American and Canadian diplomacy and free trade. "You sold yourself to another one " and " we raise the white flag
So they can paint it red and blue
Getting into bed seemed easy enough
Getting out's a little harder to do "

You're reading into it too much I think. Joel doesn't really do politics. It's more about lost love.

I think he lost a girl to an american.

the beauty of most of joel's music is that it doesn't make you think too much, so deaddisco i think you've got it all wrong

I think deaddisco makes perfect sense, I never thought about that, It can have multiple meanings, 2 meanings that deep would show you how great a songwriter he is! It is after all about loveing canada and waking up in the night to hear the CBC's ringing color bars come on.

And less importantly He does like some Billy Joel......."sleeping with the television on"

the song is both political and a story of lost love. joel is deffinetly an great song writer... when he plays the song live he even says it is a love story with a political side.

I agree that this song must in some way be about politics. However, there is an emotional side to it. Some interesting political things though. Obviously the "put up the white flag so we can paint it red and blue" could be a sarcastic remark about how canadians let their culture be dominated by american's. Or it could be about free trade. The like a broken record but the records' still spinning line is very clever. Does anyone remember when Reagan and Mulroney sang irish eyes on national tv. Although likely not related there is a musical connection between politicians and these two countries. Another one..."Getting into bed seemed easy enough
Getting out's a little harder to do
"...I believe trudeau said that living next to america is like sleeping in a bed with an elephant...whenever it moves you notice, whether it is good or bad...or this lyric could be about getting into bed with the americans through free trade, but now that we see some of the negative effects (i dunno when this was written but softwood lumber sticks out in my mind) and we want out it is difficult. I am not going to comment on the obvious lyrics about our national anthems. Also, some have said it is part about politics and part about a relationship. Well I believe Canada and the United States have a relationship. A pretty darn important one (we are the worlds largest trading border). So he could actually be using a real life relationship as a metaphor for the one between these two fine nations. Anyways, hope that brings some good insight to the political aspects of the song as i interperet them.

good song

Joel introduced it as a love song for people and places when he performed it with the nova scotia symphony. It's always seemed more of a love song to me than a politcal song. Sort of the ultimate Canadian love song in that we'll compare our lost loves to our relationship with America.

i always thought this one was about falling in love with a prostitute.. maybe im taking the lyrics too literally. but "patriot" is the love of your country, the love of something that can't love you in return. loving a hooker would probably be pretty close to that, don't you think :P