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

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Welcome one and all to what is sure to be one of the most popular threads in ILM history, as we take a song-a-day, track-by-track journey through the musical output of the Piano Man himself. A quick glance at Wiki confirms his significance: thirty-three self-penned Top 40 hits, twenty-three Grammy nominations (six wins), an estimated 150 million records sold worldwide, and a position just one slot shy of the Eagles as the sixth-best-selling artist of all time in the USA. If this staggering track record has not always translated into critical cred or hipster kisses, all the more reason to dig deep, listen close, and re-evaluate.

To get things started...

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It's July, 1971. Buffeted by the troubles of the times, rock listeners find themselves reaching for the heartfelt, melodic expressions of the singer-songwriter. Perhaps taking note of Carole King's position at the top of the charts, the tiny Family label sees no reason not to take a chance on a demo tape of earnestly-sung, piano-backed ballads by a twenty-two-year-old keyboardist from Long Island. Already the veteran of a few flopped-out rock combos, but stripped of his earlier West-Coast freakout and heavy-metal trappings, William Martin Joel enters the studio to record his solo debut, Cold Spring Harbor.. It hit the streets that November, and we begin our journey with the kickoff track and sole, non-charting single: She's Got A Way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUn-XOQoN3U

Note: This recording is from a 1980s remix correcting a legendary mastering goof on the original record: the entire album ran slightly too fast, producing an up-pitched "Chipmunk" effect on Joel's vocals. Chronological purists who want to experience the music as it was originally released should click here.

Wow - I didn't know that She's Got A Way was first-track first-album! I loved this already ... but even more now know it pushed the boat out

it's just so clean & simple & pleasing.

omg @ chipmunk version LOOOOL that is hysterical

Well, to add to the embarrassing recording goofs, I've still got the wrong version up there! Sorry, Billy! The Youtube above is actually the Songs in the Attic live version from ten years later, which did chart. It's sort of hard to pin down these versions but give me a second here.

that Songs in the Attic version is the one i already knew. interesting!

So, the full, pitch-corrected 1983 remix of the album is here; it's also on Spotify. Individual YouTubes are a mishmash, with both the live hit and the original Chipmunk version getting slapped up with the CSH album cover, and a bevy of do-it-yourself corrected versions. But basically this is what we should listen to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXAKedxxVe4

It's very interesting to compare the "corrected original" to the "live hit" versions - the lingering psychedelic "let us be like children together in the garden" tweeness of the earlier recording gets ironed out of it, and he adds a pinch of harder vocal grit to the second pass through "she touches me, I get turned around." Essentially, he brings it much closer to his signature late-70s sound, though he retains the very, very stripped-down arrangement.

To be honest, I've never really strongly connected with this song - good melody, great opening line... without the Chipmunk thing, and with the right promotional backing, you imagine he could have gotten at least a regional hit out of this. But it's one of these "she's great, she's great, she's really great" kind of songs without conflict, narrative or rhythm section... makes it a bit too easy for it to just drift by. I do think I like it better in its original, rather less professional incarnation. Elsewhere, I love Joel's grand-entertainer, crowd-pleaser populism, but on these first couple albums I like also hearing this kid - affectations and fumbles and evident desire to be Paul McCartney and all.

i enjoy the way he over-enunciates as a young man. like someone said to him it's important that we understand all the words

totally!

it's probably more proto-air supply than anything tbh

but even in that category it's head and shoulders above. like, compared with the overwrought verging on gross "baby ima want you" syrup that will be pouring into listeners ears in the coming years, it's great

Just based on this song, in a vacuum, I would've expected him to turn into more of a Manilow-type than he ever ended up being.

the path of earnest songwriting is fraught with danger

it's funny I haven't heard joel and manilow compared much - sure their careersan attitudes and styles are quite different, but as showtunes holdouts and staples of the adult contemporary charts... idk

joel has way better songwriting (as this thread will hopefully bear out) - it's his abilities as a storyteller that navigated him out of those waters imo

manilow had good hooks but his lyrics are pretty bad, more like long commercial jingles

though i agree with dr c that there's not much to the lyric on "she's got a way," it's A-plus compared to most of what we're going to be listening to over the next week and a half, simply by virtue of billy not trying too hard. he's infatuated with a girl, he says so, he rhymes "about her" with "without her," he tosses in a bridge, he's done. he can do worse, much worse, and he will. and the melody sticks. a telling start to his career: he's a piano man with a gift for a hook and not a lot to say, not yet.

having not heard cold spring harbor in years, i miss the octave vocal leap that ends the song in the songs from the attic version. that was a nice touch.

