C. S. Lewis famously used the German word Sehnsucht to describe the “inconsolable longing” at the heart of human experience – a wistful yearning for “our own far-off country…for something that has never actually appeared in our experience”. In his memoir Surprised by Joy and essays like The Weight of Glory, Lewis characterizes this longing (which he calls “Joy”) as a bittersweet pang that points beyond any earthly satisfaction. Lewis argues that if our desires “can only be truly mollified by the highest of powers,” then we were likely “made for another world”. In other words, the very existence of unsatisfied desire suggests a divine aim: human souls are meant for something eternal beyond time. Indeed, Lewis warns that modern culture often tries to silence this inner voice – calling it mere nostalgia or romance – and instead encourages us to seek all “the good of man…on this earth”.
Against this backdrop, Billy Joel’s 1973 song “Piano Man” can be heard as a secular portrait of Sehnsucht’s emotional texture. The song’s narrator is a barroom piano player observing a “regular crowd” of patrons each haunted by unfulfilled dreams. Characters like an old man lament youth (“when I wore a younger man’s clothes”), a friendly bartender John jokes away sorrow even as he confides “I believe this is killing me,” and a would-be novelist Paul nurses regrets of roads not taken. Joel even names John and Paul explicitly, and we meet a waitress (Joel’s then-wife Elizabeth) and other lonely drinkers. As one account notes, “most of these characters have broken or unfulfilled dreams, and the pianist’s job is to help them ‘forget about life for a while’”. In short, the song’s verses sketch people trapped in longing and dissatisfaction, while the communal refrain begs, “Sing us a song… tonight… you’ve got us feeling alright.” The narrative is a tableau of Sehnsucht-like yearning in an all-too-human setting.
- Old Man at the Bar: An older patron drinks alone and asks for a melody “of memory,” mourning the loss of youthful joys. His song is “sad and sweet,” a poignant request that intertwines nostalgia with sorrow.
- John the Bartender: The amiable bartender who collects tips and frees the narrator’s drinks. John cracks jokes and is the life of the party, yet ruefully admits, “Bill, I believe this is killing me.” In a twist, he confesses that he’d trade it all to become a movie star if only he could escape his barroom fate.
- Paul the Real-Estate Novelist & Others: Paul is a would-be writer stuck selling property, and he chats with Davy, a sailor resigned to the Navy for life. Both represent dreams deferred. Around them, businessmen and regulars drown their isolation, “sharing a drink they call loneliness” instead of confronting it.
These figures use the bar’s temporal comforts – liquor, music, banter – as salves. The “melancholy” waltz rhythm of the tune (in 3/4 time) and Joel’s plaintive harmonica imbue the song with a reflective, minor-key wistfulness. Musicologist Alex Harris notes that the harmonica adds “a layer of melancholy and introspection” while the piano carries the melody, giving the song a conversational, intimate feel. Even as patrons “feel all right” for the moment, the tonal mood remains bittersweet. As one analysis observes, “Piano Man” explores “themes of loneliness, dashed dreams, and the power of music to provide temporary solace”. Indeed, each nightly sing-along temporarily lifts the crowd, but only enough to blunt the ache of longing – not to satisfy it.
Put plainly, “Piano Man” captures Sehnsucht’s emotional texture – the painful sweetness of yearning – without offering any transcendent answer. Its characters are left in limbo. The bar provides escape but no real fulfillment. As Lewis himself might note, the patrons are effectively worshiping “scent[s] of a flower we have not found” and “echo[s] of a tune we have not heard”. In Weight of Glory Lewis cautions that when we mistake fleeting pleasures or nostalgia for the ultimate good, these become “dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers”. In “Piano Man,” the customers treat the piano’s melodies, alcohol, and jokes as idols of comfort; they function as images of what they truly desire. But (as Lewis would insist) these earthly images “were good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols”. The song’s communal refrain (“we’re all in the mood for a melody”) is joyous in the moment, yet it ultimately circles back to an unchanged reality the next morning.
