Recently I saw a concert by Billy Joel on, of all places, PBS. It was called “Modern Masters” or something like that. The show ended with “Only the Good Die Young.” I’m trying not to turn into Farmer McGregor here, shaking my finger at the Peter Rabbits who listen to pop music. I sang along with this tune back in the big-haired 80s myself. But seeing Billy Joel singing it and listening carefully to the words almost turned my stomach. Could the devil have written this any better? I was going to put little pithy paraphrases into the text, translating it into more direct speech. But then I read it again. It wasn’t needed. The message is clear enough: “Don’t wait for marriage. Don’t trust the Church. Don’t trust your elders. Let me use you.” And to top it off, the girl’s name is…. Virginia. Is my response to this song reasonable or have I just publically proclaimed that I have hit middle age?
Come out Virginia, don’t let me wait
You Catholic girls start much too late
But sooner or later it comes down to fate
I might as well be the one …
Well, only the good die young.
They showed you a statue, told you to pray
They built you a temple and locked you away
Aw, but they never told you the price that you pay
For things that you might have done
Only the good die young, that’s what i said, only the good die young
You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd
We ain’t too pretty we ain’t too proud
We might be laughing a bit too loud, aw but that never hurt no one
So come on Virginia show me a sign
Send up a signal I’ll throw you the line
The stained-glass curtain you’re hiding behind
Never lets in the sun
Darlin’ only the good die young
You got a nice white dress and a party on your confirmation
You got a brand new soul, and a cross of gold
But Virginia they didn’t give you quite enough information
You didn’t count on me
When you were counting on your rosary.
They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait
Some say it’s better but I say it ain’t
I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
the Sinners are much more fun…you know that only the good die young.
December 8, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I was a teenager when this song came out and I thought it was a strongly anti-Catholic song. I couldn’t help feeling bewildered as Catholic school girls requested this song at dances. Didn’t they realize that he was making fun of them?
I may be one of the few 40-somethings from the Philadelphia area that did not like Billy Joel and this song was part of the reason. If you think I am over reacting, imagine if he substituted “Catholic girl” with Jewish or Black girl. His career would have been over.
December 8, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Muzak for Townies.
December 8, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Daemp exactly. And that was my point in the previous post.
Although I do remember the Rolling Stones came out with a song to the tune of something like “black girls just wanna have sex all night long”. Which was pretty much as cluelessly biggoted as Billy Joel’s song. I think the Stones caught some flack about it and I don’t think it’s a standard anymore due to the more PC age we live in. But of course, Catholics are still fair game.
December 8, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Speaking as a Catholic school girl who managed to remain a virgin for quite a while, I will say that this song is one of the reasons I got rid of my Greatest Hits set. I still miss it. But this song made me sick to my stomach after I realized what the lyrics were. It sounded like too many conversations I have had and witnessed [with guys who were pro-lust], and which wore down too many of my Catholic school girl friends.
December 8, 2008 at 8:24 pm
As a former Catholic schoolgirl myself, this song has always irritated the hell of of me (if you’ll pardon the expression). Of course I was a big fan of Billy Joel back in the 70s and 80s, and still am, to some extent. I just hope Virginia, whoever she is (was) never gave in and made him wait…permanently! That would be the best revenge.
What marriage is Billy on now, anyway? Third? Fourth? (I know the Christie Brinkley union didn’t work out 🙂
December 8, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Whether or not the girl gave in is irrelevant. The lyrics are as offensive as anything by Ludacris or “Madonna”.
December 8, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I think we’re reading this much too reactively. Its a demonstration of a battle within the will! One could imagine its a young woman running over the words her lustful suitor has said to her, in an attempt to lure her into sin.
I’d like to imagine she considering is it good-naturedly, knowing she’ll never give in to his bawdy attempts stemming from youthful hormones to overwhelm her pity. As such, I see nothing wrong with it…but only because I’ve reinterpreted it.
Otherwise, there are far more pressing things to be concerned with than Billy Joel’s Catholic rebellion.
December 8, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Terry – I think it comes down to giving someone the benefit of the doubt. I have heard some extremely ingorant things said about Catholics (that we worship the Pope, statues, saints etc). And I can usually tell if it is in the context of willfull ignorance or meant to cause damage. But this song is clearly an attempt at belittling the teachings of the church through popular culture.