This recording is from a 1980s remix correcting a legendary mastering goof on the original record

warning: they also re-recorded the backing tracks on a couple songs, without billy's involvement. the relationship between family productions' artie ripp, who signed him and owned these masters, deteriorated fast, and though billy quickly dumped him for columbia, ripp won a lot in the divorce: he owned a piece of billy's next ten (!) albums, and his logo appears on all of them.

christ that's awful, the music industry really is full of absolute bandits.

i love how he put out 'Greatest Hits I And II' as one CD/album, not bothering with the traditional 1 and 2 volumes separated by say half a decade like most folk.

http://www.thatericalper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Attila-008.jpg

We're going to pretend this never happened?

re: Manilow and jingles, I had no idea he actually did some of that! "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" - wow. Another difference, as Attila reminds us, is that for all his wistful balladeering, Billy wants to ROCK, and to be thought of as a rocker. This too connects him with Lennon and McCartney much more than Manilow or most of the other archetypal singer-songwriters.

I had floated the idea of including Attila and the Hassles in this thread but ppl pointed out that they were distinct "things," and anyway we were looking at a lot of tracks on this thread. But I think ppl should check 'em out - we could do a short pause after CSH and just say "today is Attila Day," rather than going track by track... idk!

I mean I guess people can also just talk about it whenever, also! Just thinking in the spirit of dedicated group experience or w/e.

The ratio of "discussion of Attila as music" to "lol, that cover" is historically quite lopsided. Not that I want to be the person to correct the imbalance - just sayin.

"She's Got a Way" is gr8 btw

Woah, hadn't realized we had started this!

So, "She's Got a Way." The version I know is the Greatest Hits one, which is the Songs From the Attic one, and this is my first time hearing the CSH version. I've always found it decent but unexceptional, not to mention tonally jarring within the chronological ordering of GH, sandwiched between the more, uh, muscular 80s material.

Listening to the original for the first time, I can see why he went with a later version. The mixing on CSH really is disgusting and I imagine that it will make the next 9 days of this thread something of a slog.

There is a piece from Entertainment Weekly from around the time of River of Dreams where Billy offered brief commentary on all of his albums. I tried to dig it up, but I couldn't find it. Also, EW's website is the worst.

Basically, as I recall, Billy dismisses the record due to the mastering error, claiming that he can't ever listen to it. Having my first taste of it just now, I can see why.

Tuneful prettiness. Not bad.

affectations and fumbles and evident desire to be Paul McCartney and all

Listening to the Chipmunk version you linked above (only being familiar with the GH version before) and given the year, it strikes me that this is definitely his attempt at re-writing "Maybe I'm Amazed."

CSH is canon, but I can't help but always thinking of Piano Man as his first record.

Similar to Bowie.

(Just thought I'd beat the rest of you to writing out that last sentence.)

(see also: warren zevon)

ATTENTION! NATALIE MAINES IS NOT A LESBIAN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPxllU2WUak

I know singers have been tweaking lyrics to suit their gender/orientation for decades, but shifting it from first-person to third-person changes the context too much.

centuries

The song's vagueness--he likes this woman, but can't quite isolate her particular qualities--nicely mirrors my own ambiguous feelings towards it.

It's a vague sentiment, sure, but it's light-years better than "Always a Woman," in which the message is "she's a heinous bitch but I like her anyway."

i like this, nice little song

love the cover, i love how period it looks, like it could be some long forgotten "lost classic" reissued by Light in the Attic

though I'm pretty impressed, for a first song on a first album this feels very much like a "Billy Joel" song, like he's got his aesthetic and identity right out of the gate, like Black Sabbath or something

new goal of this listening thread: to pinpoint the moment he loses his hopeful high voice

The vagueness also makes it one of VERY FEW love songs that a father could plausibly dedicate to a daughter and have it come off in a not-totally-creepy way.

This may venture into uber-maudlin TMI territory, but: the line "she's got a smile that heals me" does in fact make me think of my daughter. I know it's corny as hell but there it is.

no that's otm

and lovely <3

for a first song on a first album this feels very much like a "Billy Joel" song, like he's got his aesthetic and identity right out of the gate, like Black Sabbath or something

haha. but i'm not sure he truly finds his "billy joel" voice until track 3 on this album.

his hopeful high voice

sounds like he's channelling paul mccartney via emitt rhodes, who at this particular point in time was making better billy joel records than billy joel was.

true!

