Album of the Day #155: 52ND STREET - Billy Joel

Artist: Billy Joel

Title: 52nd Street

Label: Columbia

Year: 1978

Songs: Big Shot/Honesty/My Life/Zanzibar/Stiletto/Rosalinda's Eyes/Half A Mile Away/Until The Night/52nd Street

Written by: Billy Joel

Produced by: Phil Ramone In Association With Home Run

Thoughts: Inside the bad album cover sits a good record, if a little disappointing after the grandiosity of The Stranger. What makes it disappointing is the fact that it copies its' predecessor, not quite exactly, but there are far too many similarities. Ramone's production is pretty much the same but at least he shows the knack of knowing which songs to over-do and which ones need an understatement.

One of the major stylistic changes though isn't in the musical sense, but it is in Joel's lyrical direction. On The Stranger, there are more personal songs, like "Just The Way You Are" and "She's Always A Woman". On 52nd Street, though, the songs are more character driven and obviously not about himself. These are characters and situations that might only find homes on 52nd Street in New York.

Aside from the hit singles, I think "Honesty" is easily a central masterpiece on the album. It's such a beautiful song (and ain't it the truth?) that balances out the harder stuff, like the excellent side two opener "Stiletto". Whenever I listen to the album, I still find that "Rosalinda's Eyes" and "Half A Mile Away" fall a little flat, but thankfully "Until The Night" has the ability to lift side two a little bit so it doesn't feel like the entire side is filler. However, the quick "52nd Street" ending is a little silly and I really think Joel would have been better off ending the LP with "Until The Night", even if it does only make it an eight-track album.

From a non-critical point-of-view, it is still an enjoyable album, but I still think The Stranger deserved a little bit of a better sequel.

Album of the Day #128: SONGS IN THE ATTIC - Billy Joel

Title: Songs In The Attic
Artist: Billy Joel
Label: Columbia
Year: 1981
Songs: Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)/Summer, Highland Falls/Streetlife Serenader/Los Angelenos/She's Got A Way/Everybody Loves You Now/Say Goodbye To Hollywood/Captain Jack/You're My Home/The Ballad Of Billy The Kid/I've Loved These Days
Written by: Billy Joel
Produced by: Phil Ramone
Thoughts: Some live albums are boring for a variety of reasons. The artist might be completely out of it, the recording might sound terrible after poor production, the spark that you get at a show might be missing or the track list might be a boring selection of hits. However, none of these apply to Songs In The Attic, which could hardly be called boring. On record, these songs are rather sterile, with Joel backed by a set of nameless studio musicians that he was forced to work with. Here, though, the songs are on fire. Joel is backed by his own band and they make songs like "Captain Jack" and "Miami 2017" more powerful than their rather drab counterparts on Piano Man and Turnstiles, respectively.
Joel is really one of those artists that feeds off the power of an audience, so most of these songs have a lot more energy than anything he could have recorded in the studio. Also, Phil Ramone did a great job of capturing the sound of the shows and the 1998 remastrered release makes you feel even closer to the stage.
The great thing about the record is that it's a lot more unique than other live LPs. The tracks are songs that he knew his new audience, the one that finally found out who he was with The Stranger, would be unfamiliar with. While he used it as a stop-gap release (between Glass Houses and The Nylon Curtain) he made it a lot more interesting than a hits collection or a boring live album with songs that his audience was familiar with. Overall, this is a great set and a live album that one probably should not be without.

