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

leaving one's reasons behind is also a good late-twenties kind of thought, i think. it's a between-the-lines thing but to me it suggests this larger sense of, following all these reasons is what got me to a place i wasn't happy, with people i didn't like, doing work that didn't feel good. i'm leaving them all behind, going on something other than reasons this time - a hunch, a bet, a faith.

this attempt to reconstruct a timeless and classy new-yorkness, despite the FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD era vibe of the times

otm

I don't think I had ever noticed or thought about this song prior to the 9/11 performance (at which my reaction was "what song is this?" lol). If this song didn't exist someone else would have had to invent it - it does feel of a piece with Woody Allen's "Manhattan" bit as Dr. C notes, and I would throw in maybe Paul Simon's late 70s stuff w sax solos ("Still Crazy After All These Years"? altho I guess that isn't very location specific).

It isn't terrible, really, but it's pretty schmaltzy and not really something that has any inherent appeal to me.

Wish there had been a Phil Ramone version.

Still Crazy is a good connection IMHO, even without the later Phil Woods connection and even if Paul's not singing explicit odes to New York. That album came out (on Columbia) in October '75 and was a huge hit - with a bunch of songs, variously jazz-flavored, that generally read as urban, adult, and ~sophisticated~ for lack of a better word. It was also produced by Phil Ramone, who'd been working with Paul for a while and would shortly produce The Stranger. So I think there's some overlap in maybe the kind of album Joel or the label was hoping to create, and the kind of market that this cocktail piano guy could feasibly reach.

It isn't terrible, really, but it's pretty schmaltzy and not really something that has any inherent appeal to me.

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, August 23, 2017

you'd prefer a solo John Cale take?

I would prefer Coney Island Baby

On the five hundredth listen, I will concede that this song could have been much better with one more lyrical pass. We're far from the incomplete-feeling compositions of the last album, but wouldn't this be a better song if on the second time through, the references to the New York Times, the Daily News, Chinatown and Riverside got swapped out for other signposts on Billy's appreciative dérive?

he used to add "newsday too" after the times and the daily news line in his concerts. does that count?

Watch Bruce blow Billy off the stage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZq5hy2RsvM

Watch Bruce blow Billy off the stage

no that is not what is happening in that clip.

the only way that combo could be made worse is if Don Henley walked onstage

Billy Joel live has sounded like dog shit for twenty years.

hi, Shakey!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7pRf3TJVC8

can we please replace shakey and alfred with phil woods?

aw c'mon, I'm enjoying 'em here! the more the merrier. and it's not like shakey's straight trolling (*cough* elton john poll thread *cough*), I believe that if we hit a song he liked he'd tell us

i know i know! kidding! i enjoy it too. but the henley post made me want to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqY6mXULzpw

fwiw Glass Houses was one of the first contemporary pop records I can remember hearing in my house as a kid so I do have a soft spot for some of that era even if I think various songs are kind of ridiculous now, as an adult. I mean his beer-chugging + bottle tossing Elvis Costello impression is pretty funny even if the material isn't *that* great.

I have to admit that the whole "angry underdog"/"I'm just a down-to-earth schmuck" aspect of his persona is inherently appealing to me on some level, and that occasionally he does hit on decent pop hooks, but all of that is undercut by his not actually being that great lol. Like, I sympathize with the guy demanding respect, but then it turns out that he doesn't really deserve it after all.

(I have no such sympathies with Elton John, who I just find annoying)

Bruce doesn't quite fit on NYSoM, no. But I'd take either that one or a Joel solo version over the live one with Tony Bennett.

So sick of that guy. Sorry, I'm sure he has done fine interpretive work and elegant recordings, but it seems like he's just been hanging around showing up to be an all-purpose duet whore, and I'm frankly tired of it.

New York State of Mind is cheesy but I like it

also deserves props for inspiring iconic songs for Nas and Jay-Z

Yah I don't love Bruce on the duet - I like the idea of it, and I like that they did it, but singing-wise he is too "big" and doesnt really slot into the mood of the song

i flippin love Billy's piano on the original though
LOVE

and it def has vague wisps Gershwin about it, for sure

i'm at a gay bar and someone is performing "new york state of mind"

at gay karaoke I once did "A Matter of Trust"!

