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

tbf, it was the style at the time!

(see e.g. "Pump It Up" which is surely the kind of thing Joel was thinking about whenever he talked about recognizing garage-rock in new wave. nothing on this album has either the heaviness or the swing of that song, both of which maybe give the organ sound a different feel in-context, but the actual tone on the instrument is i think pretty similar.)

i love this song

does this album totally fall apart at the end like the stranger? bc at the moment it's my favorite billy joel record

I can't imagine he has a better record in his catalog

this snarky new wave bubblegum style is his best by default to my ears - camouflages his weaknesses and highlights his strengths imo

i think it's also that billy, more than many or most of his peers, is a pure music-first guy. he strikes me as the kind of composer who, having finished a piece of music, doesn't ask himself "what do i want to say?" but rather "what do i have to do to finish this thing?" i think a lot of, ahem, honesty will come out that way, 'cause if you're just throwing words out into the air to make them fit a melody or to finish an exercise, chances are pretty good they're going to carry some of your inner being along with them. with billy, that means a lot of insecurity, anger, bitterness, paranoia and random memories and nostalgia. but it's passive messaging. he's not trying to express ideas so much as they just kind of tumble out as he searches for serviceable rhymes and turns of phrases.

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:27 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great post

ultimately, i imagine billy - at core - is a guy at a piano who happened upon a great little piano figure or chord change and keeps grinding on it to see if he can spin it into a song

that you can actually hear that in the finished product is emblematic of his failings as a songwriter

Have we used up all the sound effect intros on this album yet? Glass breaking, touch-tone telephone, Star-Spangled Banner... Roger Waters must've been sitting next to his speakers, tapping his front teeth with a biro, going "Hmm. This guy's good."

And what are we going to use when we record our cover? The sound of the OnDemand menu blaring about La La Land available now! in the New Movies section?

Favorite comment this week

(see e.g. "Pump It Up" which is surely the kind of thing Joel was thinking about whenever he talked about recognizing garage-rock in new wave. nothing on this album has either the heaviness or the swing of that song, both of which maybe give the organ sound a different feel in-context, but the actual tone on the instrument is i think pretty similar.)

SENTENCES I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD WRITE: Billy Joel is no Steve Nieve.

I'm really liking Glass Houses a lot so far

Billy Joel is no Steve Nieve

^^^post I almost made in this thread several times

'cause if you're just throwing words out into the air to make them fit a melody or to finish an exercise, chances are pretty good they're going to carry some of your inner being along with them. with billy, that means a lot of insecurity, anger, bitterness, paranoia and random memories and nostalgia. but it's passive messaging. he's not trying to express ideas so much as they just kind of tumble out

not to pollute the thread but this reminds me a lot about the way Donald Trump gives speeches. Like Joel, he has a knack for the catchy, like Joel, he doesn't put a lot of labor into getting everything locked down tight, so like Joel, he reveals a lot of unpleasant interior material, but not really by design.

I can't imagine he has a better record in his catalog

Nylon Curtain IMO. His strongest LP.

There's a clip where he calls "I really wish I was less of a thinking man, and more a fool who's not afraid of rejection" the "key line" of the song. It's telling, I think, that it's a line concerning the speaker rather than Diane. This is one where I think he's *aware* of how the woman in the song, her supposed loneliness and sad TV-sleeping fate, are less a real person dancing at the club and more a projection in the mind of the man.

otm. this one starts out sounding like it's going to be yet another song about billy interpreting flat-out rejection as mixed signals but then, yeah, he turns it around and points the finger at himself. or throws the rock at himself, if you will. this is the song that finally pays off the title of the album. this is where he kinda sorta gets it.

musically, this is another one, like "all for leyna," that has completely won me over before he sings a note. the electric piano sound is new wave bubblegum cheese gold. and yeah those guitar stabs on top of it. delicious.

do people not like the sound of the (farfisa?) organ solo? i think it's a perfect new wave touch. (and is that richie playing it? the liner notes seem to credit him, not billy, with all organ.)

does this album totally fall apart at the end like the stranger?

The next song is pretty rough.....

good ol reliably unreliable billy

yeah i like the organ just fine. once again wish billy was more inclined to throw covers into his setlist - "this beat goes on / switchin' to glide" would have been a fun one.

i believe it's richie, who did organ duty on a lot of tracks as we've seen before (e.g. "Only The Good Die Young," where he'd switch directly from the organ part to the sax solo). billy's at the piano banging out the main rhythm, and i'm assuming this was still recorded as a live full-band take as we've heard about on the couple of albums. can't find any vintage live performances, but in 21st century concerts that's the setup - billy at piano, and another dude on a moog doing the organ part.

Yeah gotta say I am loving "Glass Houses" so far too. Probably my favorite album cover of his as well

really love the guitar stings in Sleeping With Television On

last 2 have been a little Elvis Costello-y especially i. his delivery... I Dont Want To Be Alone also reminded me a bit of Bruce Springsteen? i cant put my finger on why tho. Maybe just bc he seemed a tiny bit more laid back or something

now imagine Don Henley singing it

NO

well, nah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um9Cxp87nmw

C'était Toi (You Were the One), with its extended sections in French prepared by a translator-for-hire, is Billy's attempt at a "Michelle" type number. In describing how it went over in front of French audiences, Joel compares it to the initial reception of "Springtime For Hitler" in The Producers, and claims the promoter told him "they thought you were singing in Polish." It's probably the closest thing on the album to a 52nd Street track, suggesting an alternate, yachtier course Billy could have charted into the 80s.

the french is pointless, the hook should be better (or there should be more of a hook in general), but i really enjoy the yachty riff and the way it meets with the chorus ("you were the onlyyy one" dunna dun dun dun!)

freaks and geeks seems to be the primary generator of youtube comments for this song

The electric piano brings this closer to H&O territory than the last song, and the French part is another tip of the hat to McCartney.