"You're Only Human (Second Wind)", "The Night Is Still Young" And Blog News

I've recently started a miniature Billy Joel kick (I call it miniature because it can't possibly stand up to this insane addiction to Bob Dylan that I've come over) and after listening to An Innocent Man today, I decided to listen to "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young".
These two songs were never released on a studio album and can only be found on Greatest Hits, Volumes I & II and were his only activity between 1983's An Innocent Man and 1986's The Bridge. Both of them are amazing works, showing how versatile Joel's writing skills had become by 1985.
Neither really fit with those two albums. They couldn't possibly be on An Innocent Man because they go against the nostalgia that plagues all ten songs on that album. They would have stuck out like sore thumbs on The Bridge, where they would have easily had been the best material on a mediocre album.
When I first heard them (so many years ago as a kid...GH, Vols. I & II was easily my mom's favorite cassette), "You're Only Human" blew my mind. I loved the upbeat synthesizers and the message came across to me immediately. Joel was just ushering you to be patient, that everyone makes mistakes and you'll learn from them and move forward.
I had a lot more trouble with "The Night Is Still Young". I always figured that I'd have to grow up to get it. After all, how was a kid supposed to understand "I wanna keep makin' love to you/while the night is still young"? That's childish naivete for you. Anyway, now I sort of get why the song is so powerful and a nice cecendo to his career up to 1985 (it was the last song on the album). Still, as a singular song, it took me a while to warm up to it. It felt clunky...like he was trying to0 hard to come up with a song to put at the end of his Hits record. The lyrics are weird ("I'm young enough to see the passionate boy that I used to be..." is kind of an odd way to start a song) and his vocal is so strange. Before this song, we never heard Billy sing in such a low register...almost like he really was this old fart singing about his past life. I got to get to bed early, so let's do it now, while I'm up...It's sick, but that's sort of the idea you get from hearing this song. Considering he was only 36 at the time, it really makes you wonder.
Moving on...and where exactly am I going with this?
I really like these two songs. They're hidden gems and the fact that you can only get them on a Hits collection is annoying. The covers on 1997's GH, Vol. III suck, but they still got on My Lives. What about these two wonderful songs? Fans have to buy GH, Vols. I & II in order to get both songs...and you have to admit, buying the same song over and over again sucks. (I mean, how many different ways do I need "Piano Man"?) Thanks to digital technology, though, you can download the two songs seperately, which I suggest you do now, if you don't have them already. If you do, listen to them again. Aren't they awesome?

***

In other news, Finals week at Hofstra University is in full flight, meaning that this week is going to be pretty quiet on here. Also, I was thinking that, with 2008 being put to rest, I would put to rest the name "Vintage Clothes". Sometime next week, I'm going to make the switch...and I know it'll bring a lot of issues up. I'll have to change up the Mogulus account and I'm actually considering getting rid of the podcast anyway. I've begun to realize that I'm stretching myself too thin and I really want to devote the time to writing. Besides, who wants to hear me talk anyway? Like Jack Warner said, "Who wants to hear actors talk?"...well, who wants to hear writers talk?

Album Of The Day #120: ATTILA

Title: Attila
Artist: Attila
Label: Epic
Released: 1970
Songs: Wonder Woman/California Flash/Revenge Is Sweet/Amplifier Fire/Rollin’ Home/Tear This Castle Down/Holy Moses/Brain Invasion
Written by: William Joel & Jonathan Small
Produced by: Attila
Thoughts: Billy Joel made an awful lot of bad mistakes at the beginning of his recording career…although…calling Attila a mistake is sort of making a compliment.
The plan is definitely unique. Joel and Small, two ex-Hassles, created a duo that featured just organ and drums. Sure it could work, if the two actually decided to write songs. Instead, you’ve got eight tracks of noise, really. It sounds as if they booked studio time and Billy just banged at his organ and Small banged at his drums.
It might surprise you (and actually, I’m surprising myself by typing this), but there are some highlights (sparingly few, to be more precise). “California Flash” is really the only attempt at a true song with a story…at least it proves they were trying. The instrumental, eight minute assault of “Amplifier Fire” is actually pretty engaging. A three minute edit of the track appeared on My Lives, which really is still all you need to hear of it. The first four minutes (subtitled “Godzilla”…how creative) is much better than the droning and sheer stupidity of the second half (subtitled “March Of The Huns”…how…conceptual?).
The rest is just so…stupid. I’m really trying to search for a better word in the English language to describe the horrific “Rollin’ Home” (with its’ rolling drums and formless organ playing and utterly useless lyrics) or the silly attempt at any kind of epic, “Tear This Castle Down”. “Holy Moses” is a complete joke (how is anyone supposed to take that seriously?) and the closing “Brain Invasion” is, thankfully, instrumental, featuring a childlike carnival loop played by Joel.
I honestly can’t think of any way that the idea would have worked. Maybe if Joel came up with good lyrics? What would happen if it was a piano instead of a silly, white-noise organ? It’s not Small’s fault…he has some great drumming bits, but the silliness of Joel’s organ just ruins it. Simply, this is a bad idea…and it’s even a worse idea if you actually decide to devote 39 minutes of your life listening to this crap.

