unless, y'know...
― Οὖτις, Friday, 11 August 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link
"Root Beer Rag" was also the name of a Billy Joel newsletter (now defunct) published in the late 1970s to late 1980s.
A proud former subscriber, right here.
Was about to make some lame joke about using this on Zen Arcade instead of Mondays Will Never Be the Same, but held back for once. Then I open up DC's link and see that the Streetlife cover was from San Pedro! Take that, Huskers!
― pplains, Friday, 11 August 2017 19:30 (seven years ago) link
So, any ragtime heads on this board? The most I can say about this song is it sounds nice on the record and it's probably real fun to play. The instrumentals on this album are usually cited as evidence of how dry Billy's well was, but I think this one at least is fun.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 12 August 2017 00:29 (seven years ago) link
...oh well! Moving on!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4HygPI9lA
Roberta closes out side one of Streetlife Serenade. This is one of several "woman's name" songs in Joel's quiver around this time; "Rosalinda" and "Josephine," heard on the Sigma Sound performance, were never recorded for an album. An "I'm in love with a stripper" tale, it seems in some ways like the most "Billy Joel" song we've heard so far.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 12 August 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
This seems like the kind of offbeat sentiment that Billy could really get into, but the song never really builds up any steam.
― the general theme of STUFF (cryptosicko), Saturday, 12 August 2017 21:22 (seven years ago) link
Root Beer Rag is fun, def makes me nostalgic for commercials of my childhood
Roberta is good, best non ragtime song so far
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 13 August 2017 00:19 (seven years ago) link
(on this album)
Yeah Roberta's really good and *very* Billy as Dr C rightly points out.
Piano sounds really beautiful on this - I don't know much about pianos so I'm not really sure why it sounds better than other piano songs he's played. Maybe it's just the way he's playing? It is a mystery. But I like it.
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 13 August 2017 00:46 (seven years ago) link
I'm following this thread with interest, my first agonizing "which record do I but with my allowance" choice was between Glass Houses and The Cars' debut. I'm still glad I went with The Cars, but it's interesting to see how much more of a soft spot I have for Joel's schtick than I do with (to pick another ILM "listening thread") The Eagles. Joel is putting down his friends/lovers, singing "I don't care what you say anymore," extolling the virtues of early death, and riding his motorcycle through the rain. The Eagles are telling a desperado to "come to his senses," getting lost in hotels, and warning about the dangers of a fast life. I know which worldview I prefer in my pop songs!
― sleeve, Sunday, 13 August 2017 01:42 (seven years ago) link
but = buy
― sleeve, Sunday, 13 August 2017 01:43 (seven years ago) link
agree
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 13 August 2017 01:48 (seven years ago) link
i think "roberta" may be the first great billy joel song, his first perfect marriage of lyric, melody and performance. love love love this one. the sad sack looking for love at the strip club (or the escort ads, or wherever) could be just another way for billy to express his self-loathing and/or woman-loathing and/or all-around bitterness, but that's not what he does here. "roberta" is sympathetic to both the narrator and the object of his affection, and there's a newfound ease in the vocal performance that sells both ends of that. a lot of what we've heard so far is a singer who hasn't quite grown into his voice yet, or who's trying a little too hard. here, finally, he's just singing. and it's a really sweet melody, which the "i'm in a bad way" bridge takes up a notch. A-plus.
