only the good die young

One of my favorite songs, by Billy Joel, is called Only the Good Die Young.
The song is a sort of plea to a young catholic girl, we must assume a plea with her to engage in carnal knowledge. I had heard the song for years and thought that it was referring to the fact that it always seems when the young die they are referred to as good. Therefore through some sort of irrational logic we might assume that the evil and immoral don't die young. Well to some extent they don't by that logic. When someone dies of bad decisions, what we in the western world consider immoral and wrong, it is almost always considered a theft. That death has stolen them is considered the injustice, not their own bad actions that resulted in their death.
But recently upon rehearing the song, and upon becoming no longer one of the good, I have determined that this relationship does not have to do with ill deeds extending your years. Yes it is true that when you are full of ill deeds the world will long think that you have lingered longer than you should have in life. However only the good die young refers to the simple fact of this: Age is wisdom. Ill deeds bring pain and wisdom in abundance. No one can deny that an evil man experiences the all of life... The good man is chained down. His purity binds shackles around him that holds him to youth, inexperience, and so when he dies, whether he be 10 or 100 he will die young. The wicked man, though I hate to call him that, will never die young. When he dies it will always be his time. That is the beauty of things, yet that is the sad way of the world.
I don't know whether or not I can completely turn myself over to the ways of pleasure and pain. At times I cannot stand them. Like a never ending funeral march it pushes on, with me at the front of the procession which at times takes up the jubilant cries and music of a parade... yet where is the destination? I see none but the grave at the moment, unless I can defeat it. I search never ending to defeat it..... Will I die young? I doubt it. I am not pure, I am not young, and most likely I am not good.