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

The intro makes me wonder if anyone's ever tried to cover "Baba O'Reilly" manually.

good question. billy should do that.

fccuz, does it help that Billy later takes a turn toward at least some ham-handed humanitarianism later?

He's been spotted wearing a yellow star in the past week or so in anti-Nazi solidarity.

"Allentown" and "Alexa" could both be read as economic-justice pleas, however clunky and appropriating.

And he didn't completely sit out the reasonably well-intentioned charitygasms of Band Aid / USA for Africa / Live Aid, right?

I'm only concerned w it in terms of songwriting, i dont care about his politics otherwise tbh

fccuz, does it help that Billy later takes a turn toward at least some ham-handed humanitarianism later?

that definitely helps those songs in their ham-handed way, but it doesn't do anything for this song.

i am very glad for the yellow star. that was a cool gesture.

(sidebar: i grew up a huge billy joel fan, and i grew up very aware of my own jewishness and of jewishness in pop culture. and i had absolutely no idea, none, not even a hint, until quite recently that billy is jewish.)

Little-know fact: real name Shlomo Joelberg.

Lol yeah i thought he was italian for a long time

I do like YMP's take because yeah it's not like I haven't met activist dudes that fit Joel's takedown to a T - it's just the suggestion that the correct response is to be so over it and roll eyes at those silly people who still "believe in causes" that takes us over into classic self-satisfied smugness, the 60s in full retreat.

I don't agree that Billy's characters are always one-dimensional (though he does, sometimes, go to extremes) but often the interest/nuance does come in what he forgets to write with a sorta sketchily-rendered situation. I tried to make the case for some ambiguity in "Captain Jack," but more typical are the multi-character songs like "Piano Man" and "Movin' Out" where you barely learn anything about these people and have to do a lot of your own projecting. IMO, that works when what we *do* get is evocative and unusual, and fails when it's just stock-character cliche. The second-person "let me tell you what's your problem" songs are certainly the most bludgeoning and unsubtle.

James: Fender Rhodes & alto sax makes this 100% Veg bait. Love it

Prelude/Angry Young Man - cant not hear "Scenes " in the main song now that Dr Casino pointed it out. I really like this one too

Anyways all I meant was that it's (just barely) possible Joel himself didn't regard all activism as foolish, naïve posturing, but rather constructed a character who thought so - or at least pretended to think so when presented with the garish spectacle of the AYM.

That the real-life Billy felt like standing up for causes he believes in? That suggests that the narrator of AYM have backed down a notch on the disdain for earnest activist types.

But of course I don't require recording artists to be exemplary humans to like songs (if I did, I'd have to throw out at least half the library.) It's only because this song so overtly addresses the ethics of how to live in society that it's even a question.

xps galore

Or, Dr. C otm

it's not like I haven't met activist dudes that fit Joel's takedown to a T - it's just the suggestion that the correct response is to be so over it and roll eyes at those silly people who still "believe in causes" that takes us over into classic self-satisfied smugness

7th grade or so, I actually recorded Billy Joel's HBO Live from Long Island concert onto a cassette, and never really listened to his albums at home after that.

So this is the version I know:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctPPnPygCd8

Brenda and Eddie were the radical heavies
Wearing working-class ties to the prom
Riding around with the angry young man and the radio on

As a kid, I spent a good amount of time wondering what working class ties look like. Striped?

― Eazy, Friday, August 25, 2017 9:10 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/1Mc9mMc.jpg

The lyric may be a tad more ambiguous than it is being given credit for, at least in the suggestion that this is Billy waving goodbye to a former version of himself (I was an "angry young man," but now that I'm older, caring about shit is boring). Still, the sentiment feels a little too akin to the Eagles appalling "Get Over It" two decades later, in that the appropriate audience response is most clearly intended as an eye-roll at this particular kind of character.

As a song, the prelude and Billy's rapid-fire delivery are fun, even if the whole thing leaves a bad taste. In other words, this is simply misguided where the Eagles song is a hate crime.

I've seen the "singing to himself" interpretation online but don't quite get it - if this guy will "go to the grave as an angry old man," how can he be the same guy who's happily transitioned to "just surviving" ?

the suggestion that this is Billy waving goodbye to a former version of himself

I don't think the text supports this reading - "He'll go to his grave as an angry old man," as Dr. C notes.

I DO think it does allow for more sympathy and even affection than a simple one-dimensional takedown. "There's a place in this world..." "Give a moment or two..." "It's a comfort to know his intentions are good."'

He's happily transitioning, but he recognizes strains of his former self in the latest crop of angry young men. He's more optimistic about his own future than he is theirs, sure, and maybe this is just another example of the dickishness of the song. You're right, it doesn't exactly scan; I'm just trying to account for why he throws in a bit about self-identifying.

better yet, what puffin said!

(though I still think the song is at least 80% a snarky takedown)

I don't think he's singing to himself. He's taking the piss and laughing at 60s idealism

crypto, 80% is about right, yeah

And God all the words and syncopation, it's like some erudite old geezer's rendition of Subterranean homesick blues

The intro makes me wonder if anyone's ever tried to cover "Baba O'Reilly" manually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PVlMTCG-BI

First comment HOF on that, too

I like the bass line and those staccato acoustic strums.