Love "New York State of Mind", it sounds like NYC looks in old movies. I think if the lyrics were more sentimental, it'd be too much, but this sits in a nice spot. Helps that the melody is one of the best he'd written to this point

vinnie otm

My song at gay karoke would be Uptown Girl. Forget about the "girl" part, it's a gay song.

mine would be Allentown

pretty sure i've done say goodbye to hollywood, movin' out, uptown girl, big shot, and you may be right. probably only the good die young and the longest time too - just stands to reason. billy's songs are really fun to sing, everybody knows them, and they invite hamming it up a little.

CHHHHH UNGH HAH

Done "Vienna" at karaoke a few times.

You have to learn to pace yourself
CHHHH UNGH HAH

maybe we could all get up and do a group rendition of While The Night Is Still Young

mine would be Allentown

I have sung Allentown, while singing karaoke, in New York. The best bit is when you get to sing "Every child had a pretty good SHOT!"

I genuinely thought New York State Of Mind was a Muppets song till I discovered my dad's Billy Joel Greatest Hits a few years later. Zoot does the song justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsOIpCbf-g

James opens side two with a mellow ballad of sorts, dedicated to a friend who isn't living up to the life advice of wise old man Joel. As the album's second single, backed with "Summer, Highland Falls," it failed to chart everywhere except Australia (#77, backed with "All You Wanna Do Is Dance") and the Netherlands, where it made it to #16 (backed with "Travelin' Prayer," aka "Travellin' Prayer").

https://img.discogs.com/gkOx0CLdVz00gj2md0vYEeQNzg0=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2375929-1301860225.jpeg.jpg

This one also feels Paul Simony.

The bio quoted "James" as saying something like, "Eh, he's earned his artistic license. I'm flattered."

(And I finally click on that popshots link to see which "character" on the album cover is "James" (dude with the books.) Didn't realize when I wrote that first sentence that Paul Simon had one of his album inserts shot ten feet away from those turnstiles!

I like James a lot...very Paul Simon

I'm p much a sucker for that Fender Rhodes sound, instant nostalgia

^^

this song *is* the sound of fender rhodes for me. love love love the instrumental coda. good saxophone too.

"i went on the road/you pursued an education" sounded romantic and cool to me when i was in high school. not so much now. i think of this song as the billy equivalent of the kinks' "do you remember walter," which i am equally ambivalent about. the kinks song gets better if you acceot that he's singing about, and to, himself. "james" doesn't offer that option.

I had a dream last night that I was desperately sorting through a friend's cassette collection for some totally awesome late 70s Billy Joel comp so thanks a lot ilx

I am a sucker for this Rhodes sound and the backing vocals are nice but god the sentiment in this song is so gross. Alto sax solo also a little too late 70s dentist office waiting room. "Do You Remember Walter" is a good reference point, as is Lou Reed's "Billy" although I think both of those are just miles better lyrically, more nuanced and conflicted.

agreed that the sound on this is fantastic. nice tune too. wish i liked the lyric; it's SO close to a simple reflective "it's sad that we've grown apart" song which is an under-explored lyrical vein (e.g. madeline's "a different place," written as a late teenager/young adult). but joel can't help but insinuate that james is wrong-headed in his chosen direction, an ivory-tower weenie unable to define his own life, etc. sigh. with hindsight the whole thing feels like a mere dry run for "just the way you are" which goes for a much more crowd-pleasing sentiment on a similar arrangement.

Pleasant.

Sounds great through headphones: the left and right hands are split in the left/right channel. And the sax solo feels much more live than the late-70s sax solos to come - the breathing comes through.

yeah lyrically this is so smug and judgmental. by contrast with "Billy" where Lou is the layabout loser who nonetheless survives, while golden-boy Billy does everything right and then senselessly dies young.

(still some snark in the Lou song, but I think it's leavened with other things - genuine regret, envy etc.)

and then senselessly dies young

only the good, obvs.

heh

actually I had to check and Lou's Billy doesn't die he just gets ruined by the war ("When he came back, he wasn't quite the same/His nerves were shot, but not me/Last time I saw him, I couldn't take it anymore/He wasn't the Billy I knew, it was like talking to a door")

I think the Rhodes thing has something to do w/the fact that the opening credits to the show Taxi had some strange effect on me as a child, I can't really put it into words but it was so gritty to me just the depiction of NYC in those credits

I was pretty young to even get the show that much but my parents loved it