High Pressure Situation Suits Billy Joel Just Fine

No need to come unglued. It's me here with my post honoring National Stress Awareness Day. I doubt you'll find more of an apt song to pair with this important day than "Pressure" a track which comes off of Billy Joel's uncompromising album "The Nylon Curtain". So many elements of modern life push us to the breaking point. "Pressure" is sinister enough to push every button. The initial drum beat kicks it off resoundingly. Billy, since he is "The Piano Man" after all fills the opening portion with some unflinching chord work that makes one think of a cat hissing, its hairs standing up, armed for battle. As if that wasn't unsettling enough. Then you get these synthesized passages that, at least my case, remind me of rush hour traffic at its most head-scratching. The other drivers are weaving in and out of lanes. You're already time starved as it is. For good measure let's throw in an annoying ambulance siren or three. Cut to Billy Joel's unsteady, non-reassuring delivery of blunt sentiments like: "You have to learn to pace yourself. You're just like everybody else." Each set of lyrical stanzas comes complete with a few repetitions of the title. On either side of that word, the guitar is not having any of your bullshit. The drums want to see you pulled away on a stretcher if they care to tolerate you at all. The pacing doesn't know what oxygen is all about, a masterstroke in composition. If you're a survivor or casualty of modern day crazy you have to know what having "loaded guns in your face" feels like. Maybe it's that board meeting you should have been ready for weeks ago. Maybe it's your three year old trying to climb onto the kitchen counter while forgetting balance isn't something he excels at yet. "All grown up and no place to go" certainly must strike a chord with the younger slabs of the population. Kind of proves my claim, and likely the claim of countless others, that adulthood is vastly overrated. Listening to the song by itself is all well and good but if you want to heighten the creepiness factor try watching the video too. For 1982, it was pretty sophisticated. Among other anxiety stoking delights you get to watch coffee bubble over its cup, a booze consumer struggle to keep his nerves steady enough to down his drink of choice, and a childhood version of Billy get sucked into a TV where his cries for help are heard by no one. I find it apt that, in one portion of the video, young Billy is navigating a maze, a maze I guess must represent the adult world. The entire video maps out a maze of cosmic pitfalls. A dog barks, warped alternate universe game show contestants are introduced and, back in Billy Junior's classroom, one of his classmates is having trouble with his desk because it's spitting out water. The vid can be goofy at times but keep in mind this was one year after MTV hatched. The special effects are pretty intimidating. Billy's style of delivery here ranges from unhinged to infuriated to imprisoned. That's a fine trio of adjectives that modern dwellers can't help but identify with. Did I forget Billy, at the front, and back ends of the video, is staring at a screen of rapid fire images that are broken up only by stress compounding concepts such as "MOTHER", "LOVE" and "MONEY". I've never heard of a pop song inducing a heart attack before. However, "Pressure" would be the song to punch your ticket to ICU. Billy was still in his thirties at this point, so I detect no shortage of residual angry young man lunacy. It's played up to brilliant effect. "Pressure" pulsates with very real dangers. Billy's way of mixing overt rage with contained asylum patient is stunning. You might even call a return visit to this song incredible scream therapy. It's believable therapy because the threats are disturbingly real. "Pressure" sets off each pressure valve with authority. Up to the very last note there's no where for your blood pressure to go but up.