‘Captain Jack’ is a song by Billy Joel featured on his 1973 album Piano Man as its closing track with a live version on his 1981 album Songs in the Attic. It is considered by some to be the most important and pivotal of his early compositions because his performance of the song at an April 15, 1972, live radio concert at Sigma Studios on WMMR in Philadelphia, and the subsequent airplay this live version received on the station brought him to the attention of major record labels, including Columbia, with whom he would sign a recording contract in 1973.
Joel wrote ‘Captain Jack’ in late 1971, while sitting in his apartment in Oyster Bay, Long Island, looking out the window, trying to find inspiration for a song. Across the street was a housing project, and he observed suburban teenagers going into the project and obtaining heroin from a dealer known as "Captain Jack". "It's about coming out of the New York suburbs," Joel told John Kalodner in 1974. "But in my travels I have seen a lot of the same suburb all over the country. The song is sort of brutal, but sometimes it is good to be brutal and offend people—it keeps them on their toes."
The song, according to Joel, is an anti-drug song. He says, "What's so horrible about an affluent young white teenager's life that he's got to shoot heroin? It's really a song about what I consider to be a pathetic loser kind of lifestyle. I've been accused of, 'Oh, this song promotes drug use and masturbation.' No, no, no. Listen to the song. This guy is a loser." In writing about the song in the liner notes of his Songs in the Attic album, Joel once again emphasized the point: "...so many friends shovelled under the Long Island dirt. The miracle of modern chemistry killed them if Vietnam didn't."
‘Captain Jack’ was one of the 10 songs recorded in Los Angeles for Joel's Columbia debut, Piano Man. It quickly became a staple of FM rock stations after the album's release in November 1973. This, along with ‘Piano Man’, ‘The Entertainer’, and ‘New York State of Mind’, were the songs which Joel was best known for before the release of The Stranger in 1977.
Joel made his first television appearance in the wake of the release of Piano Man, on the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert program, in a performance recorded live in Chicago in March 1974. ‘Captain Jack’ was one of the three songs that were broadcast. In keeping with U.S. broadcast television standards of the time, Joel was forced to alter the lyrics slightly. Instead of singing the line "You just sit at home and masturbate", he sang, "You just sit at home and la la la". Kirshner recalled, "I knew he was going to be a big star, and so did he."
Label – Columbia
Songwriter – Billy Joel
Producer – Michael Stewart
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Saturday night, and you're still hanging around
You're tired of living in your one horse town
You'd like to find a little hole in the ground
For a while
Mmm-hmm
[Verse 2]
So, you go to the Village in your tie-dye jeans
And you stare at the junkies and the closet queens
It's like some pornographic magazine
And you smile
Mmm-hmm
[Chorus]
But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push, and you'll be smiling
Oh, yeah, yeah
[Verse 3]
Your sister's gone out, she's on a date
And you just sit at home and masturbate
Your phone is gonna ring soon but you just can't wait
For that call
Mmm-hmm
[Verse 4]
So, you stand on the corner in your new English clothes
And you look so polished from your hair down to your toes
Oh, but still your finger's gonna pick your nose
After all
Mmm-hmm, yeah
[Chorus]
But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push, you'll be smiling
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, yeah, yeah
[Verse 5]
So, you decide to take a holiday
You got your tape deck and your brand new Chevrolet
Ah, there ain't no place to go anyway
What for?
Mmm-hmm
[Verse 6]
So, you've got everything, ah, but nothing's cool
They just found your father in the swimming pool
And you guess you won't be goin' back to school
Anymore
[Chorus]
But Captain Jack can get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Oh, Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push and you'll be smiling
La-la-la
Oh, yeah, yeah
[Verse 7]
So, you play your albums and you smoke your pot
And you meet your girlfriend in the parkin' lot
Oh, but still you're aching for the things you haven't got
What went wrong?
Mmm-hmm
[Verse 8]
And if you can't understand why your world is so dead
Why you've got to keep in style and feed your head
Well, you're twenty-one, and still your mother makes your bed
And that's too long
Oh, oh, oh, woah, yeah, yeah
[Chorus]
But Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Well, now Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push and you'll be smiling
Oh, Captain Jack will get you high tonight
Take you to your special island
Well, now Captain Jack could make you die tonight
Just a little push and you’ll be smiling
Yeah, Captain Jack will get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Captain Jack will make you die tonight[Outro]
Well, now Captain Jack will make you die tonight
Just a little push and you'll be smiling