The verse melody sounds like something Belle & Sebastian would write twenty years later.

I don't hear what's so repellent about the lyrics -- it's a sketch. The arrangement has so much energy that it palliates the angry. To me "Angry Young Man" is Joel's wry take on the kind of fella he knows well and may recognize in himself.

it's a shitty sketch!

it's more like a page from a coloring book

I don't expect narrative complexity from Billy Joel.

^ ding ding

Eazy, thx for posting that video!! great stuff
Man Devitto really whales on those drums holy crap

One thing I took away from recent live vids ITT is that I would rather be in a band with DeVitto than Weinberg. Max is fine but staid in comparison.

wtf max is cool

Max is cool but Liberty brings more dynamism imo.

But my fave live version of this is probably the Russian tour doc released as "Matter of Trust," in which I think Stegmeyer does goofy dances wearing Miami Vice-colored pants and narrow leather suspenders.

Wow at the Baba video. Would've been cool even if he hadn't played the "regular" chords.

Man, my dad went off on Liberty DeVitto one night while we were watching them on The Tonight Show or something. "I'd FIRE that guy! Look at how much of a DISTRACTION he is!"

"There's a place in this world..." "Give a moment or two..." "It's a comfort to know his intentions are good."'

i hear all that as sarcasm.

The verse melody sounds like something Belle & Sebastian would write twenty years later.

this is very otm

how do i get brenda & eddie out of my head, it's whirring around in my head like a broken tape machine now heeeeeelp

BRENDAR

That's like all you need to know about BJ

Why are we not discussing Can or some shit. Is this how far we have fallen? 😀

love the energy from the piano & drums. back in high school the lyrics sounded so sophisticated and wise even if we didn't know anyone who fit the description. now, i'll just choose to ignore the lyrics and listen to the music.

yeah billy isn't a soul searcher by any means

tbh we talk about the music and the lyrics a lot but for me, and i came into it feeling this way already, but pretty consistently through these 3 albums i really do love his singing

idk enough about the mechanics of singing to say why exactly, just, something in his tone is really pleasant and nice to hear, i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBW7jfCA-wU

I've Loved These Days is either another, more bittersweet, farewell to the Hollywood scene, or more generally a reflection on mid-twenties debauchery. Here, it's the penultimate track; a live performance, recorded at the Rosemont Horizon (7/16/1980), served as the closer for Songs in the Attic.

A little too Broadway for my tastes. The (even) older and wiser version of this is probably "Famous Last Words," from River of Dreams, and I like that one a lot better.

i really like this

especially the clarinet! lovely touch there

yeah i never think about this song but it's kind of prime joel - big and a little blowsy with equal splashes of something like sneering resentment and something like wiping-away-a-tear sentimentality. a reveler's rewrite of auld lang syne, that remembers all the hangovers but still isn't gonna write off the good times entirely. the first-person plural in the verses is key here - turn it to "you" and it becomes another judgment song, but there's something reliable about a big "we" song with layabouts casting about for another form of adulthood. "time to pretend," which i love, is a very distant cousin of this song.

I have no trouble embracing this song and sharing the sentiments therein. I think it's a decently specific lyric, that adequately describes a certain attitude.

Just a couple days ago Οὖτις wrote of BJ's character songs: "like there's no twists or turnabouts or mysterious details everything is just 'hey this guy's a jerk!' or 'these people are losers!' or 'this couple's in love!' and like... that's it."

I think his introspectionfests are less one-dimensional. They allow for completely respectable - even postmodern - levels of ambiguity and ambivalence. I don't think he's a sophisticated intellectual or a Bowie-level eccentric genius, but I do think his lyrics do a good job of encapsulating the dualities that can accompany even the most conventional of lives.

We walked on the beach beside that old hotel; they're tearing it down now, but it's just as well. You can make decisions too, and you can have this heart to break. We shot on sight... we promised our mothers we'd write. Our lifestyle is excessive, and I know it needs to end - but damn, I've had a great time. I don't know why I go to extremes. You may be right; I may be crazy.

Is it a French horn preceding the clarinet?

yeah i think so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYwBvysy3Q

Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) closes out Turnstiles, and with the benefit of hindsight, Joel's pre-blockbuster career. Another fan favorite and killer live staple, its appearance as the rampaging opening number on Songs in the Attic (Madison Square Garden, 6/24/1980) single-handedly justifies the entire "let's do my earlier songs justice" premise of the album.

One detail I never appreciated until digging a little more into New York history is the allusion to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. This surely hinged on audience awareness that the Brooklyn Navy Yards had only been decommissioned in 1966, with the loss of near 11,000 jobs. Another twist of the knife for the struggling metropolis.

Interesting to think of this one, released in mid-1976, as steeped in the decline of NYC. And yet, at the same time, in parts of NYC Billy wasn't interested in, the mid-70s saw the birth of hip-hop and NYC punk not to mention a thriving dance scene.