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I've Loved These Days
Turnstiles (1976) |
We drown our doubts in dry champagne And soothe our souls with fine cocaine I don't know why I even care We get so high and get nowhere "I've Loved These Days" is Billy's goodbye to the decadent Seventies, or at least to a decadent Los Angeles as Billy returned to the reality of New York. While the elegiac music of "I Loved These Days”;sounds like a wistful goodbye to happy times, the lyrics betray a somewhat more cynical view of a life centered around "satin sheets" and "fine cocaine." Although not as harsh as his earlier "Los Angelenos," Billy's "I've Loved These Days" reflects an uneasy ambivalence toward the indulgent "me" generation of the 1970s as epitomized by the Los Angeles lifestyle. He did love those days, but was happy to say goodbye to Hollywood and get back into a New York state of mind.
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Jim Beviglia writes an excellent review of the song in American Songwriter in 2012. He writes:
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Words and Music by Billy Joel Now we take our time so nonchalant And spend our nights so bon vivant We dress our days in silken robes The money comes the money goes We know it's all a passing phase We light our lamps for atmosphere And hang our hopes on chandeliers We're going wrong we're gaining weight We're sleeping long and far too late And so it's time to change our ways But I've loved these days Now as we indulge in things refined We hide our hearts from harder times A string of pearls, a foreign car Oh we can only go so far On caviar and cabernet We drown our doubts in dry champagne And soothe our souls with fine cocaine I don't know why I even care We get so high and get nowhere We'll have to change our jaded ways But I've loved these days So, before we end and then begin We'll drink a toast to how it's been A few more hours to be complete A few more nights on satin sheets A few more times that I can say I've loved these days Billy discusses "I've Loved These Days," from SiriusXM. 
"We'll drink a toast to how it's been . . . " Columbia Records Publicity Photo (1976). Photo by Michael Putland. |
It's unusual (and welcome) that a relatively obscure song like this from 1976 would be reviewed in 2012. American Songwriter is superb in that regard. A live version of the song is on 1981's Songs In The Attic.
