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

tell her all your crazy dreams!

nobody knows but me - i like all bo diddley beats no matter what. i like little billy channelling his little mccartney. i like the 1-2-1-2-1-2 etc intro. i like him getting silly billy at the end. goofy and fun.

Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming To Town," taken from a 1975 concert recording, has enjoyed some airplay.

massive airplay where i come from! a classic rock christmas standard. (but not necessarily from this album. same version was released three years later as the b-side to "my hometown." and if memory serves, at least some radio stations had a copy even before in harmony came out.)

bragging rights: i was at the springsteen show where "santa claus" was recorded. at the c.w. post dome, 1976. my high school graduation was also held at the dome. it collapsed several years later; couldn't handle the snow drifts. there's a whole new auditorium there now called the tilles center.

1975, rather.

the weight of the snow drifts... or of nine tiny reindeer??

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An Innocent Man, Billy Joel's ninth solo album, was recorded in Spring of 1983, probably while "Goodnight Saigon" was still on the charts, and released that August, less than a year after The Nylon Curtain. Most of you are probably familiar with the standard narrative: recovering from a long year of divorce and the grind of recording the weighty Nylon Curtain, a newly single Billy, flush with excitement at dating supermodels Elle Macpherson and future wife Christie Brinkley, drew a connection between his new mood and his teenage years. This led him to the American rock, pop, and soul music of the 50s and 60s, and he threw himself energetically into a string of generally upbeat and optimistic style exercises.

Whatever we may think of all that, the resulting retro-pop was an unlikely smash: six top-forty singles, of which three made the top ten. One topped the US charts and another did the same in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. On the Adult Contemporary charts they were unstoppable: #1, #2, #1, #1, #1, #3. Though the album itself peaked at only #4, it sold steadily, becoming the fourth-biggest seller of 1984 and, according to one list I've found, its 7.9 million sales make it the #32 best-selling album of the 1980s, just above (I swear) New Jersey. At the Grammys, it got an Album of the Year nom, inevitably losing to Thriller; the other noms were Synchronicity, Let's Dance, and the Flashdance soundtrack. "Uptown Girl" was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, along with 1999, "All Night Long," and "Maniac." The victory went to... Thriller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdGzzfQ52TQ

Easy Money, the album-opener, has never been among my favorite tracks, but it certainly makes a clear announcement that we're going to get something different from The Nylon Curtain. I admit that it may have been ruined for me by this ILX post.

Wikipedia, by the way, spells out which act(s) each track is 'supposed' to be celebrating, but I won't be specifying those since it's more fun to approach them with an open mind, and ILM's collective pop knowledge no doubt exceeds that of the Wiki hivemind.

A cheese ball, one I find inexplicably endearing. I don't know if this was actually featured in/written for the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle that I think came out that same year (and which I haven't seen), but I cannot help but feel that Billy Joel writing a song for a Rodney Dangerfield movie from the 1980s is about as on-brand as you can get.

*BUT one In find...

One *I find...aw, fuck it

Apparently, it was the title song for the film! Never realized that.

I now kind of regret not picking up the $0.50 VHS copy of the film that I spotted at my local Goodwill store a few months back.

I still don't understand why this is the album opener. There is a veritable arsenal of hits here and the album starts with... this. I agree that the title track is too long and introspective to be an opener. "The Longest Time" is too unconventional to open.

"Tell Her About it" and "Uptown Girl" are too stereotypical - upbeat, major key, top-40 radio catnip - and those songs were always going to do fine as singles anyway.

For me the obvious opener is "Keeping the Faith." But they didn't consult me so I will shut up now.

"Keeping the Faith" is the perfect closer for me - feels like the curtain coming down for Billy to come out and say a few words about what he was trying to do; it's the only song that lyrically discusses his teenage lifestyle, and it explicitly discusses his "reasons for the whole revival," before he leaves to go have a beer in the shade. I actually wish his recording career had ended there too - one of those great missed opportunities for a perfect exit.

"Uptown Girl" would be an incredible opener, but it's tough to lead with something that's far-and-away the highest-energy thing on the record. I'd go for "Tell Her About It" as filling the same role as "Easy Money" while being a wildly better song.