By contrast, Lewis’s view of Sehnsucht is inherently hopeful and theistic. He argues that the pangs of joy (“an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction”) are a permanent feature of our soul. In Weight of Glory he explicitly connects this longing to the divine: we feel this vague ache “even now” because we belong to our “own far off country,” not this world. He famously teaches that “if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy…we were made for another world” – a “better country, even a heavenly one” as Hebrews 11:16 says. In Lewis’s Christian framework, then, Sehnsucht is a gift from God: it’s not mere sentimentalism but a pointer to eternity. Lewis writes that moments of Joy (Sehnsucht) are sparks that remind us of that larger reality. For example, a sudden, unbidden vision of wonder (like “the morning cobwebs in late summer” or “the noise of falling waves”) can awaken a wave of longing he calls “Joy,” hinting at ultimate fulfillment. In Surprised by Joy, Lewis even recounts how a glimpse of Norse sagas flooded him with a “vision of huge, clear spaces…[,] the knowledge that I was returning…to my own country” – experiences he later recognized as preludes to his spiritual conversion.
Crucially, Lewis does not leave these desires unsatisfied. In Mere Christianity, he reasons that every real desire has a real object (a classical argument a la Thomas Aquinas). By implication, our restless longing for something beyond merely temporary pleasures finds its answer in God: the One who fulfills all desires. In The Weight of Glory he frames it starkly: “Almost our whole education has been directed to silencing this shy, persistent, inner voice; almost all our modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth” – and thus they deceive us. His remedy is to reawaken that “inner voice” and recall that heaven, not horizontal existence, is our true destiny.
The difference could not be clearer when put alongside Billy Joel’s narrative. In “Piano Man,” solace from yearning comes only through more worldly means – songs, whiskey, camaraderie – yet Lewis would call this “an evil enchantment of worldliness”. The patrons sing to forget their emptiness; but Lewis warns that “spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them”. In the song there is no mention or hint of God, faith, or any enduring “happiness he has lost” (to borrow Longenecker’s words). Instead, the characters wink at their longing, cracking jokes or humming karaoke. As one commentator notes, they share a drink “they call loneliness”, preferring that temporary escape to the pain of longing itself. This is precisely what Lewis decries as mistaking an “image” for the reality: the patrons are deceived into treating barroom amusements as if they were ultimate joys, though all the while “the secrets which hurt so much” remain unsolved.
By contrast, Lewis would say genuine Joy (Sehnsucht) demands a transcendent solution. For him, even cinematic and literary pleasures (like Wagnerian opera or mythical sagas) were never ends in themselves but means to ignite a yearning for God. In “Piano Man,” the musical notes are cathartic but finite – they leave the crowd “feeling all right” only momentarily, before the next Saturday night begins. In Lewis’s terms, the song’s characters catch a glimpse of Sehnsucht in their melancholy tune, but unlike Lewis’s pilgrim, they never pursue the “castle” on the horizon. They are “rather wrapped up in masks,” as Lewis said of the world’s diversions – attractive but incapable of satisfying.
Ultimately, then, “Piano Man” dramatizes Sehnsucht’s longing yet embodies a fundamentally different conclusion. Billy Joel’s narrative is yearning without resolution: it faithfully paints the ache of dreams deferred, but the only completion offered is night’s end. Lewis’s Sehnsucht, however, is longing with purpose; it’s a cue to faith. As Lewis concludes in The Weight of Glory, if we truly feel these desires, the most logical conclusion is that “we were made for another world” where they will be finally fulfilled. In the barroom of “Piano Man,” every melody ends – and we move on. In Lewis’s vision, our deepest melody continues beyond the bar, into the eternal joy for which we were always meant.
References: Lewis’s writings (autobiography, essays) and related scholarship inform this analysis of lyrics, tone, and theology.
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