Album of the Day #68: COLD SPRING HARBOR - Billy Joel

Title: Cold Spring Harbor

Artist: Billy Joel

Label: Family Productions/Columbia

Year: 1971 (Columbia re-issue: 1983)

Songs: She's Got A Way/You Can Make Me Free/Everybody Loves You Now/Why Judy Why/Falling Of The Rain/Turn Around/You Look So Good To Me/Tomorrow Is Today/Nocturne/Got To Begin Again

Written by: Billy Joel

Produced by: Artie Ripp

Thoughts: Joel's debut album introduces us to the Joel that we would see on The Stranger, a crafter of simply structured pop tunes, heavy on the piano. The remaining three of Joel's first four would be diversions of this sound. Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade presented a Californian Joel, with rudimentary country tunes while Turnstiles had all that grandiosity of returning to New York. Cold Spring Harbor, though, sounds like an indie album, which it actually was in 1971, until Columbia resurrected it in 1983, with new overdubs and edits. The songs themselves are pretty straightforward. Only a few of them stand-out. Beside the two that he still performs, those being "She's Got A Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now", "Tomorrow Is Today" and probably "Why Judy Why" are the tracks that really stick out. A personal highlight for me is the tranquil "Nocturne", a solo piano exercise. It's truly a wonderful piece, but a classically trained pianist might scoff at its' naivete. (Of course, I can't even play, so what do I know....)

Rating: 7/10

Album of the Day #47: STREETLIFE SERENADE - Billy Joel

Title: Streetlife Serenade

Artist: Billy Joel

Label: Columbia

Year: 1974

Songs: Streetlife Serenader/Los Angelenos/The Great Suburban Showdown/Root Beer Rag/Roberta/The Entertainer/Last Of The Big Time Spenders/Weekend Song/Souvenir/The Mexican Connection

Written by: Billy Joel

Produced by: Michael Stewart

Thoughts: Of the first four Billy Joel albums, which are sort of like indie albums on a major label, Streetlife Serenade is easily the weakest and most uneven. That doesn't mean it's not good. In fact, I kind of enjoy it. Still, it isn't easy to overlook the fact that there are two instrumentals, "Root Beer Rag" and "The Mexican Connection". They are two really good instrumentals, but they are still instrumentals, at a time when Joel was supposed to be a great singer/songwriter. (On a side note, the only other instrumental released on a Billy Joel solo LP is the beautiful piano piece "Nocturne" on Cold Spring Harbor.) The remaining eight tracks are, again, uneven. Some are really strong, particularly the opening trilogy. "Roberta" is interesting, but musically, isn't that great. The hit, "The Entertainer" is fun, while "Last Of The Big Time Spenders" is a really weird love song. "Weekend Song" is a real clunker. Then, there's "Souvenir," a beautiful short piece that concludes the album before the credits roll (a.k.a. "The Mexican Connection"). I'm not saying it's not worth getting, but it is an album you might have to think about before jumping in.

Rating: 6.5/10

Album Of The Day #27: GLASS HOUSES - Billy Joel

Title: Glass Houses

Artist: Billy Joel

Label: Columbia

Year: 1980

Songs: You May Be Right/Sometimes A Fantasy/Don't Ask Me Why/It's Still Rock And Roll To Me/All For Leyna/I Don't Want To Be Alone/Sleeping With The Television On/C'Etait Toi (You Were The One)/Close To The Borderline/Through The Long Night
Written by: Billy Joel

Produced by: Phil Ramone

Thoughts: I love this album. It's fun. It's rockin'. Plus, it's Billy Joel. The ten songs add up to his shortest album (lasting just a half-an-hour), but they're all awesome. I love "All For Leyna", "Sometimes A Fantasy" and "Sleeping With The Television On". The album was a response to critics who called him 'soft rock', but Joel still finds it impossible to completely shed the label, with tracks like "C'Etait Toi" and "Through The Long Night". My main criticism is that it misses the one thing that makes Joel awesome: his piano playing.