― fact checking cuz, Sunday, 13 August 2017 04:44 (seven years ago) link
it's quite possible he stole the intro to "roberta" from this 1971 neil diamond classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhEaHcQgyLs
― fact checking cuz, Sunday, 13 August 2017 04:46 (seven years ago) link
Hey y'all, I don't quite have it in me today to make the next post, given the state of things out there. Should return tomorrow though.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 13 August 2017 15:34 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_VHFyaSXQw
The Entertainer opens side two and brings back the Moog with a vengeance for what always feels like the album's centerpiece or keystone track to me. The sole single, released a month after the LP, it peaked at #34 on the Hot 100, getting to #30 on Easy Listening and the Canadian charts both. This makes it one of the bigger hits left off of Greatest Hits Vol. I & II in its original release (it was added to the CD version). Ironically, given the lyric, the recording was cut down from 3:41 to 3:11 for the single, screwing up the instrumental buildup. The printed label invokes a third running time as a cheeky punchline.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Entertainer.jpg
http://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/billy_joel-the_entertainer_s.jpg
http://images.45cat.com/billy-joel-the-entertainer-columbia.jpg
Continuing the line of country covers of Joel tunes, Waylon Jennings substantially re-interpreted it as an album-closer for 1984's Never Could Toe The Mark. The Internet suggests that an Australian mime (?) named "Reg Livermore" may have also attempted it, but it's possible The Entertainer was simply the title of one of his albums.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Monday, 14 August 2017 16:57 (seven years ago) link
He featured "The Entertainer" this past weekend at Wrigley Field, btw:
Set List:Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)PressureGo Cubs Go [cover of Steve Goodman]The EntertainerViennaThe Lion Sleeps Tonight [cover of Solomon Linda]The Longest TimeYour Song [cover of Elton John]ZanzibarA Day in the Life [cover of The Beatles]Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)The Downeaster AlexaNew York State of Mind25 or 6 to 4 [cover of Chicago]AllentownSometimes A FantasyShe’s Always A WomanDon’t Ask Me WhyMy LifeThe River of Dreams / A Hard Day’s Night [cover of The Beatles]Nessun Dorma [cover of Giacomo Puccini, sung by Mike DelGuidice]Scenes From An Italian RestaurantPiano Man
― Eazy, Monday, 14 August 2017 16:59 (seven years ago) link
holy shit "roberta" is super good
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:00 (seven years ago) link
real talk: i've never liked The Entertainer that crazy Moog riff is like knives in my brain
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:03 (seven years ago) link
Also re: "The Entertainer": This pre-album version, with no Moog and different lyrics opens with a little run through Joplin's rag of the same name, a trick which he's apparently kept alive in recent performances. The profoundly uninspired rhythm section gives some hint of why he might have been looking around for a tighter touring ensemble around the time of this album. This 1977 live performance, in turn, adds a few flourishes and a mysteriously long intro, maybe there to give Billy some knob-twiddling time on the Moog. In my fantasy two-disc version of Songs in the Attic, this song is a must-have.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:13 (seven years ago) link
haha, I'm a sucker for really bubblegummy/AM-goldy uses of synths in this era - Moroder/Chicory Tip's "Son of My Father," stuff like that. I didn't hear this song until I got the album as an adult and it seemed such a fresh surprise. If all the tracks here were as peppy and sunshiney, or at least as hooky, this would be a classic record IMHO. Wonder if the label under-promoted the album as a slap on the wrist for the snarky lyric, or if they just didn't think there were any other hits here.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:18 (seven years ago) link
The Moog is a bit shrill at times, yes, but I love everything else about this song. It initially feels like something that should have come from later in his career in terms of its cynicism; for all I know, he'd had enough bad industry experiences to justify the tone, but he's clearly playing a character of a music biz vet (would this have been too early to be referencing Elvis in Vegas?). I love how the lyric "It took me years to write it / they were the best years of my life" balances out the hackiness that we might otherwise perceive in the character--he's "The Entertainer," yes, but he's also a committed artist--and nowhere else in the song is the collision between the bitterly comic tone in his delivery of the vocal and the tragedy of pouring your heart and soul into something that is ultimately left to the heartless discretion of suits more striking. If "I get put in the back in the discount rack / like another can of beans" is inelegant as hell, its fits perfectly.
― the general theme of STUFF (cryptosicko), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
i love the way the arrangement just gets more ridiculous as it goes
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:26 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, it's of a piece with, say, John/Taupin's "Bitter Fingers," but that one's written by people who were really on the top of the industry, looking back at all the flacks they'd had to toil under along the way. I feel like Billy's resentment was probably pretty heartfelt, what with things like the debacle of his first album in his recent past, and of course the actual cutting-down of "Piano Man." Surprised he didn't try for a lyric about the mastering job on Cold Spring Harbor - "It was a beautiful track but they cut it too fast / Sound like a Chipmunk but they don't give a fuck / How can I tour on this?" I dunno.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:33 (seven years ago) link
holy shit that moog riff in the Entertainer is HELL STYX
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:36 (seven years ago) link
haha
those lyrics are def better than what he actually came up with and omg that moog riff is obnoxious as fuck
xp
― Οὖτις, Monday, 14 August 2017 17:38 (seven years ago) link
ha, i meant to mention styx's joeliciously titled "fooling yourself (the angry young man)" - thanks again to fact checking cuz for introducing me to that one. the twiddly, renfest-ready quality of the riff here, as much as the timbre of the instrument, connects some dots.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Monday, 14 August 2017 17:42 (seven years ago) link
moog riff sounds like an icecream truck in reverse .. in hell
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 03:05 (seven years ago) link
i srsly cannot get down this song guys
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 03:06 (seven years ago) link
try playing it louder... perhaps out of an ice cream truck
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 03:13 (seven years ago) link
The single cover where he's joelspreading on a backwards chair, gah.
And it's that old-timey kind of bentwood chair with a vaguely feminine curve. The implication is clear: when he says he's The Entertainer, he means that he "entertained" your mom. With his celebrated organ.
