This, That, and the Other

Well this is it. The final 2023 A to Z Blogging Challenge post. My theme for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge has been classic rock songs. Each day during the month (except for the first four Sundays, I posted a classic rock song: a video from YouTube, along with a brief bit of background about the song and the recording artist(s). I hope you enjoyed the songs I picked.

My Z song is “Zanzibar” from Billie Joel.

“Zanzibar” was written by Billy Joel. It first appeared on his sixth studio album, 52nd Street, released in 1978. The album was named for the famous street in Manhattan that housed several jazz clubs in the ’40s and ’50s. Keeping with the theme, Joel wanted to write a tune about Zanzibar, the East African island where Freddie Mercury was born, because he thought it sounded like a jazzy title.

When Joel brought the idea to his producer, Phil Ramone, Ramone though the name sounded more like a sports bar than an exotic locale. Joel ran with the idea and wrote a jazzy tune about a barfly who falls in love with a waitress at a sports bar.

“Zanzibar” allowed Joel to showcase his versatility by creating a jazzy mood inspired by the musicians he grew up on. What emerged was a solid pop/rock tune adorned with tasteful elements of hot and cool jazz. The smitten bar patron in the song, who admits he’s “just another face at Zanzibar,” looked to sports figures like Muhammad Ali and Pete Rose, and the baseball team the New York Yankees, who were the World Champions at the time, to give him the courage to take a swing at romance with the waitress.

The lyrics also used a baseball expression as a sexual metaphor when the singer wants to steal second base with a waitress in the bar if the waitress will allow it.

After baseball player Pete Rose’s fall from grace in 1989, when he became permanently ineligible from baseball for allegedly gambling on baseball games during his time with the Cincinnati Reds, Joel changed the lyric “Rose, he knows he’s such a credit to the game,” to “Rose, he knows he’ll never reach the Hall of Fame” during live performances.

Here are the lyrics to “Zanzibar.”

Ali dances and the audience applauds
Though he's bathed in sweat he hasn't lost his style
Ali don't you go downtown
You gave away another round for free

Me, I'm just another face at Zanzibar
But the waitress always serves a secret smile
She's waiting out in Shantytown
She's gonna pull the curtains down for me, for me

I've got the old man's car
I've got a jazz guitar
I've got a tab at Zanzibar
Tonight that's where I'll be, I'll be

Rose, he knows he's such a credit to the game
But the Yankees grab the headline every time
Melodrama's so much fun
In black and white for everyone to see

Me, I'm trying just to get to second base
And I'd steal it if she only gave the sign
She's gonna give the go head
The inning isn't over yet for me, for me

I've got the old man's car
I've got a jazz guitar
I've got a tab at Zanzibar
Tonight that's where I'll be

Tell the waitress I'll come back to Zanzibar
I'll be hiding in the darkness with my beer
She's waiting out in Shantytown
She's gonna pull the curtains down for me, for me

I've got the old man's car
I've got a jazz guitar
I've got a tab at Zanzibar
Tonight that's where I'll be

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Previous 2023 A to Z posts: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y