"Galileo Can" - Physics Class Parody of Billy Joel's "Piano Man"

Visit "Billy Joel: Completely Retold" on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/211596698859371/

Back in 1992, I took a high school Physics class where we had to end with a big science project. One of the options was to write a song that involved a list of things we had learned about - the result was this parody I wrote of Billy Joel's "Piano Man," talking about all the different astronomers that gave birth to the study of Physics.

Galileo Can (A Parody of Billy Joel's "Piano Man")

Its 9 o'clock in the evening,
Constellations light up the sky -
There's an old man sitting next to me
With a telescope held up to his eye...

He says "Son, do you know Galileo
And the discoveries he made in his day?
He found stars that were new,
Discovered Sun Spots, too -
And he showed us our own Milky Way.

Show us the stars, Galileo can.
Show us the stars so bright -
Well, we're all in the mood for Astronomy...
So let's find a new star tonight.

Now first we must go back in history.
The year is 150 AD -
And a model of the universe has just been created
By a man they all called Ptolomy.

He said, "The Earth is the center of the Universe -
We are special, and that's where we belong!"
Though his knowledge was growing,
He had no way of knowing
That his Geocentric Model was wrong.

Now a thousand years later came Copernicus
And the concept of orbiting the Sun.
But it wasn't accepted
By Religion - and rejected
By practically everyone.

But the along came a man named Kepler
And his Scientific Laws numbering 3 -
And he learned from Tycho
Who knew more than I know
On observing the stars accurately.

Show us the stars, Galilen can.
Show us the stars so bright -
Well, your telescope brings
Us views of Saturn's rings -
We can almost see Neptune tonight.

The old man started talking about Newton
And his Universal Law of Gravity....
And how this theory transpired
When Newton was inspired
By an apple falling out of a tree.

When he finished, the man gave me his telescope
With its cylinder painted in gold.
He said "Soon, I'll be gone
So please promise me, son -
That you'll pass on the story I've told"

Show us the stars, Galileo can.
Show us the stars so bright -
Well, we want to see phases of Venus
And you've got us feeling all right.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Galileo
• Can
• piano
• man
• billy
• joel
• parody