I don't know if its the pitch issue, but his voice sounds more shaky than I expected. Starting from "Piano Man" on, his voice has a confidence that he never loses - I just figured he always had it. Interesting to hear, actually

i think he's trying to go for lilting & comes off as slightly petrified haha

yeah track three is KEY to joel's entire steez going forward, looking forward to that.

agreed about trying to sound lilting. ATTILA reminds us that he did already know how to sing in a more forceful and confident manner, so this here is as much a "poetic" affectation as his bellows over there are an attempt to find his "hard rock" voice.

"maybe i'm amazed" is a very apt comparison - and it, too, wasn't a hit until a live album years later! I picture joel watching it rise on the charts in 1976, clenching his fists, blood boiling at the CSH screwups all over again, and swearing that if HE ever gets big enough to merit a live album, he knows just what the single will be and won't THAT show 'em all? "your song" also probably had to be on somebody's mind, the label's if not the artist's.

like he's got his aesthetic and identity right out of the gate, like Black Sabbath or something running down the road, trying to loosen its load....

i'm guessing this song's about the other member of attila's wife (later to be his own).

i'd always understood that the "mastering error" is because they wanted to cram too many minutes of music onto the album.

so many wives...

like he's got his aesthetic and identity right out of the gate, like Black Sabbath or something running down the road, trying to loosen its load....

― pplains, Monday, July 17, 2017 12:41 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you know...for some reason it never occurred to me till this very second that the protagonist of "Take it Easy" was shitting his pants

i'd lump the eagles in with billy as a band who didn't achieve their full aesthetic and identity until track three of their debut album. chug all night y'all.

i'd always understood that the "mastering error" is because they wanted to cram too many minutes of music onto the album

I hadn't heard that specifically about CSH. But I have heard that "Silver Springs" was kept off Rumours partly because the resulting length would have mean that they could just BARELY fit it in only by narrowing the grooves and unacceptably compromising the bass response.

Tangent: Interesting to think about the degree to which actual physical limitations were relevant - all of this in living memory. Les Paul was faking multitracking by ping-ponging, then the Beatles were on four tracks, then eight, then DSotM, then Steely Dan's automated mixes, then ProTools... all of this has happened within the lifespan of specific known humans. The time from the Wright brother's first flight to walking on muthaflippin moon? Many of us have grandparents who lived through both.

agreed about trying to sound lilting. ATTILA reminds us that he did already know how to sing in a more forceful and confident manner, so this here is as much a "poetic" affectation as his bellows over there are an attempt to find his "hard rock" voice.

Ah gotcha. I ain't heard CSH yet, so I sure as hell ain't heard Attila yet

But who is Lisa DeVitto?

(I kid.)

unexpected special guest at billy's final (for now) madison square garden show tonite: axl rose. he sang "live and let die" and "highway to hell" (w/billy on gtr) during the main set, then returned during the encore to join billy on "you may be right." he looked like he was auditioning for a residency in vegas, he sounded good, and i was kinda pissed they didn't give "november rain" a go. billy was in a particularly cheerful mood throughout and promised us that, end of the residency notwithstanding, he'll be back. he did not play "turn the lights back on," which seems to be quietly slipping out of his repertoire. i was hoping he'd not so quietly bring liberty back for a song or two on this special night, but alas that was not to be. all in all, a very billy show.

nice, I'm glad you made it!

I can’t believe this is the end *sniffs*

Onstage Thursday night, Joel reminded the audience of the band’s accomplishments: “We were the first American full-fledged performance in the Soviet Union,” he said.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3cBp_Bf43M

https://i.imgur.com/FBURcKU.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/6ZHbsFc.jpeg

It’s not better than drinking alone

“Workin too hard can give you a heart atTttttttacckkkkk

“You should always argue with a crazy mamamamamamaamama”

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I once was on Sullivan Street in NYC and looked up at this brutalist hospital and thought "That's the one!"

Rosalinda's Eyes, I don't know if he's ever recorded a more lonely-sounding song but it has one of the best fade-outs ever.

So at the Grammys a few months ago, asked about his definitive song, Billy Joel named "And So It Goes."

New interview for the heads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3SWqUsvWXU

xp I’m not sure I’d be highlighting a song written as a 34 year old breaking up with a 19 year old

The same ding dongs who drink tonics and gin

― calstars, Wednesday, July 20, 2022

FP'd you for the dumbest thing you've ever posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6R_p4hsfk

An outfit called The Middle Aged Dad Jam Band, covering "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," with Weird Al looking delighted to just be the accordion player in a cover band. (Though I was kinda hoping he'd take over on vocals for the Brenda 'n' Eddie section.) Their sound in general is a little too 'clean,' spacious and modern to exactly scratch my classic-rock itches, but nonetheless I came away smiling with the sense of what a fun song this might be to play with a group.