Rating: 9/10

Why I Hate Greatest Hits Compilations

List time!

WHY I HATE GREATEST HITS COMPLATIONS

1. They Make People Not Want To Look At An Entire Piece Of Work
I’ve always had a strong belief that an album is piece of artwork. You don’t take a look at Washington Crossing The Delaware and only look at the visage of our first president. You need to look at the whole thing to get the idea of these men working through the rough winter to cross the river. It gives you a sense of what the American colonists had to go through to gain independence. If you only look at Washington, it’s like only listening to “Band on the Run” and “Jet” from Wings’ Band On The Run and thinking you got the whole thing, just because those were the hit singles. You didn’t. You missed the beauty of “Bluebird”, the interwoven pieces of “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)” and the great piano-driven rocker “Nineteen-Hundred And Eighty-Five”. You missed the fact that those two singles were only a PART of the BOTR album.

2. They Almost Are Never Really An Artist’s Greatest Songs
You are stupid if you think for a second that The Beatles 1 is all you need. Stupid. I’m completely serious. 1 is a great example of a ‘hits’ compilation that misses nearly all of the artist’s best songs. Now, 1 does not claim to be a greatest hits set, but a compilation of The Beatles’ #1 singles. Still, there are people who walk this earth and think they can buy 1 and say the hell with it. “I’ve got 1, so now I know all of the Beatles’ best work.” Are you nuts? Insane? Look at what is missing! “Please Please Me” (which was a #1, but we won’t get into that argument now), “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Michelle”, “Here Comes The Sun”… just to name a few, are nowhere to be found. Then, there’s the fact that NOT A SINGLE SONG from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rubber Soul, and The Beatles are on 1. Think about that for a second before believing that 1 is really all you need.

3. The Fact That One-Hit Wonders Think They Can Release A ‘Greatest Hits’.
That’s obvious…and silly.

4. ‘Greatest Hits’ That Lean On One Album.
By 1984, Meat Loaf had released three albums on Columbia/Cleveland/Epic/whatever. Of those three, the only one that had any success was, of course, the first one: Bat Out Of Hell. Still, the company figured they could put out a ‘Best Of…’ set (charmingly titled Hits Out Of Hell) with ten tracks on it. FIVE of those ten tracks came from Bat Out Of Hell. Obviously, this compilation leaned on five tracks from a SEVEN track album! That’s stupid. Another example of this (and there are many, but these are the ones off the top of my head) practice is The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Smash Hits. Considering that very little of Jimi’s songs could be considered hits (in the US, only “All Along The Watchtower” had any true success), his record companies at the time still felt the need for a compilation on both sides of the Atlantic. The UK album leans almost entirely on Are You Experienced and the US album, released after Electric Ladyland in 1969 leaned on both albums, completely glossing over the excellent (and brutally mind-blowing) Axis: Bold As Love. (Other Examples: Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1 &2 [leans strictly on The Stranger, with 7 of the 9 songs, despite only 2 being singles] and any Led Zeppelin compilation [the latest, Mothership, has 4 from LZI, IV, and Houses of the Holy and some contain as much as five from the 8-song LP IV.])



5. They Sell Better Than Albums
I hate this fact about the music business, but it’s true. People would rather buy a record chock full of songs they know by heart than an album with one song they might know and a bunch of others they have no clue about. This is a shame, but it’s human nature. We like familiarity and don’t like to leave a comfort zone. As I said in point #1, it means people don’t like to look at a whole piece, but rather what everyone else says is the best part. Half the time, the single isn’t even the best part of a record. “Desolation Row” is certainly the best part of Highway 61 Revisited, but was that the single? No. Look at the previously mentioned Sgt. Pepper's… None of those songs were single or hits. Does that mean it’s a bad record? No way! It’s one of the most influential pieces of music in the world.

