dark magic out.
