All your past sins are since past
You should be sleeping It's all right, sleep tight Through the long night with me As with his other albums, Billy closes out Glass Houses with a ballad "Through The Long Night." This is another underappreciated song. It is one of Billy's most tender and vulnerable songs. Unlike his other song lyrics which tend to be very literal or tell a story, the lyrics in "Through The Long Night" are more impressionistic. The song opens with: "the cold hands, the sad eyes, the dark Irish silence," and speaks of unidentified "past sins" which are "since past." This seems like a foreshadowing of the type of lyrics and songs that would appear in Billy's next studio album, The Nylon Curtain.
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The cold hands, the sad eyes
The dark Irish silence It's so late, but I'll wait Through the long night with you With you The warm tears, the bad dreams The soft trembling shoulders The old fears, but I'm here Through the long night with you With you Oh, what has it cost you I almost lost you A long, long time ago Oh, you should have told me But you had to bleed to know All your past sins are since past You should be sleeping It's all right, sleep tight Through the long night with me With me No, I didn't start it You're broken hearted From a long, long time ago Oh, the way you hold me Is all that I need to know And it's so late, but I'll wait Through the long night with you With you Vertical Divider
This is not a simple "I love you" or "I want you" song. This is a more mature and complex song. Billy has said that the song came about when he was helping someone close to him (later revealed to be his sister Judy) overcome emotional trauma. He stayed with that person, lending his emotional support, helping that person to grieve the loss of a loved one, and watching that person sleep (Note: the Glass Houses album is dedicated to Patrick Driscoll who apparently was engaged to Billy's sister Judy, but passed away in a car accident). It's an intensely personal song, but the beauty of the lyrics is that they are more universal and could be interpreted in many ways.
In the video below, during a Q&A session, Billy explains the story behind "Through The Long Night." It's a very Irish song, he says (in my opinion it is similar in theme and tone to James Joyce's The Dead) and he explains that the song came to him while he was watching someone (Judy) who was undergoing emotional turmoil and had fallen asleep like in Pablo Picasso's series of paintings. Musically, the song is reminiscent of The Beatles' "Yesterday," though Billy has said that he had "Yes It Is" in mind. Like most of the songs on side two of Glass Houses, "Through The Long Night" did not get much recognition and is rarely played, but hardcore Billy Joel fans are fond of this sad and introspective ballad. |
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Billy received the Grammy Award for "Best Rock Performance, Male" for Glass Houses in 1981, but in "Through The Long Night" Billy demonstrates that he can still create a very poignant and touching ballad. It is one of his most underrated songs, and is little-known except to Billy's most ardent fans.
"And it's so late but I'll wait, through the long night with you. With you." |
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