6. People Buy Greatest Hits And Read The Essay And Think They Know All
No, you don’t. You don’t know anything about anyone until you LISTEN to the artist’s body of work as a WHOLE.

7. Artists Make Fans Buy Them
The record companies work with the artists to make a compilation that includes rarities so die-hard fans will gobble them up. I’ve fallen in the trap and boy, has it pissed me off many a time. Please, just put out a rarities set…we hate to buy the same song twice.

I could go on forever, but that’s what I’ve got now. So, just think of my points the next time you want to get a ‘hits’ compilation.

Review #32: The Nylon Curtain

I guess it has been a while, but here it is.

By 1982, Billy Joel was at the top of his game. After a string of chart toppers (The Stranger, 52nd Street and Glass Houses), he put out a live album (Songs In The Attic) that revived his older tunes. Then, he decided to do something different. Glass Houses proved he could rock, but did it prove he could write? In, my personal view, I think that’s sort of what he set out to do with the album of today’s review: The Nylon Curtain. Released in 1982, the album didn’t fare so well on the charts, at least compared to Glass Houses, yet it was a critical success. Do I think it’s a success? Well, read on to find out…

The album kicks off with the sound of a steam engine, signaling right away that this song, nay, the entire first side, is going to sum up troubles of the working middle class of past and present. Allentown is simply a masterpiece, filled with wonderful, heart-wrenching lyrics about a town of people whose dreams never happened, yet they still wait for it. “We’re waiting here in Allentown.” The bridge (“Every child…”) is thumping realization of reality, compared to the painting in the verses, yet fits in smoothly. David Brown’s lead guitar solo screams during an instrumental version of the bridge, that leads to the last chorus.
Laura is a funny number, which, if Joel’s ‘concept’ holds, seems to be about a guy who gets stuck with a girl he can’t stand and can’t fulfill her fantasies. Both characters feel trapped and the title character seems to be a girl that’s stuck in working family and thought the narrator would be a savior. He’s not, obviously, so she tortures him. I love Liberty DeVitto’s drumming on the song. The piano intro is funny, too. It’s very contradictory to the nervous, psychotic anger of the singer.
Next is Pressure. As a kid, I loved this song to death and played it over and over again and I still love it. The synthesizer is awesome and the bass by Doug Stegmeyer is great, too. It plays along with the synth and feels like a heartbeat. This obviously works well and you get this great feeling of being under real ‘pressure’. Joel’s lyrics are pretty good, and filled with humorous illusions. “Your Peter Pan advice” and “Sesame Street? What does it mean?” just add to song. If the song does add to the concept, it shows how people really and very easily can fold under pressure. Who sits under the most pressure? Sometimes it really is the working-man who has to feed his family and doesn’t know if he can afford to put food on the table. The sudden ending gives way to helicopter sounds, which means…
Goodnight Saigon follows. What was the number one thing average people worried about in the earlier seventies and late sixties? Getting drafted and sent to war, of course. So, Joel gives the view of the war from a kid that knows what he’s doing over in the Vietnam War isn’t helping. These are average kids stuck over there. It’s a very emotional song and a great way to end the first side. Joel’s band is wonderful and the piano playing is as masterful as ever. The song is simply a great performance all around.
