Album: The Nylon Curtain (1982)

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• Laura calls me
  In the middle of the night
  Passes on her
  Fateful information
  Then these careless fingers
  They get caught in her vise
  'Til they're bleeding
  On my coffee table
  
  Living alone isn't all that
  It's cracked up to be
  Oh, oh, oh
  I'm on her side
  Why does she push the poison on me?
  Oh, oh, oh, oh
  
  Laura
  Has a very hard time
  All her life has
  Been one long disaster
  Then she tells me
  She suddenly believes she's seen a very good sign
  She'll be taking
  Some aggressive action
  
  I fight her wars
  While she's slamming her doors in my face
  Oh, oh, oh
  Failure to break
  Was the only mistake that she made
  Oh, oh, oh, oh
  
  Here I am
  Feeling like a fucking fool
  Do I react the way exactly
  She intends me to?
  Every time I think I'm off the hook
  She makes me lose my cool
  I'm her machine
  And she can punch all the keys
  She can push any button I was programmed through
  
  Laura calls me
  When she needs a good fix (ah)
  All her questions
  Will get sympathetic answers
  I should be so immunized
  To all of her tricks (ah)
  She's surviving
  On her second chances
  
  Sometimes I feel like this
  Godfather deal is all wrong
  Oh, oh, oh
  How can she hold an umbilical chord
  For so long?
  Oh, oh, oh, oh
  
  I've done everything I can
  What else am I supposed to do
  I'm her machine
  And she can punch all the keys
  She can push any button I was programmed through
  
  Laura (Laura) loves me (loves me)
  Even if I don't care (if I don't care)
  That's my problem
  That's her sacred absolution
  If she had to
  She would put herself in my chair (self in my chair)
  Even though I
  Faced electrocution
  
  She always says
  I'm the best friend that she's ever had
  Oh, oh, oh
  How do you hang up on someone
  Who needs you that bad?
  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Writer/s: Billy Joel
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

• Sonnycrockett from UsaActually the guitar solo sounds like George Harrison from his solo career, not Beatles.
• Davedsone from UsaFunny as I listened to this for the first time since about 1985 my first thought was how it sounded very much like a Beatles song. Then I come here and it seems every one else thinks so too.
• Groovus Maximus from Boston, MaUnbelievable song! So great and, as noted elsewhere, very Beatle-esque!! Powerful imagery and superbly crafted lyrics; when Billy drops the F-bomb, you can tell he really means it, as he's never even come close to cursing anywhere else in his illustrious career, and it fits, too (notice the alliteration of several words which start with the same letter, a favorite literary device: "Here I am, feeling like a f**king fool"). An extremely deep, very meaningful song with which I've always identified - quite Freudian, indeed! Overlooked gem from a sadly underrated album, full of quirky, clever songs & inventive production work capturing killer performances. All hail Billy Joel...
• Ken from Louisville, KyNow that she is deceased, it has been revealed, and Joel has confirmed, that "Laura" is about his mother. She put him on a typical Jewish mother's guilt trip until she died. And since this was Joel's "Beatlesque" album, the influences from John Lennon's "Mother" jumps out. Joel even sounds like Lennon on this song.
• Randy from Reading, PaThe guitar solo is very much a Beatle-esque George Harrison solo.
  
  I dated a girl named Laura and it was very close to these lyrics.
• Kevin from Memphis , Tnyes Billy dropped the "f bomb", but it fits the mmod of the song (anger/revenge)
• Ken from Louisville, KyJoel and Phil Ramone deliberately recorded Joel's voce and piano slightly out of phase on this track. This was a studio trick the Beatles sometimes used starting with the White Album.

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