#ifyouknowwhatimean #andithinkyoudo
― Tone-Locrian (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 03:32 (seven years ago) link
mulletspreading
― Tone-Locrian (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 03:33 (seven years ago) link
gross
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 04:22 (seven years ago) link
does he have a black eye on that one cover?
"the entertainer" is one of my least favorite billy joel fan favorites. it's a cute idea, and the "3:05" line always made me smile, but it wears thin kinda fast. the melody isn't strong enough to sustain the verse-verse-verse-verse-verse structure, and though he's trying his hardest to make it more interesting with all the arrangement cutesiness, it just sounds like cutesiness. and yuck that drum roll after "laid all kinds of girls." my favorite part of the song is the instrumental coda, mostly because i've been waiting three-plus minutes for something different to happen. also, this sounds even more like a harry chapin song than the last one that i said sounded like a harry chapin song.
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 04:40 (seven years ago) link
lol many of these comments. The moog was reminding me of ELP "lucky man." Much more awful than I remembered. Anyway, The Entertainer is jaunty and jaded. Heard it many times before but once was enough for right now.
― that's not my post, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 04:49 (seven years ago) link
Just catching up with the last four or five: damn, lot of Moog on this album, even a little on "Root Beer Rag". I always thought "The Entertainer" was a one-off. I think the songs so far maybe stand out a little more than on Piano Man, but not much more
"The Entertainer" has always been a favorite Joel track of mine. Cynicism suits him, and paired with that cheesy Moog melody and banjo picking makes for a strange but memorable song. Even the usual clunker lines in the song make me laugh rather than cringe
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 06:35 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VhcQiqwTp4
Last of the Big Time Spenders is the first in another block of generally overlooked Side Two numbers, yanking us away from Moogs and banjos for another piano-and-pedal-steel ballad. The title always makes me think I'm going to get a cover of Norman Greenbaum's Good Lookin' Woman but alas, Billy didn't go in for covers for a long, long time.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 11:36 (seven years ago) link
Not a huge fan of "The Entertainer" either. Maybe it was during my time at the classic rock station where I just got real sick of all the boo-hoo, we're big time stars but how we gotta pay the manager now? Don't call me, I'll call you.
And I love me some Billy Joel. Love me some cynicism. Even love me some moog. But "The Entertainer" just goes more than all-in on all three.
LotBTS nice step back. Nothing much more to say about it. Still trying to figure out what WMJ's "true" voice is. I think it's somewhere between "Piano Man" and "Pressure". While this song is fine, that voice isn't heard here. Instead, it's that a-woo-woo voice, the one that starts trying to teeter toward another Sweet Baby Ray imitation.
― pplains, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 13:17 (seven years ago) link
A pleasant number, with conventional chord developments and a strong Elton vibe (the lyrics are too straightforward for Bernie Taupin though).
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 13:20 (seven years ago) link
Trying to picture Billy covering "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" and it just won't stick for some reason, which is odd cause yeah the lyrical theme seems right up his alley. Something about the riff or the rhythm.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 14:13 (seven years ago) link
Both got real touchtone phone numbers prominently heard (as I mention it for the 106th time.)
― pplains, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link
another kinda unmemorable song on this album, like the song title though
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
^^ Yeah, def. Wish I still had a fantasy football team.
― pplains, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 17:08 (seven years ago) link
I really like this one - the Elton-y piano works for me, and his singing is nice. idk, i think it has a languid charm about it that I enjoy.
also absence of insane Moog might be swaying me more than usual lol
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
I like it when it's playing but can't really remember it when it's over. Should give it some more spins I guess. Reminds me a little of some slightly more focused later tracks, like "Vienna" (which I also have never really fallen in love with).
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 16 August 2017 05:00 (seven years ago) link
sounds like an unfinished study for an elton album track. the pedal steel break is a little wtf.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 06:23 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GySkGXxxVRo
Weekend Song: Billy as a hard workin' 9-to-5er, money in his pocket and ready for some fun times with his baby. Hey - it ain't no crime.
― yellow is the color of some raisins (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 16 August 2017 12:38 (seven years ago) link
ain't no crime for sure, but he ain't no bob seger or bruce springsteen. or ray charles, whose voice he's sort of channeling here.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 13:22 (seven years ago) link
the "back-breakin', bone-shakin', belly-achin', hard-workin'" part is good practice for songs to come about not starting fires, though.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 13:24 (seven years ago) link
Totally gonna blast this from the CRV's speakers Friday afternoons in the parking lot before heading over to Chili's.
Billy's good with these Side 2 blue-collar interludes - "Half a Mile Away" or "Christie Lee" - that usually let off a little steam before heading toward the poignant parting finale.
― pplains, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 13:32 (seven years ago) link