The Billy Joel song inspired by Mick Jagger
Entranced by classic rock ‘n’ roll artists of the 1950s, Billy Joel was still just like any other young American music fanatic until he discovered The Beatles during their famous debut on US television. When a 14-year-old Joel sat in front of his television for the Ed O’Sullivan Show on February 9th, 1964, coherent aspirations began to materialise.
“That one performance changed my life,” Joel once recalled via TV Guide Magazine. “Up to that moment, I’d never considered playing rock as a career. And when I saw four guys who didn’t look like they’d come out of the Hollywood star mill, who played their own songs and instruments, and especially because you could see this look in John Lennon’s face – and he looked like he was always saying: ‘Fuck you!’ — I said: ‘I know these guys, I can relate to these guys, I am these guys. This is what I’m going to do — play in a rock band.'”
Cut to 1988, and Joel found himself at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions ceremony, sharing the stage with George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Ringo Starr, Jeff Beck and several other huge names in the business. Alongside this army of talent, Joel sang The Beatles’ early classic ‘I Saw Her Standing There’.
Needless to say, at some point during this performance, Joel had to pinch himself, having found his footing as a rockstar following the example of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Throughout his long and varied career, Joel has rarely spared an opportunity to profess his love for these two British Invasion phenomena and has, on several occasions, referred to them in his music.
For instance, the inspired composition of Joel’s 1977 classic ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ was inspired by The Beatles’ masterful ‘Abbey Road Medley’ and the following year, he was inspired by Mick Jagger to record ‘Big Shot’.
‘Big Shot’ was the opening song on Joel’s 1978 album 52nd Street. Although the lyrics don’t directly refer to the Rolling Stones’ frontman, Joel revealed during a 2010 appearance on The Howard Stern Show that it was written from Jagger’s perspective.
The song comprises a rather confrontational collection of words Joel imagined Jagger directing towards Bianca Jagger, his wife of seven years, whom he divorced in 1978.
“Well, you went uptown riding in your limousine/ With your fine Park Avenue clothes/ You had the Dom Pérignon in your hand/ And the spoon up your nose/ And when you wake up in the morning/ With your head on fire/ And your eyes too bloody to see/ Go on and cry in your coffee/ But don’t come bitchin’ to me,” the first verse reads.
In 2016, Joel revealed another facade to the lyrics, describing it as a self-loathing hangover song directed at the mirror. “I don’t know how many mornings I’ve woken up, looked in the mirror, and seen this hungover, bloodshot eyes, unshaven, messy… ‘You had to big shot, didn’t ya? You had to open up your mouth. You had to have the spotlight. You had to be a big shot last night,'” Joel explained. “Believe me, I’ve done a lot of research for it. I know what I’m talking about. It’s a hangover song.”
Listen to Billy Joel’s ‘Big Shot’ below.
