Laura

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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