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

In what universe is Billy a tough guy?

Maybe you mean because he wears sunglasses?

It's part of the image he's tried to put on, maybe not consistently. The wild boys were his friends, he ran with a dangerous crowd, etc

amateur boxing, walking through Bed-Stuy alone, riding a motorcycle (in the rain, even!)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfH2e9EYeQA

Baby Grand, the first of two duets with "We Are the World" co-singers, closes out the first side. Released as the fourth and final single from the album, it peaked at #75 (Adult Contemporary #3). Outside of the US it seems to have only gotten released in Australia (where it peaked at #78). The video is about what you'd expect.

Apart from some revealing comments on "A Matter of Trust," this song occupies the bulk of Billy's attention when reflecting on the album thirty years later. The short version is that, in this account, Ray Charles had asked Quincy Jones to ask Phil Ramone about performing a Billy Joel song. "And when he comes into the room, you know. He looks exactly like Ray Charles. It's overwhelming, like the Washington Monument walking into your house."

https://img.discogs.com/TDMckIa-Iflz2NfMeV9m5JzJ3LY=/fit-in/596x596/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2568636-1298581651.jpeg.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/lxnRE-TCZpjCxl38CoEBFUjQqw4=/fit-in/576x578/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2568636-1298581670.jpeg.jpg

These attempts are often embarrassments. "Baby Grand" is not.

also: a far superior piano-as-metaphor than goddamn "Ebony and Ivory."

Yeah, this is nice! The most focused Billy's felt to me on this album, and the Charles-by-numbers writing and arrangement is the right call... makes it sound both like a 70s Billy Joel record, and like a minor Charles single from his first heyday. Anyway, if you have Ray Charles in the studio, you get out of the way and let him do what he's good at, and boy does he sound good on this.

It's an alright song. I agree it harks back to 70's Billy, but I don't think it has the same memorability. I've heard this song at least a dozen times, since I own Vol 3, but the only line that really sticks out to me is the "minor keys" one. The melody isn't that sticky either. But I will admit it sounds nice when it's playing, classy even

Modern Woman = I don't think I can do this anymore

Song is def a 70s Billy throwback...nice but inessential....

Ray Charles sounds great on this, hey speaking of American icons you probably don't want to learn too much about. My old boss used to work concert promotion for 20 years and I was surprised that Ray was the musician she names as the worst she'd worked with, guess really verbally abusive and called her the "c word" in dressing her down in front of everyone, she said she wanted to punch the old man.

Ray's presence slightly redeems this, but otherwise this reminds me too much of those horrible "standards" albums that Rod Stewart and other fading boomer-age stars were recording a decade or so back that the record store I used to work at played incessantly during the morning shifts.

"modern woman" is so garish i almost admire it

in fact i actually really like the chorus

not that i don't completely understand everyone's horrified reactions

also i love the bassline

"baby grand" is lovely but i've also already forgotten it completely

i like the little back-and-forth asides, which are as warm as a christmas sweater.

ray: aighht?
billy: alright!

billy: (singing) they say no one's play this on the radio
ray: (speaking) wuhhh? i don't believe it, billy

i like when billy goes into ray voice overdrive ("the life ISTRAYEDIN").

a minor piece of work but such a labor of love. can't help but smile.

In my imaginary world, I've been ragging on Billy for doing his weird Ray Charles imitations when he could've just been singing in his normal voice. To which he hands me his bottle of Budweiser and says, "Hold my beer. I'll be right back."

And then pulls in Marshall McLuhan from the side - o wait.

No, he pulls it off. How could he not with Ray Fucking Charles right there with him.

While I'm being proven wrong, I'll also mention how for some reason, this song has always reminded me of "Hot Burrito #1". If I knew a little bit more about chords, progressions, and song structures, I might have been able to back up whatever it is I'm talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u8GnHTiuJk

Big Man on Mulberry Street opens side two with the aid of a small team of veteran jazz players. Joel has described the big-shot-zinging lyric as self-clowning: leaving his rehearsal studio, he'd settle at local dining establishments with a notebook open, playing the part of a songwriter but totally stuck for material. Moonlighting fans may recall it as the soundtrack for a long choreographed dream sequence.

An extended version of the song was used on a season three episode of Moonlighting. The episode was also titled "Big Man on Mulberry Street". In a dream sequence, Maddie Hayes envisions David Addison's history with his ex-wife, presented as an elaborate dance sequence with no dialogue; Sandahl Bergman was the main dancer. An extra horn solo was added to the song.

I hear this one and think Oh cool, maybe Chris Elliot will be on.

The Joel/Willis connection continues.

As for the song itself: whatever he's doing with his voice here has got to stop.