This song confused me at first because I thought it was about a girl named Brenda Renetti.

haha, same! probably discussed upthread.

Naw, it's Brender

Brendur's Gate

Telling that none of you BJ super fans mentioned his brain situation. Noticed an uptick in BJ rotation at the bat

What, specifically, do you think this "tells" you?

(The news, which is sad, has been shared on ILX elsewhere, btw.)

Obviously, that you’re a fan in name only, (ridiculous as that sounds for BJ

I look forward to your future BJ sensitivity and gatekeeping

The hell?

the Billy Joel c/d thread was updated appropriately and we’ll thank YOU, calstars to keep your filthy impugnments out of this sacred thread, which is for the record A TEMPLE OF DR CASINO’S FANDOM so that it should remain as such.

now get the fuck out of our thread before i throw you out

lol

You used to call me paranoid

vg otm

bj posers itt

Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone

I'll give you one hint, honey

Give a moment or two to the angry young man

and lol @ Veg

saw hbo's new billy doc last night at tribeca. or, rather, part 1 of the doc, which is what they're showing at the fest. (i believe hbo is dropping both parts together in july.) part 1 takes us through glass houses, motorcycle accident and divorce. the divorce is the most important of those three things, because the entire two-and-a-half-ish hours of part 1 is the story of billy's first marriage, and it's a nice twist on the standard superstar rock doc. instead of a film about the price of fame, it's a film about the price of being married to fame. and managing fame, as elizabeth weber, in addition to being billy's wife, was his manager. she's the star of the doc, and she's great. apparently, it's the first time she's talked about him anywhere in 40-ish years. completely worth it for her.

it's in other ways a fairly standard rock doc which i'm pretty sure most participants in this thread are going to like, even if you know most of the stories and even it's a little long-winded here and there. pretty much everyone you'd want to hear from is here, from jon small (hassles, attila, elizabeth's first hubby) to liberty and richie, to bruce springsteen and nas (whose take on "ny state of mind" is great). billy himself is super open and candid about everything, including some really dark stuff. he's also really funny (as you already know). some cool footage i've never seen of the hassles, of billy trying to record turnstiles with elton john's band, and other such stuff. (the filmmakers said afterward that elton was the one person they wanted to talk to who turned them down. lol.)

also starring in the doc: lots and lots of alcohol. it is a rock doc, after all.

Downeaster ilxor

Downeaster ilxor

Omg lol

also starring in the doc: lots and lots of alcohol

Tonic and gin?

Perhaps a bottle of rose instead?

Thanks for the breakdown, fcc - I'd like to see that!

Never realized until this morning in a Panera that "Keeping The Faith" is basically cod reggae.

that is the best place for such a realization lol

HUWUNN
TWOOOO
HWUN TWOO THREEE FAWW

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl),

xpost-haha
Was playing in the background! Also thought how this might be the most untroubled BJ song.

wow, looking forward to this. What's the story re Elton?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK2J6v5Au5v/?igsh=YnNqbTZwMGFkbWt6

idgi

wtf of course you get it this is not a hard thing to get stfu

We did have extensive discussion of egocentrism and condescension inherent in the lyrics of Bill the Piano Man. Therefore I thought the imagined "view from the perspective of 'the Waitress'" was thread-relevant.

I don't think that video is necessarily on point or well-imagined in every particular, but it is... a joke.

Mainly, I share the vlogger's dim view of the lyric "it's me they've been comin' to see." Bullshit. Alcoholics don't go to bars for the fucking piano playing, you self-aggrandizing schmuck. It's the booze.

John at the bar is funny and helpful, but here's the thing: he's also serving drinks, which is the actual reason people are feelin' all right.

Cute video. For those unready to open the entire thread, our own coverage of these issues starts at this permalink: IT'S BETTER THAN DRINKIN' ALONE: The Official ILM Track-by-Track BILLY JOEL Listening Thread

Now igi. I didn’t have the names of the characters that horrid song memorized, sorry

lol if you're gonna permatroll a fan thread you can probably try harder than "what is the joke in the video where she jokes about the lyrics in this song... does it have something to do with the lyrics ??... which by the way SUCK hahahaha!!"

Makes me want to have a soda and scotch