If there is anything to say about the first side, before looking at the second, is that it is four really great songs that do fit a loose concept, which unfortunately doesn’t resonate to the second side too well. Still, the songs mold together and the listener could feel that the song might be about a kid from Allentown, Pennsylvania, without stretching it, even a little bit. The kid gets a girl named ‘Laura’ and has to deal with the ‘Pressure’ of life, before finally getting thrown straight into the Vietnam War.
However, there is a second side, so the story continues…or does it?
She’s Right On Time is an amazing song that actually did get some recognition by being included in the My Lives box set (see review #5, Sept. 2006). I love the drumming. The lyrics aren’t anything to go nuts about, but the track itself would’ve made a great single…if there weren’t three of them already on the first side. I also love the harpsichord-type intro and break. It adds a classical feel to the track.
On the next band, you’ll find A Room Of Our Own. It’s a fun, rock rave-up that feels much like a throw-away about how meticulous women are and how sloppily lazy men are. The lyrics simply don’t make much sense and seem to poke fun at the stereotypes of society about gender. I particularly find the “I can still remember being packed together…” section hilarious and borderline stupid. Then again, the whole song sits very close to that border!
Surprises is one of my favorite Billy Joel songs. It feels like something out of a horror film, especially with the opening. You get the sense of a conscience attacking…not helping…the person whose brain it sits in. As the shortest song on the LP, it’s brilliant. The echo drenched segment (“Don’t look now…”) is almost horrific and the fact that it follows the laid-back “A Room Of Our Own” is just freaky sequencing on Joel and Phil Ramone’s part.
Following that is the experimental Scandinavian Skies. It opens with quiet synthesizers and what sounds like a flight attendant. Next, the drums march in, behind jet sounds. Joel comes in with this wonderful vocal performance, obviously played around with. The piano playing simply follows the vocals. The lyrics are weird, but follow the theme of the song. Probably one of my favorite moments on the album is the bridges (“On the plane…” and “Who’s to pay…”). You almost get the feeling like the plane is going to crash at some point, but it doesn’t…or at least Joel didn’t want to sing about that part.
The album closes in a rather funny manner with Where’s The Orchestra?. There’s a humor about it, mostly because it closes a side full of pulse-pounding songs. It really feels like exit music that should be played behind credits. The character also seems to be against all the other ones on the album, who seem to be working class, second-guessers. Still, it certainly provides a surprising, suitable finish to a rather uptight album.
The album is housed in a sleeve with lyrics on one side and an over-head shot of nearly identical houses from the prim-and-proper fifties. Then, the liner is housed in a cardboard cover. The front is an interesting shot of the identical houses from the ground staring straight at them, with Joel’s name appearing the sky and the album title in the ground. On the back, you’ll find a shot of Mr. Joel himself, sitting at a coffee table over newspapers and an ashtray. I love the design, which feels like what the American government wants you to see in the fifties, but inside you find an allegory on what it was really like.
In conclusion, is The Nylon Curtain a story about a kid from a small, working-class town (“Allentown”) who fought in Vietnam (“Goodnight Saigon”) and turned into a house-husband (“A Room Of Our Own”), troubled by his past (“Surprises”) and before he goes, turns into a self-respecting aristocrat (“Where’s The Orchestra?”)? Or is it simply a set of nine songs that go pretty well together? Whatever it truly is (I pick the latter) it still comes together for one of Joel’s best albums.
8/10