It's fascinating how AIM was released as the Thriller model of milking albums to death took hold.

re "Easy Money" – man, bizzers sure like Joe Jackson, eh?

I saw the movie on HBO when it made its cable debut. Lots of Rodney smokin' doobs, lookin' at titties, taking pictures of young children...

Just watched the trailer. There's Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent. Wonder how many other Goodfellas are in there.

An Innocent Man came out at the peak of my WMJ fandom, which means it was around this point that it started to slide a little for me. Joel's albums always had that character thing that I loosely compared to Bowie's, but this one... irony of ironies, it was this one where he wore the mask much more. I don't know what wiki says about each song, but it was a little bit like a theme record. Not hating the songs themselves, but suffice to say that by the time the Uptown Girl video appeared with a dancing Billy Joel, I wasn't too surprised.

It's all fun though. I wouldn't have wanted The Nylon Curtain II fer chrissakes. And I'm in agreement with this song - might be the weakest one on the album.

i.... idk y'all, i weirdly love this song

i def had an innocent man in my cassette collection when i was a kid. i'm unsure of how much i listened to it, but my enjoyment of this song may be due to a deep subspace being accessed in my head

I actually wish his recording career had ended there too - one of those great missed opportunities for a perfect exit.

and then he should have returned, unannounced, 15 years later with a single, "a matter of trust," and then disappeared again.

as the biggest stylistic reach on the album, "easy money" makes sense as an opener, making his intentions and aspirations immediately clear. also, it's the kind of track any of the other groups he was paying homage to might have opened their 1983 album with. but, no, it isn't very good.

Yeah, I bought this album when it came out, recorded it onto cassette and listened to it nearly endlessly for a year or two, along with all of 1984's other big albums. I didn't mind this song too much in its context, but it's not nearly as good as most of the other material, obvs. T always struck me later as more of a Mitch Ryder pastiche for some reason.

I actually saw Back to School in the theater, with a date. I'd see anything with Rodney back then. For those unaware, that movie -- with the late, great Taylor Negron doing unfortunate brownface -- is source for the title of and silly quotes in the chorus of Anthrax's "I'm The Man."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1twdYHVG5Q

Back to School is waaaay better than Easy Money (which still has some good scenes/lines/gags + a great cast)

Fell into a hole of Easy Money YouTubes today and am loving it.

source for the title of and silly quotes in the chorus of Anthrax's "I'm The Man."

HOLEEEE SHIT.

And watching that now, for the first time in whenever, I totally remember the scene now. Him strangling the hedge.

Btw, maybe I should've said HOLLLjenniferjasionLEIGH SHIT.

I've been looking forward to this album since we started this thread because I love the style of the 6 (!) singles I know. Figured even the album tracks have to be decent here. "Easy Money" is not quite what I expected, especially for an album opener. I like the energy but it's a pretty uh easy song - the kind of song he could write in his sleep and toss on side 2 of any of the other albums we've heard. Agree that "Tell Her About It" would've been an excellent opener

As the opener that defines the record, stands out that:
- there’s no piano or guitar
- doesn’t sound like 1983

and then he should have returned, unannounced, 15 years later with a single, "a matter of trust," and then disappeared again

Is "Matter of Trust" his "Mixed Emotions"?

"River of Dreams" is, if he has any.

I link "Matter of Trust" and "Mixed Emotions" in my mind, stylistically at least. Videos are very similar IIRC which may contribute to that.

"Mixed Emotions" was the last top five in America of the Stones' career while The Bridge was a stopgap before the huge Storm Front, so it's not an ideal analogy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xci1a3yE0PM

An Innocent Man, title track and third single, hit #10 in the US and topped the Adult Contemporary Chart for one week before being dislodged by Christine McVie's "Got A Hold On Me." Warmed up by the preceding singles, it even got to #8 in the UK, not always Billy's best audience. That stat may include sales of a 4-song EP - packaged both as An Innocent Man: A Gift For Valentine's Day or An Innocent Man: A 12" EP of 4 Love Songs - which included three catalogue tracks seemingly chosen out of a hat ("Until the Night," "She's Always A Woman," and the live "You're My Home"). Maybe they were hoping to build his brand a bit and boost sales of old albums. Elsewhere, it was backed with a live rendition of "I'll Cry Instead" which I'll just link here instead of treating as a separate entry.

