"Tomorrow Is Today" is a sad and mournful tune about despair. The singer is unable to find comfort in anything, even his music. Nothing matters, it will all be gone anyway since tomorrow is today. He is saying, basically, it's too late and there is nothing I or you can do about it anymore even though "I'm living and I'm singing, and although my hands still play, Soon enough it will all be over, Cause tomorrow is today."
Suddenly, like a booming thunder in the middle of a drab day, Billy breaks into a soulful, gospel-like baritone in the song's bridge. It is almost like a funeral dirge but Billy still pleas for someone to take notice ("I keep hopin' that you will pass my way"). 
Billy Joel and Jon Small. Source: BillyJoel.com.
According to Billy and others, the lyrics are derived from a suicide note that Billy wrote after he had broken up with his girlfriend and lost his best friend in the process, and his career seemed to be stallling. Billy's former manager, Irwin Mazur, tells the story: "He called me one night after midnight and asked me to meet him at a diner. So I go, and he tells me he’s been having this affair, and Elizabeth is threatening to leave everybody. Billy was not in the best of places. I think he was drinking. My wife and I were living in Far Rockaway, and we took him to live with us, sleeping on our couch. I get up one morning, and on a table are the words to a song I had never seen, called 'Tomorrow is Today.' One of the key lines is, 'What’s the use of always dreaming if tomorrow is today.' It was like, 'Give me the sleeping pills and let me die.' It was like a suicide note." See New York Post article.
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I've been livin' for the moment But I just can't have my way And I'm afraid to go to sleep 'Cause tomorrow is today People tell me life is sweeter But I don't hear what they say Nothing comes to change my life So tomorrow is today I don't care to know the hour 'Cause it's passing anyway I don't have to see tomorrow 'Cause I saw it yesterday So I listen for an answer But the feeling seems to stay And what's the use of always dreaming When tomorrow is today Still I'm waiting for the morning But it feels so far away And you don't need the love I'm giving So tomorrow is today Oh my, goin' to the river Gonna take a ride and the Lord will deliver me Made my bed, I'm gonna lie in it If you don't come, I'm sure gonna die in it Too late, too much given I've seen a lot of life and I'm damn sick of livin' it I keep hopin' that you will pass my way And some day if your dreams are leavin' you I'll still believe in you I don't care to know the hour 'Cause it's passing anyway I don't have to see tomorrow 'Cause I saw it yesterday Though I'm living and I'm singing And although my hands still play Soon enough it will all be over 'Cause tomorrow is today Publicity photo from 1971. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives
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Fortunately Billy survived, got back together with Elizabeth, reconciled with his friend Jon Small (who had been in The Hassles and Atilla with Billy) and Billy went on to record "Tomorrow Is Today" and many other songs. Jon eventually became a respected videographer, and later produced several of Billy's video concerts and music videos, including the excellent 1985 video for "The Night Is Still Young."
Videos
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This is a more powerful and soulful version (audio only) from the Live on WMMR concert in 1972 at Sigma Sound Studios. It features a jazzy extended electric guitar solo in the middle of the song.
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A live version from February 1972 from the television program The Session by Southern Illinois University (albeit this is only the audio). Thanks to Billy Joel Lost Tapes for re-posting this on YouTube.
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This is the original studio version from 1971 with orchestra. When Artie Ripp re-mastered it in 1983 (right), he inexplicably removed the orchestra. Thanks to Dino Nardelli for posting this 1971 version with corrected speed.
Billy discusses the song on Sirius XM radio in 2016 (audio only).
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Studio version of "Tomorrow Is Today" from the 1983 remastered album. © Sony Music Entertainment.
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