Between this and the "now you parlez vous francais" line in Don't Ask Me Why, I'm glad he got over his "lol French" phase.

Not the worst thing he ever cut but boy does it throw off the momentum of the album for me. Should have been a b-side or set aside for another draft and another album - unfortunately we face Joel's apparent unwillingness to ever write one minute of music more than strictly required to fulfill an LP order. I think the album as a whole would feel tighter and more exciting if he'd just knocked out a completely generic three-chord rocker about getting dumped, or a Ramones cover, or a fired-up remake of one of the "songs in the attic." Or, maybe best fitting the spirit of the album: a "Kansas City / Hey Hey Hey" type medley, stringing together rockabilly, girl group and garage-band classics in a new wave style. Throw some real energy into it and that'd make a fine album closer. Oh well.

You say that now about the French phase, but wait until we get to "Nous n'avons pas Allumé le Feu!"

I could listen to this dude all day.

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

Another vote for "doesn't feel like it belongs on Glass Houses."

this is more curdled McCartney without the hooks

Not the worst thing he ever cut but boy does it throw off the momentum of the album for me. Should have been a b-side or set aside for another draft and another album - unfortunately we face Joel's apparent unwillingness to ever write one minute of music more than strictly required to fulfill an LP order. I think the album as a whole would feel tighter and more exciting if he'd just knocked out a completely generic three-chord rocker about getting dumped, or a Ramones cover, or a fired-up remake of one of the "songs in the attic."

totalement otm

agree with everyone,

this feels "70s" to me like it was a leftover

which, is one thing if the song is so undeniable as a hit you just have to be fuck it this has to be on, but obviously this isn't good enough to justify it

If this was on side B of 52nd Street, I'd probably like it as much as anything else on there. It's pleasant. But here it's really out-of-place. I think with a more uptempo, "Movin Out" arrangement, it might have worked here, but maybe it just doesn't make sense on Glass Houses

god what a wet fart of a song

bleh

No, you're thinking of his other French number, "Deux Étaient Toi".

schlocky and pompous

and is it really cold enough to warrant wearing those gloves?
also dude looks like he's never thrown a ball in his life.

brandy eyes

If the "you were the onlyyy one" dunna dun dun dun was guitar instead of the piano, would be closer to a power ballad.

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

Close to the Borderline gets us close to the end of the album and is obviously a favorite with some parties around here. I actually have to dash out for my commute, so I'll let y'all take it from there; if I survive the inflation, the boom boxes, and the general nightmarish barrage of sensory information that characterizes New York life, I'll be back to check in later.

The way the choruses finish reminds my of Hendrix's My Friend. Loving this one, although yeah, the latest in a long line of douchebag Billy Joel song narrators.

• All that Bernie Goetz talk, ending with him holding "back the tears until it's closing time." Not so much of a tough guy after all!

• Liberty saves that bridge with ... whatever it is he's doing back there. Also love the dueling guitar solos.

• And that wail in the last :00.5!

And here's another reminder to check out my long-neglected photo blog, http://closetotheborderline.tumblr.com/ . It never bought me a Roomba like those movie scenes did, but it's still my favorite.

Also, intro was great for radio bumpers.

I'm not sure what this song is about besides its own aggression, but it's fun. Glass Houses is by far BJ's best album to date – a solid B+ or B in the end.

All that Bernie Goetz talk

Total Bernie Goetz anthem!

So Doc Casino mentioned earlier that he sees this as the song where Joel tries to go for the "angry young man" / Joe Jackson sound and I disagree! I think this is Joel's attempt to understand and perform what he sees as "punk rock." Important tell is the Johnny Rotten - style rolled "r" on "Rich man, poor man, either way American." I think Joel listened to "Anarchy in the UK" and was like, "I get it, everything's gone to hell, let me write from the persona of a man who SEES THROUGH IT and is READY TO SNAP."

But listening to it again today I see it as more one part Sex Pistols and one part Styx, a combination which would have made no sense to either of those two acts but which makes perfect sense to Joel, to whom all of it is, as mentioned above, still rock and roll. "I'm a good guy but I can't take all this dirty nonsense around me" is much more Dennis DeYoung than Johnny Rotten. Listen to the guitar in the bridge 2:25-2:40; this kind of back-and-forth "we're rocking out but it's also kind of honky-tonk" business is pure Styx.

Also I will never ever not love the opening of this song, the way it sounds like the guy just trips over the drums and falls into the song.

Hmm! Styx comparison is interesting... Actually I think I may have brought up this album when "Too Much Time On My Hands" came around on my classic rock education thread - 70s veterans excited to find in new wave an authorization to turn back to the garage rock of their 60s teenage years.

I was thinking Jackson more in terms of arrangement/backing track than vocals, tho obviously Doug Stegmeyer is no Graham Maby. (Frankly I would struggle to think of more than one or two memorable bass guitar parts anywhere in Billy's catalog. Usually Billy's handling the low end, and he'll freely admit he's not much for melodic left-hand playing... One of the things that produces the odd hybrid sound of this album maybe.)