"An Innocent Man," despite its high chart performance, was left out of Greatest Hits I & II, but made it onto the third volume in 1997.

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Oh, I took "his 'Mixed Emotions'" to mean his attempt at being a relaxed, 40-ish "neighborhood dads get together and play in the garage for kicks sometimes" kind of guy.

and i would link them as late-ish career flashes of the spirit that made us fall in love with these guys in the first place.

I have a fondness for "An Innocent Man" thanks to the melody (speaking of Joe Jackson's influence) and the ease with which Joel goes up and down the scale. He can't sing this now.

Yeah, this is all about the melody for me, and specifically the rise up to the chorus - something really spectacular happening when he hits that unlikely note (having started way down with the "some people" bit) - really sells the sense of a hero taking a leap that he might not make. There's a worrisome Nice Guy potential in the lyric but I buy that he and this person have an actual relationship and that he's attempting sincerely to offer what he can, based on some understanding of her stated emotional needs. Anyway we've come some distance from the second-person address of "You May Be Right."

man, billy's having a blast singing this song

"Blue Bayou" bass line.

Huh! Wouldn't have thought of that, nice connection. Billy cites "Under the Boardwalk" as the direct inspiration.

'We Didn't Start the Fire' came on the radio earlier and I hated every single last fucking second of it.

Blue Bayou's closer to what I was thinking, Rikki Don't Lose That Number.

Agree with Alfred that this one is all about Billy's truly impressive vocal performance. I don't know if the orchestral sweep was necessary, but the strength of the vocal and the melody get me through.

He can't sing this now.

he hasn't been able to sing this for at least 25 years! crystal taliefero started singing the high note for him when she joined his touring band, which was circa 1990.

Billy cites "Under the Boardwalk" as the direct inspiration.

righteous brothers vibe, too.

I have a fondness for "An Innocent Man" thanks to the melody (speaking of Joe Jackson's influence)

funny that I never thought of this given my mentions of jj above but i never thought of this

Also: I think of myself as a Glass Houses guy but if I'm to be honest about my life in the 1980s I listened to this one about 100x more (and Nylon Curtain hardly at all)

god the melody on this is just the best. endless fun in the shower, if you're unafraid of disturbing the roommates when you reach the high-note moment of truth.

the craftsmanship is peak billy, both music and lyric. i love the way the rhyme scheme builds the same way the music builds. the verses are long, slow rhymes (long A, long B, long C, long B); you may not even notice he's rhyming at all the first time around. then he shortens up to an A-A rhyme scheme as he begins the bridge ("protecting yourself," "somebody else"). he shortens yet again to an internal rhyme as he goes back into the verse ("i'm not above making up for the love"), but then pulls back to the initial long, slow rhyme scheme as the the music pulls back, too. and then, in the final build toward the chorus, it's another internal rhyme, even closer than the previous one ("only willing to hear you cry/because I..."). and then the tension-release of the classic pop everything-rhymes chorus ("am," "man," "am," imperfect rhymes, but still).

great read. there's also a rhythmic shift along the way, with a steady patter of syllables in that first part (some-peo-ple-SAY that-the-bum-ba-duh-DUM).... then the same with more emphasis and a dramatic pause at the end of the line ("i-know-you're-on-ly-pro TEC TING YOUR SELF! (pause for breath) i-know-you're-thin-king-of-SOME BOD Y ELSE!"), then a little reprieve with the original rhythm again before the chorus, where we zoom out to a vocal wide shot: be-cause-I-am-an INN OH CENT MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

"tell her about it" gets similar mileage out of a dense, syllable-scattering verse followed by a very straightforward chorus. kid, i could go on and on, but all my advice can really be boiled down to four simple words...

and in that it's also a very close cousin to "Until the Night" of course.
Aged 13, this album came out at the same time as my taste fractured away from my parents' (Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams being the catalyst) and I remember being kind of horrified that they adored this throwback 50s/60s cheese pastiche instead of the new cold sounds I found so exciting. I dislike everything WMJ did from here onwards, not fair of course but I feel like with this record he really doubled down on the "doing it for the Boomers" sentiment expressed about the previous album.