Review #28: Turnstiles

In 1976, Billy Joel was obviously at a fork in the road. Streetlife Serenade, as wonderful as it is, with its’ intricate ‘working-man’ sensibilities, was obviously not a worthy sequel to the grandiose visions on Piano Man. It seemed really obvious that if Billy wanted to build on the success of Piano Man and not continue down the path of the California soft-rock of Serenade that he had to go home.
So, he went back to New York and in 1976, he put out his most over-produced, wide-screen sounding album: Turnstiles, today’s album of discussion. It laid the blueprint for the future and showed exactly why Billy needed Phil Ramone to come in and fix his songs up.

Say Goodbye To Hollywood kicks off the album with its full, welcoming, “Wall Of Sound” production. The song’s theme is a clear goodbye to all the trails he blazed in California. Although he tells a story about himself indirectly, he gets the message across with a repetitive, booming chorus. It is sort of a typical girl-group song. Billy draws out his vocals (“troubadours”; “Sunset Boulevard”) and the background singers (probably just Billy overdubbed) accent correctly, like chained prisoners. You can imagine him as this commanding lead singer and he’s trying to give us that guise. It is almost as if he’s telling us that by leaving, he’s stronger.
Next is Billy’s wonderful reflecting ballad, Summer, Highland Falls. I love his piano playing, especially on the intro. The lyrics are pensive, as the singer wonders what’s going on. He tries to find reasons for his problems. My only issue with it is the horn solo in the break. It dates the song considerably and feels kind of useless. It keeps it from attaining perfect status.
The next track is All You Wanna Do Is Dance, an obvious reggae song. It’s probably the worst track on the album, as it doesn’t have any real emotional quality. The song revolves around this girl who is stuck in the past. It’s like the opposite version of The Bridge’s “Modern Woman,” where the singer is the one who is out of touch, not the woman. There’s a nice groove, but it honestly feels like a throwaway, especially with the rather tongue-and-cheek ending.
New York State Of Mind follows. Even though I’m a proud Bostonian and have no real connection to anything Billy talks about here, you still feel the emotional power of the track. He is so happy to get back to his home, where he is most comfortable. He rejects every beautiful vista or people that he’s seen in the west and the hot vacation spots in the south. He just wants to get back home. It’s such an immaculately crafted ballad that it’s hard to not feel something in it. I mean, even the instrumentation behind him gives you a sense of some desire to get away. The sax solo is something to talk about. It might feel a bit meandering towards the end (it is the longest track on the album at 6:00) and even gets a bit schmaltzy. Still, it’s hard to deny the track’s importance and the beauty of it.
The second half begins with the most low-key track, James. I’m not really sure if it is about anyone in particular, but it is still a lovely story. Billy talks about a friend who is under tremendous pressure to be such a good person. It continues a theme that flows through the first four albums and even crops up a few times later in his career. These character sketches, Judy in “Why Judy Why” and the kid in “Captain Jack” and the family in “The Great Suburban Showdown,” are all people who have failed someone and have to live up to high expectations. Judy’s lover is desperate, but she leaves him for unknown reasons, the rich kid leads a life of disappointment to drugs and the suburban working family is tired and worn. Now, James, who is a kid who should be doing well, but we don’t know. Billy leaves it open, but he describes a kid who probably would cave in.
Next is Prelude/Angry Young Man, which is probably the quickest five minutes ever. I’ve always wondered why you would put a “Prelude” in the middle of anything, but here Billy does it for some reason. It’s sort of like a sudden rush of adrenaline and then when “Angry Young Man” starts, Billy goes rambling off on a tear about this guy that just sits around proudly, but doesn’t do anything for anyone. I guess that maybe this guy had this happy life when he was young (which would be the “Prelude”) and then he got tired. Now this guy’s angry but he doesn’t do anything with his emotions. It also feels like there’s some humor behind the synthesizer solo. It just feels so out of place!
Following that is the greatest conclusion that isn’t a conclusion: I’ve Loved These Days. It resembles “Summer, Highland Falls” but where that song was a search for what we are, “I’ve Loved These Days” is a reflection of what we know and what we have to become. I wish this was the ending, but where would you put the next track?
Beginning with a soft siren that fades into Billy’s piano playing and then strings, Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) ends the album in spectacular fashion. “Miami 2017” is easily the best futuristic doomsday scenario recorded. It feels like an opera summed up in five minutes. That grandiose, wide-screen feeling I was talking about in the introduction is prevalent here. It’s sort of funny how the album starts with what feels like a “Wall of Sound” Spector girl-group song, but it ends with this blasting hard rock epic.
I’ve always found the cover to be somewhat strange. It’s sort of like a Sgt. Pepper’s rip-off in a New York subway terminal. Except, these people are everyday Joes. The people do feel like obvious references to the characters in the songs. Also, the title is rather obvious. All the characters are moving through the turnstile to get to another part of their lives. Some of them obviously don’t want to go (the angry looking man with the books, a combination of the “Angry Young Man” and “James” doesn’t look too excited and the girl from “All You Wanna Do Is Dance” looks like she could care less). Billy obviously looks happy to get going. He wants to get over California and be back home.
In conclusion, this is my favorite Billy Joel album, but I’m so glad he got Phil Ramone. Ramone adds a certain punch to Billy’s songs that not even he could on this album which he produced himself! Also, I think Ramone would probably tell him that eight five minute songs aren’t really enough. (Although there are quite a few great albums with just seven songs on it, but usually at least a couple of those reach the ten minute mark.)
The verdict: Buy it now, as in yesterday. It’s a wonderful album and each song is enjoyable.
8/10

Review #5: My Lives

Billy Joel is another one of those rock artists that are considered great. He is one of the greatest piano rockers ever and his early work is simply amazing. The Stranger, his breakthrough album is unforgettable, and the followup, 52nd Street is just as great. When the 80's came, he responded with Glass Houses (1980) and The Nylon Curtain (1981), which are my personal favorites. After that, well....he met Christey Brinkley...and we know what happened there...An Innocent Man...O.K....The Bridge....eww....Storm Front...not the best...River of Dreams.....getting better...Then he stopped!
Now, with his pop career over, as unfortunate as that is, twelve years later, he released My Lives, a 4 CD/1 DVD set in 2005. Is this really box set that you need? Read on....

