Vienna

#24 by Billy Joel

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s prompt, Classy Girls, by the Lumineers! Be sure to check out our Headliner by Gray, Classe' Girls, if you missed it. What a great read! And I’m so excited to see what y’all come up with this week!

Week #23 Feature🏆

This week’s Feature goes to Anne J Sharp, for her short story titled, A Real Gem. It’s a wonderful story, with a twist at the end that I think Wesley Schultz and his band mates would absolutely approve of!

Greg watches the girl he’d been working on all night stagger out of the Ladies room. The blue and white plaid shirt slips off her right shoulder, revealing her braless beneath the thin material of a white tank top. He feeds a few coins into the old-time jukebox strategically tucked into a dark paneled corner, inches clear from being an obstruction to even the most flamboyant of pool cue thrusters.

A Real Gem

Trina pulls out of his grasp and lifts her drink straw to her lips, takes a long pull, then slams the glass onto the bar top. “Already told you, bub. Momma always said, Classy is as classy does. Ain’t no classy girls gonna be kissin’ on a stranger at the bar.”

Curious to read other Feature 🏆 Award Winners? I’ve created an Awards Page to serve as an index for all our Featured Stories!

---

Here’s this week’s prompt, Vienna, by Billy Joel!

Calling all Poets, Fiction, or Non-Fiction writers that love music — Share your prose of 1500 words or less, using the prompt, Vienna.

Remember:

• Each Tuesday I’ll publish a newsletter with that week’s song prompt — along with a featured writer’s submission from the previous week.

• Anyone is then free to run with it! Just add the link to your story or prose in the comments of this newsletter.

• Subscribers to Stories from the Jukebox, also have a chance to be featured in the following week’s newsletter. And I’ll do my best to give feedback and restack each submission.

There’s always rules:

1. All forms of prose are welcome, just keep it under 1500 words.

2. Submissions must be published by midnight on Monday.

3. Submissions must include a tag/link to this week’s Song Prompt Newsletter embedded within the post.

   While anyone is welcome to add their post in the comments at any time — all rules must be followed for a post to be eligible to be featured or shared.

---

"Vienna" is a song from Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger, originally released as the B-side to the single "Just the Way You Are". (Wikipedia)

Lyrically, Joel was inspired by visiting the city of Vienna and his father, who left the family when Joel was a child. Joel has stated that "Vienna" is a metaphor for old age, but also may have been subconsciously about his father.

Speaking more broadly about the song's message, he said in a 2008 interview that it conveys "you don't have to squeeze your whole life into your 20s and 30s trying to make it, trying to achieve that American dream, getting in the rat race and killing yourself. You have a whole life to live. I kind of used 'Vienna' as a metaphor, there is a reason for being old, a purpose".

He also said: "We treat old people in this country pretty badly. We put them in rest homes, we kinda kick them under the rug and make believe they don’t exist. They [the people in Vienna] don’t feel like that. In a lot of these older places in the world, they value their older people and their older people feel they can still be a part of the community and I thought 'This is a terrific idea' – that old people are useful – and that means I don’t have to worry so much about getting old because I can still have a use in this world in my old age. I thought 'Vienna waits for you…

In a July 2008 New York Times article, Joel cited this as one of his two favorite songs, along with "Summer, Highland Falls" (from his album, Turnstiles).

---

This week’s prompt was the runner up in our Christmas Poll. I fell in love with it’s message, and while I was happy with our winner, Colder Weather, I was secretly rooting for, Vienna.

My next week as Headliner will be, March 10th. And I’m taking requests! Readers, add your song choice in the comments!

---

Here’s this week’s Headliner, Permission to Do it Scared!

“Sometimes it’s easier to stand still than to move. If a current is coming, you try to stand in the hopes it won’t knock you over.” -Michelle Buck

Permission to Do it Scared

There is this fear that moving might be the wrong choice. What if I fail? What if it ends badly?

We forget that we learn so much in that messy middle of it all.

It is this feeling of being stuck when we actually CAN move. We choose not to.

I had an entirely different plan for this week’s Headliner — I was going to use my own post titled, The Future Is Now. But as I read Michelle’s essay yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel as though it needed to be shared with you all today. I think that her message here, is exactly what Joel is attempting to portray in this song. And I hope that it’ll inspire you to take the next step towards your dreams!

Oh, and here’s a link to my own essay and announcement post, anyway.😉

---

I’m so excited to see what y’all come up with this week!

Thanks for reading this edition of Stories from the Jukebox! If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends and clicking that ❤ button, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. If you’re an email reader, just hit reply—I want to hear from you too!

Don’t like commitments, but still want to support my writing? You can make a one-time contribution here.

---