IT'S BETTER THAN DRINKIN' ALONE: The Official ILM Track-by-Track BILLY JOEL Listening Thread

(By marriage and relationship, I mean his first ones, not later when he started chasing after one supermodel after another.)

hmm... you're not wrong, but it's weird because i think of him as such a "fun" artist --- and see all the posts about folks like me becoming devoted fans in childhood because the songs were catchy, fun to sing along to, etc...

i wonder, is he any more of a lyrical malcontent, misanthrope, or self-pitying creep than most rock songwriter dudes of his generation? like, if i was looking for someone to really hang the "their lyrics just make them tough to like" hat on, it'd be John Lennon or even Daryl Hall before i got to Billy. could also be understood in some kind of family tree of "what in particular did people take away from Bob Dylan?"

This long Billy Joel / Alec Baldwin interview hits on "Piano Man":

Billy Joel: Oom-pa-pa. It’s a waltz. And it’s not really lyrics. They’re limericks. 'John at the bar is a friend of mine. He gets me my drinks for free. He’s quick with the joke or to light up your smoke, but there’s someplace that he’d rather be.' It could be, 'There once was a girl from Nantucket.' So they’re limericks.

Also there's this:

Alec Baldwin: What did you do after Nylon Curtain?

Billy Joel: After The Nylon Curtain, because it was such an intensive labor, The Nylon Curtain, something very dense and very complex, I wanted to do something simple and dumb and happy, and I did An Innocent Man, which is really an homage to all the music of my teenage years – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with “Uptown Girl.”

Alec Baldwin: And that was a hit.

Billy Joel: It was a big hit. It was a joke.

Lennon was at least as self-pitying by the time of Plastic Ono Band, but he had a much longer and intense relationship with his audience that gave it a fuller context. It wasn't a guy on his third album talking about how the music business was devoted to snuffing out his artistry.

Lennon was not self-pitying in 1980, I assure you. His interviews in this period are joys.

Self-pitying is one thing but Plastic Ono Band is brutal - flat out trauma and anguish. And even then he has a genuinely warm, beautiful ballad (all the love for Yoko on that LP is about the two of them as a whole - I don't get anything like that in Joel's music) and there's little touches of surreal humor that's very welcome and pretty unique to Lennon.

if i was looking for someone to really hang the "their lyrics just make them tough to like" hat on, it'd be John Lennon or even Daryl Hall before i got to Billy

(Laughs in "Elvis Costello fan")

I suspect someone at Columbia Records handed Billy a copy of My Aim Is True; "This is punk? Easy!" as he composes "You May Be Right".

TS: "Pump It Up" vs "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"

Yeah, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" is what I had in mind in a previous post. A Joe Jackson pastiche, inane but rhythmically catchy.

"I'm The Man" vs "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" maybe more apposite (but as much as I like both, "I'm the Man" dominates here)

I like all three, but these days I'd probably take "It's Still Rock and Roll" over "Pump it Up" or "I'm the Man". The subtle production touches are a plus. Lyrically its perhaps the corniest - Joel is not a cool ironist like Costello or Jackson - but he's right about the music.

I don't like the production on a lot of Joel's later '70s hits, but it really helps that he was aping something that was by design stripped down. But the sound was getting formulaic and by the time "It's Still Rock and Roll" came out, Costello and Jackson had already moved on to other sounds because they were wary of New Wave clichés. I'm not the biggest Joe Jackson fan, but I think his instincts about ska were right - I absolutely love the English Beat's records, and their first and best album came out then. Love Get Happy!! too.

i wish every single band that existed in that era had attempted at least one and maybe two albums in the Jackson/This Year's Model/Outlandos zone. I'm sure many or most would have been awkward failures but overall it makes sense that people would hear that music and wanna try playing it, it sounds fun!

"Close to the Borderline" is punkiest/Bernie Goetz Billy Joel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1fntXx2I4s

Is "Close to the Borderline" Billy Joel's idea of punk?

One clue about influences (related to that thread ^^) is the Wembley live version of the song, which he dedicates to John Peel in the intro and is sloppy af.

Surprised that none of the recent thread bumps are about the (pretty great, I think) Olivia Rodrigo song that namechecks our guy.

Wait what which one?

One clue about influences (related to that thread ^^) is the Wembley live version of the song, which he dedicates to John Peel in the intro and is sloppy af.

― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, July 27, 2021 5:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Oh wow, you're right -- and he leads it in with "This is a song for anytime you've ever gotten home from work and felt like blowing your brains out."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cii6ruuycQA

(xp)

xp he doesn't do the Johnny Rotten r roll on "Rich man" in the Wembley version though

The best Billy covers: https://www.covermesongs.com/2021/08/the-40-best-billy-joel-covers-ever.html

I don't think I know any of these, but I'm definitely interested to hear a few of them.

I remember listening to a different Muppets cover of "New York State of Mind" when I was 6 or 7 and thinking it was the most boring music I had ever heard...

Hah, just listened to the entirety of this guy's Glass Houses cover. Not bad!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HKO7q-eZHg

Billy Joel relaxes on the beach before his performance at the Havana Jam Festival, Cuba, 1979 pic.twitter.com/bewehpFLL4

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) December 25, 2021

Oh, Havana, I've been searching for you everywhere.

When will you realize
Havana waits for you

Cuba be right
Cuba be crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS9179RQKjM

"i don't care what they say anymore / nope / this is my life / billy joel!"

location scout felt confident taking the day off after securing that spot, it would seem

lol

i loled (whole thread is p good)

The man who works at Mister Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street was arrested for selling bootleg Neil Young records and marijuana paraphernalia in 1977. He cut a deal and cooperated with authorities to bust a drug ring. The man was and will always be a rat.

— Jake Fogelnest (@jakefogelnest) May 30, 2022

Something tells me there's going to be some pretty sparkling fenders.

— Jon Wurster (@jonwurster) May 30, 2022

The fuck, mr cacciatores was an actual place?

I think it's a comedy riff on the song

Idgi

You oughta know by now!

well i thought it was funny :/

you should never argue with a crazy mind

Seems like a waste of time.

A heart attackmatttkkk

the diner I'm at is tuned into some Sirius station that basically plays one Billy Joel song for every one oldie. over lunch, i've heard Uptown Girl, Movin' Out, We Didn't Start the Fire, and Only the Good Die Young, alternated with Blue Moon, Walk Like a Man, Do You Love Me and Stand By Me. the burger was not great but i think i may return.

Is it... the Parkway Diner perchance?

HUWUNN
TWOOOO
HWUN TWOO THREEE FAWW

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, November 8, 2017 1

lol

Squire's Diner in Lower Manhattan, sadly.

https://i.imgur.com/Ey9p5Un.jpg

Someone’s had enough of Billy and frankly I can’t blame them

i forgot to report that i went back to that diner the following week, and got almost the same lineup of songs. paying closer attention, i took them down in full, with Joel tracks in bold. quite a ratio!

Sherry, I Feel Good, Uptown Girl, Blue Moon, Don't Be Cruel, The Way You Do The Things You Do, We Didn't Start the Fire, A Hard Day's Night, Do You Love Me, Walk Like a Man, Get Ready, Stay, Only the Good Die Young, My Girl, (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay, Movin' Out.

during "We Didn't Start the Fire," someone in the next booth proclaimed "Billy Joel is really just dumb Bruce Springsteen." i refrained from enlightening them.

Sounds like a BJ Pandora station.