Yeah, moonlighting made me get this album and I totally regretted it later

Catching up:

omg I had totally forgotten about this song until now. it must have had a lot of radio play in Australia bcz i know all the words & i am sure i haven’t heard it since then.

anyway i like it - more for the sound & movement of the music, and the cadence of the lyrics than the lyrical content itself. the keyboard is like a sped-up “On Broadway” somehow & i dig it

Baby Grand: how can you not love a Ray & Billy duet. Lovely stuff <3
but also pplains otm, i admit my inner alarm bell went off when i first heard Billy “doing” Ray in the opening lines like DUDE WTF ARE U DOING


Big Man on Mulberry St: omg this album is flashback city for me holy crap. i remember that Moonlightimg episode!!! As soons as i heard the song i remrmbered Bruce dancing. so obv i love it because young dancing Bruce is <3 <3.

*Modern Woman should be at the top there oops

The verses on this remind me of Joe Jackson a bit

yeah i can see that

well, Joe Jackson was doing this shit himself around the same time.

yes that's why I posted that

"Modern Woman" - not as bad as I expected, based on the comments here. Bit dated, but the melody is catchy

"Big Man on Mulberry Street" - "whatever he's doing with his voice here has got to stop." yeah exactly, he stays in the weakest part of his voice for the whole song. music is ok if a bit aimless

mulberry street - title good, song kinda terrible

"i'll leave a big tip with every receipt" may be the worst attempt at a rhyme in billy's oeuvre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34s9gkkMzZg

Temptation is, according to Billy, a ballad about fatherly life, and all the things that take you away from watching your child sleep, etc.

uh i am very surprised at how much i love "mulberry street"

i'd like to hear "temptation" recorded by southside johnny and the asbury jukes in 1977 with steven van zandt producing. and then maybe covered 10 years later by eddie money and ronnie spector. there's a decent song hidden under here but billy seems to have no idea what do with it.

it's just so fun! the melody he sings during the shift into jazz is one of my favorite things he's ever composed xp

whoa i love "temptation" too! i mean the chorus feels a little overextended but i'm cool with it! keep having good songs, billy joel's the bridge!

These last couple kinda go past me... I like the arrangement of "Mulberry Street" but there's not enough of a song/hook there. The slightly raspy falsetto keeps making me think of some TMBG song, maybe the live throwaway "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes"?

"Temptation" kind of the same deal, it's pretty and stately and all but also feels ponderous and long because there's just not as much melody or craft as something like "Honesty." Sounds like he's going for a Bryan Adams mega-ballad maybe?

Can't wait to read what you think of today's!

"Temptation" just goes on and on. Between this, "Mulberry Street", and "Modern Woman", he really expanded his range of pastiches to styles that don't suit him, on this album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niIWtw-70Lo

Code of Silence, the second-to-last track, is another duet with a "We Are the World" veteran: the legendary Cyndi Lauper, who also assisted with writing the song. You must watch the corresponding segment to the "Building the Bridge" featurette, online here at 12:34, in which Billy's writer's block is depicted in animated cartoon form. Inexplicably, there is no cartoon Cyndi - was she in rights negotiations for an animated series or something??

In return, Joel showed up doing backing vocals on Lauper's "Maybe He'll Know," which taps back into that An Innocent Man vibe a little bit. It was released as a single in the Netherlands only, and did not chart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQY-ISwmqpU

Inexplicably, there is no cartoon Cyndi

I would totes dig an MC Skat Cat-style duet with cartoon Cyndi.

Anyway it's not a hook-filled song and I can see why it isn't a perennial fave. Me, I like the dated drum sound (almost "Eminence Front"-ish). Harmonica not unwelcome. But overall, meh.

This is in the tradition of a huge 1986 hit called "Live to Tell," in which Madonna also refuses to explain the nature of the secret.

I listened to this track a lot in July when I created a BJ best-of list.

last two don't do a lot for me

I like the song but the harmonica seems quite out of place

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

Getting Closer: album closer, with Steve Winwood guesting as organ player. I'm under a deadline so can't look up anything else on this one, but as we leave The Bridge, let us also bid farewell to Phil Ramone, Russell Javors, Doug Stegmeyer, and Mark Rivera (the hitherto unmentioend saxophonist who replaced Richie Cannata a while back). Next studio album is a whole new ballgame, with Liberty Devitto the only holdover.

Maybe it's Stevie on the organ, but this could've been on one of those mid-80s Eric Clapton records. Would've fit right in inside the background of one of those pool hall scenes from The Color of Money.

The ascending melody of the chorus is just about the only touch of magic in this song, and it's a very Winwoody magic. Sounds a bit like Traffic's Empty Pages ("found someone who can comfort me...").

So it's either Joel trying in his labored way to write like Stevie. Or maybe Stevie just saying, "well, mate, how about we do something like (burbly burble burbly burble)?"

We're used to all the catchiest top-40 fodder being on side 1 by now, but these last several songs seem particularly hookless and workmanlike.

I couldn't find anything to say about the last two, and that continues with this one. Fair to say that if The Bridge isn't his worst album, it is certainly his dullest?