December 9, 2008 at 12:19 am
It is a little difficult to keep from laughing when I read some of these comments suggesting that people may have actually been successfully tempted to have pre-marital sex by a song. Honestly, if you can’t handle listening to a song without being tempted to act out the lyrics, you’ve got bigger problems than your taste in music.
~cmpt
December 9, 2008 at 3:05 am
Hey Christopher Michael . . .
You were a 14 year old girl when????
Yeah it may sound stupid now, I’m 42 and have figured out a thing or two, but back when I was 14 and all my friends had “done it” or were “doing it” with their boyfriends and I was the only hold out it was easy to be swayed by such things. Especially since I had no one telling me to do the opposite.
Hope you had a good laugh at my expense. What a charitable person you are.
KayBee
December 9, 2008 at 2:41 pm
In explaining his longevity, Joel described himself as a “competent musician.” That’s how I see him. Not brilliant or groundbreaking. He wrote well-crafted pop tunes to a 14-year-old audience. His lyrics were an inside-the-box reflection of the times. This song included. More offensive to me, Joel was perhaps the first to glorify divorce. Today, I find his voice grating and his messages dated. It’s stunning that adults paid good money to see his Broadway play, “Movin Out.” Total cornball. I do kind of like the “It’s all about soul” song, though, not so nasal and dated.
December 9, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Yes indeed, “words mean things”. That’s why I wrote “The Things We Say When We Sing!”
December 9, 2008 at 5:11 pm
KayBee,
I said it was a little difficult to keep from laughing. It is precisely charity that restrains me. I’m afraid you aren’t making it any easier.
I may not have been a 14 year old girl, but I was a 14 year old boy, and I remember quite distinctly how much I was ostracized and scorned because I didn’t feel compelled to do what was popular. So I really don’t have any sympathy for those who did, especially for those so impossibly inane as to think they should actually do what Billy Joel (or anybody else) tells them in a song. Anybody who interprets Only The Good Die Young as some kind of secret message from Billy Joel to young Catholic girls telling them to lose their virginity are simply laughable. It is a song; a ficiton; not real-life. I’m sorry if that hurts anybody’s feelings because they were taken in by Billy Joel’s dreamy voice, (hahaha) but it is true.
~cmpt
December 9, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Christopher, I’m affraid you’re missing the bigger picture. Yes, one song is just that. But when added to a host of other songs, TV shows, movies and advertising sexualising children at younger and younger ages, it adds up and bombards the youth of society with these messages to the point where it becomes simply accepted.
December 9, 2008 at 10:19 pm
KayBee, don’t worry too much about it. Men and boys [in general, mind you] have different struggles than women and girls, a la Genesis 3:16. We can pray that men with little sympathy for these particular struggles of women, should they be blessed with daughters, or sisters, or be called to the priesthood, will also be blessed with greater paternal/fraternal/pastoral sensitivity.
Deusdonat, thanks for understanding that in some of the comments it really isn’t about taste in music, or Billy Joel’s quasi-“Catholic rebellion,” but truly about bigger problems, and for standing up for us holdouts against a corrupt peer culture.
Nicole
December 10, 2008 at 3:32 pm
My take is that Billy’s attitude towards Catholicism is that he’s jealous. There’s no flattery like jealousy. Kit
March 19, 2009 at 6:28 pm
okk….. when i was younger i sang this song with my father n i always thought that it meant billy joel was tryin 2 talk with ethier his wife or his girlfirend that had died n when my dad die n i heard this song i would cry cause he did die young at age 42 so then my mom told me the message of the song n im sooo surpise i would hav never guess n now when i listen to the song i hear wat she meant! RIP~daddy 1/31/04~ i was in the frist grade :”(
March 28, 2009 at 11:12 am
In this day and age of political correctness, Joel just proves that Catholics, and Christians in general are fair game to be insulted and ridiculed. If he had insulted Jews or Muslims in the way he insulted we Christians, that pathetic excuse of a song never would have made it to the pop charts.
April 23, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I was just listening to this in my car today! I was thinking about how it’s nearly a rite of passage for young Catholic girls to really listen to the words behind the catchy tune and realize “Wait…that’s horrible!”
If this song were about an Orthodox Jew or Mormon? It wouldn’t seem as cool and rebellious, that’s for sure. Opposing the Church has an aura of fighting the establishment, sticking it to the man.
I think Virginia kept making him wait. It sounds like deep-down he is jealous of her freedom from a long, mediocre, sinful life.
I used to think the chorus said “laugh with the sinners AND cry with the saints,” which is something I would actually do.