Billy Joel's hits collections are, in one word....stupid. Six of the nine songs on The Stranger are on Volumes I & II, even though only two of the songs were really hit singles. The only songs from his first four magnificent albums are 'Piano Man', 'Captain Jack', 'The Entertainer', 'Say Goodbye To Hollywood' and 'New York State Of Mind'. Volume III includes three embarrassing covers and two songs from An Innocent Man, even though all of that album's hits were on the last set! My Lives is sort of a hits collection, but it mostly comprises of unreleased material.
The first two discs are pretty good. It starts off with five pre-fame tracks. The first two are from 1965 and, while the songs are good, Columbia made no attempt at remastering it. Essentially, it sounds like a cassette tape! Next are two songs from The Hassles, and both are really sound good. After that is Amplifier Fire, an instrumental track from Attilla, his ill-fated drum/keyboard duo. After listening to that, you'll realize why it's ill-fated. We first hear real Billy Joel with Only A Man, a demo, then She's Always A Woman from Cold Spring Harbor comes on. The disc continues with seven straight demos, including a strange version of Piano Man, where he sings with an echo that's on a five second delay! The last five songs are album versions with the exception of a reggae version of Only The Good Die Young. On this disc, 52nd Street is only represented with two albums cuts, Glass Houses only gets the album version of It's Only Rock and Roll To Me! (By the way, poor Streetlife Serenader does not have a single cut in this entire set, except a live version of Los Angelenoes on Disc 4!)
The second disc has five demos, three B-Sides, a new live version of Captain Jack ('cause we need another one), Nobody Knows But Me (a children's song), an alternate Getting Closer (which isn't that much better), a 12" dance remix of Keeping the Faith (you gotta love useless remixes), four album tracks, and an o.k. cover of The Times They Are A-Changin'.
Just when you thought 'Well, there's only two more albums, that can't possibly warrant another full disc', there's not one more...but two and we haven't even touched the DVD yet!
Disc 3 is just silly covers he did for soundtracks and includes the lousy three Hits III covers I mentioned earlier. There's also a really crappy B-Side, You Picked A Real Bad Time (should be 'You Picked A Real Bad Tune') and an alternate of The River of Dreams ('cause everybody is on their knees to hear another version of it). The only thing interesting on the entire disc is Motorcycle Song, a demo of 'All About Soul'.
Disc 4 is just total crap, with 7 live versions of songs, including a cover of the immortal Don't Worry Baby, which was clearly not meant to be handled by Billy Joel. The last few tracks are from his classical work, which he should know no one will listen to. The DVD is just a straight concert film, where Billy does nothing drastic.
The packaging is all right, but not spectacular. The cover is a child portrait of himself, done by his daughter. The back is a really nice picture. The inside is littered with ticket stubs and then there's the book. The essay is good reading, but towards the end tries to come up with interesting excuses for Billy to stop doing rock/pop music.
In conclusion, if this set was just the first two discs, I'd give it a good rating. The last two discs are just stupid and could have easily fit on one disc, without the three Hits III covers and the classical pieces. The DVD is not a milestone performance and does not come from his early years, when his concerts were exciting. If you are a die-hard Billy fan, it's a nice set to have, since it has all the B-sides that Columbia never made available as bonus tracks and it does have some nifty alternates and demos. For the average fan of him, I would skip it. Just get his albums, you can enjoy most of those.

MUSIC-**1/2
PACKAGING-***
OVERALL-**1/2

Next week, I'll be reviewing George Harrison's Living in the Material World which is comming out as a remastered re-issue this week. I'll see you then!