I recently rediscovered 'Vienna' by Billy Joel. I am currently obsessed. Although I am not going to Vienna, its such a great preamble for traveling. Makes me happy :]
As I was looking into the meaning behind the song, (which I often do because I think lyrics can be pretty powerful) I discovered another reason as to why I like it so much.
Billy Joel describes the song saying, "Vienna, for a long time was the crossroads. During the Cold War, between the Eastern Bloc, the Warsaw Pact nations and the NATO countries was the city of Vienna... Vienna was always the crossroads - between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. So the metaphor of Vienna has the meaning of a crossroad. It's a place of inter...course, of exchange - it's the place where cultures co-mingle. You get great beer in Vienna but you also get brandy from Armenia. It was a place where cultures co-mingled."
I also read somewhere that on a trip to Vienna, Billy Joel witnessed how the city valued the elderly. Older people are useful and still have a lot of life in them and he compares that to how the elderly are treated in other countries especially America. We have this idea that once we're over the hill, we become more and more useless. But there is so much more life to live at any age and the older we grow, the more value our life has.
"slow down you crazy child,
take the phone off the hook
and disappear for awhile.
It's alright
you can afford to lose a day or two...
when will you realize
Vienna waits for you.."
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