Based on some complinents I’ve gotten doing karaoke recently (yes, I’m addicted), I’ve decided to add some higher range (for me) songs to my repertoire. So I’m sitting here listening to Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, Vol. I and trying to pick out some songs that would be good for my vocal range. I’d really like to learn “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” After I get most of the lyrics down, I’ll have to give it shot in the privacy of my shower before attempting it in public. Anyway, getting to the freaking point, listening to “Captain Jack” I’m reminded of numerous conversations with friends regarding this piece. Almost invariably, they interpret “Captain Jack” as meaning Jack Daniels whisky, to which I reply, "No, you moron, listen to the chorus:
Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight Just a little push, and you’ll be smilin’"
I think Captain Jack is heroin. What do y’all think?
I thought it refered to alcohol, specifically Captain jack Morgan’s spiced rum. I took the “little push” to be how a bartender would serve the beverage - pushing the glass across the bar to ths e patron…
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Six months, three weeks, two days, 16 hours, 52 minutes and 23 seconds.
8268 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,033.51.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 4 weeks, 17 hours, 0 minutes.
Thanks for the link beagledave (I fixed it). Although facts aren’t nearly as fun as the creativity of the Teeming Millions. I especially liked Uke’s response.
And here’s a warm hug and kiss for you, too, Strainger.
(For the Harvey Pekar deprived among you: HP is a Cleveland file clerk and writer of autobiographical comic book stories, best known for appearing on the Letterman show and making an anti-corporate nuisance of himself. His annual comic AMERICAN SPLENDOR was first published in 1976.
A few years earlier, he published a two-pager entitled “A Good Shit is Best” in an underground comix anthology. It was illustrated by the late Ted Richards, best known for E.Z. WOLF’S ASTRAL OUTHOUSE.
“A Good Shit is Best” was about four juvenile delinquent-types hanging out on a Cleveland street corner. The first one says “Well, I hadda good FUCK last night,” and proceeds to give details. The second guys says, “Fuckin’ is good, but I really like ta get HEAD,” and goes on about that for a while. The third fellow says, “Youse guys’re think I’m weird, but I love ta EAT PUSSY,” and then describes how he drives the girls wild with his technique.
The fourth guy has been listening in disgust, and finally calls the other “a buncha sex fiends”…and proceeds to explain why, in terms of sensual pleasure, “A Good Shit is Best.”
The was one of my favorite albums in the early '80’s. I thought of various interpretations myself, but I clearly recall reading several references from various sources around that period that all said Captain Jack was a slang term for heroin.
FWIW, I speculate that the literal meaning may be heroin, but the second meaning of the song was perhaps that most of us have our own “Captain Jack”, not necessarily chemical - the thing we turn to.
Here’s a good place to make this hijack: Is Billy Joel an Italian-American? Everything about him, his looks, his history, the content of his songs, scream “New York Italian” except his last name, Joel, which according to IMDB is his real last name. So what’s the scoop there?
BJ (unfortunate initials, no?) is Italian on his mother’s side and German on his dad’s side. I think there’s also a little Cuban in there, but I’m not sure.
