Piano Man" is a fictionalized retelling of Billy
Joel’s own struggles in 1972–73.
While hiding out in Los Angeles to escape a bad record contract, he worked as a lounge pianist at a bar called The Executive Room.
(1860) Billy Joel - Piano Man (Original Video) - YouTube
Going by the alias "Bill Martin", he observed and wrote about the real, everyday bar patrons, transforming their broken dreams and quiet routines into a classic vignette of American loneliness.
The Real-Life Characters
Almost every lyric in the song was inspired by someone Joel met while playing his gig. According to interviews and breakdowns, the real-life counterparts include:
The "Old Man": A regular named Mr. Brady who always ordered a "tonic and gin"
John the Bartender: The employee who provided free drinks, lights, and a lot of jokes, but dreamed of being a movie star.
Paul: A real estate broker by day who would drunkenly rant about writing the "Great American Novel".
- Davy: A regular who served in the Navy.
- The Waitress: Joel's first wife, Elizabeth, who was
working at the bar and whom Joel affectionately described in the lyrics as
"practicing politics."
When I wore a “younger man’s clothes”,
the place my Catholic youth group went to on a Friday nights was a place called
Hafner’s in Roseville,
Minnesota.
It started as a basement bowling alley
in 1959, and eventually grew to include bowling allies in both the basement and
the main floor, and it also included a restaurant called the Lord Aldon Inn -
as well as a piano bar.
Ultimately, Hafner's became a victim
of urban sprawl, and the entire block was razed in 2002. The last mention in the Minneapolis
Star Tribune of the address is in March 2003, in an RFP
looking for development of the block for market rate housing. As of May
2019, no construction has occurred.
The following
article appeared in the East Side Review on August 9,
2015, written by Patrick Larkin.
Hafner lot, long empty, on market: NENDC hoping flea market,
food trucks will draw attention to the spot
Just south of the
border with Maplewood, a bare and disheveled piece of pavement has sat empty
for over a decade at 1590 White Bear Ave.
The lot once held a
bustling shopping center emblematic of the strip mall format of the 1950’s,
called Hafner’s. Hafner’s was a pillar of the Hillcrest shopping area along
White Bear Avenue, just south of Larpenteur Avenue and St. Paul’s border with
Maplewood.
Hafner’s held a
bowling alley, restaurant and lounge along with several other commercial
entities including a barber and a chiropractor. It was a booming mall with
parking and a gas station. But slowly, business faded, in part due to changing
times, suburban shopping centers, freeways, and the like. It changed owners multiple
times, and the building slowly fell into disrepair.
By the time St.
Paul’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority acquired the land in 2002, it was on
its last legs. The city bought and demolished the place, and shored up the 2.18
acre lot for redevelopment.
Now for the first
time since it was razed, the North East Neighborhood Development Company, which
now manages the lot through its real estate brokerage, Capitol Brokerage, put
it on the market this spring, hoping to draw in a developer to the blank spot on
White Bear Avenue.
It was first listed
on March 17, and according to NENDC’s Chuck Repke, it has attracted some modest
amount of interest from developers, although nothing’s solidified.
To keep the site
active, NENDC is allowing it to be used by two food trucks — a taco truck and a
deli truck — as well as a church, which will use the lot to hold flea markets.
Mixed use possibilities
Dave Gontarek,
project manager in St. Paul’s Planning and Economic Development department,
said the place has been informally on the market since the HRA acquired the
property more than a decade ago.
Through those years,
he said they’ve heard some interest in the parcel, including a church group
looking to build a restaurant, but the proposed uses didn’t add up to enough
density to satisfy Hillcrest’s small area plan.
The price tag for
the empty concrete lot is $1.3 million, and the purchase and development of the
lot is subject to the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s approval.
“With that,” Repke
noted, “the price becomes flexible based on how enthused the city is.
“The more positive
the benefit to the neighborhood, the more likely the city is to come down on
the price.”
Repke said he’s
pulling for a mixed use or commercial development — a smaller grocery store
like Trader Joe’s, or an apartment building with storefront retail on the main
level.
However, for
residential uses to be approved, the site would need significant cleanup —
there used to be a Clark gas station in the front portion of the lot, which had
leaky gas tanks. Those old wells would need to be removed, and soil remediation
would likely be needed.
‘Heck of an enterprise’
Repke said that
bringing in an anchor building to the dated shopping district would be a good
way to keep the place viable.
Though vacancy rates
in the commercial buildings along the corridor are low, it takes a significant
amount of time to find new tenants when one moves out, he said.
The goal would be to
have a store with some draw, that would make the whole corridor more active, so
prospective tenants were approaching the building owners, rather than the other
way around.
“I want people to
see it as a retail site,” Repke said. “I figured over the course of the summer
we would fill it up with things happening and draw a little attention to it.”
“There’s 19,000 cars
going past that property every day,” he added. “That ought to be enough
customers for almost anybody to figure out how to make a buck.”
Gary Unger, who
lives just a few blocks from the site, used to pump gas at the gas station in
front of Hafner’s, and also used to set pins at the lanes.
He can recall
Hafner’s in it’s full glory.
“It was a heck of an
enterprise,” he said, adding that the place was spick and span.
“It was the cleanest
place you’ve ever seen in your life… the sanitation around there, it was second
to none.”
With the idea of a
new development coming to the spot, he said he’d like to see a destination
store go in.
While White Bear
Avenue was once a happening commercial strip; it’s now a bit more off the
beaten path, he said. He pointed out that as the suburbs flared out, White Bear
Avenue connected to the Maplewood Mall, as well as the high-speed roadways
Minnesota 36 and Interstate 694, which connect to various suburban shopping
facilities, leaving the once bustling commercial corridor as just a connector.
Alcohol
consumption has declined significantly In America since 1976. The percentage of
U.S. adults who report drinking alcohol dropped to 54%. This is a sharp
decrease from the record high of 71% recorded consistently between 1976 and
1978, representing the lowest drinking rate in nearly 90 years.
This historical shift away from alcohol is documented by several overarching trends:
- Shifting Demographics: The decline is especially pronounced among women and young adults.
For instance, between 2023 and 2025, the rate of women who reported
drinking alcohol dropped by 11 percentage points.
- Reduced Volume: Among those who still drink, the average number of drinks consumed
per week has fallen to 2.8—the lowest figure recorded since 1996
- Driving Factors: Experts attribute this drop to an increased public awareness of the
health risks associated with even moderate drinking, as well as a growing
preference for alcohol alternatives like cannabis and low-ABV options.
Billy Joel himself struggled with alcohol for decades, which is
why has been married 4 times.
He
went to rehab twice (in 2002 and 2005), and his heavy drinking contributed to
the breakdowns of his first three marriages. His second wife, Christie
Brinkley, has referred to alcohol as "the other woman" in their
relationship, while his third wife, Katie Lee, gave him an ultimatum to go to
treatment.
Joel has historically used alcohol to self-medicate through deep depression. He has struggled with mental health and trauma from an early age, including surviving the abandonment of his father, two suicide attempts in his early twenties, and a deep mental fog following the September 11 attacks.
Hafner’s no longer exists, but if still wanted to go to a piano bar, they still exist, and the best ones in the country are listed below:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g191-Activities-c20-t106-United_States.html
If you find a place you like, find the piano player, and put some bread in his jar.
Billy Joel would understand.
