The article explains that Billy Joel’s 1973 song ‘Captain Jack’ was inspired by drug use he observed near his Long Island home, including a dealer known as Captain Jack. It matters because the song is presented not as a celebration of drugs, but as Joel’s critical portrait of suburban young people using substances to escape reality.

Joel said the name also rhymed with ‘smack’, meaning heroin, although he intended the song to address drug use generally rather than one specific substance. Looking out from his home near local housing projects, he saw friends becoming heavily intoxicated and questioned why people in comparatively comfortable suburbs felt compelled to do so.