I have just donwloaded the song, and while each year has its own little line or two, 1964-1989 is covered in just a verse.
Is there a longer version of the song?
I know, I know “Should be in GQ”, my mistake…
It was originally 3 hours long and started with the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Apparently the market wouldn’t bear a triple album set of obscure references.
Seriously, I’ve always wondered why the last verse covers so much more time than the earlier ones.
Isn’t it long enough?
We could always write our own new version…
Darn, Luna, you stole my line!
Yeah, that’s a rather looooooooong song. Good one, though! It really couldn’t get much longer.
To quote from “The Entertainer”:
Oh, it took me years to write it
They were the best years of my life
But if you’re gonna have a hit
You’ve gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05.
It appears you are missing a verse. According to one of only 10 million pages on Billy Joel lyrics:
That’s what you get for using Napster. I’m sure Columbia records would be happy to sell you the full version on your very own copy of Storm Front
Nah nah, I got that verse.
That’s the verse I’m talking about which covers 1964-1989. Where as the years before it all have their own line, sometimes 2 lines to themselves. Then all of a sudden he slips the song in to cruise control and rockets through the next 25 years.
I read a newspaper story where he was interviewed, back when it came out. Part of the point of the song, apparently, was a response to hearing “nothing happened in the 1950s” one too many times. So that’s the period the song focuses on - through Kennedy’s assassination, which many people consider the endpoint of the '50s, culturally speaking.
I once wrote a 90’s verse, that went on about things like mobile phones and the internet and Arnold Scwarzenegger.
I thought it was quite good, actually, though I have since lost track of it (to coin a phrase).