Old City Bar and Piano Man

[Mangar]

Has anyone from the band ever acknowledged that Old City Bar probably takes some cues from Piano Man?

• They have nearly identical chord progressions (OCB is in Bb, Piano Man is in C).
  
• They're both in 3/4 time.
  
• The lyrics detail lonely people in a bar.
  

Interesting.  As a long time fan of both Billy and TSO, I'm ashamed to say I never made the connection.
On the other hand, I once noticed that "Believe" has a very similar chord progression to the verse of the much less well-known Billy Joel song, "Worse Comes To Worst," from the Piano Man album.