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

er, "fan attempt"

How is Joel rated as a keyboardist?

Here's what he told A. Baldwin:

Billy Joel: I know what good piano playing is and I’m not good. My left hand is lame. I am a two-fingered left-hand piano player.

Alec Baldwin: As opposed to?

Billy Joel: As opposed to somebody who knows what they’re doing with their left hand. I never practiced enough to use all my fingers on my left hand, so I just play octaves, bass notes. My right hand tries to compensate for my left hand being so gimpy, so I overplay on my right hand. My technique is horrible. I can’t read music. I never really got--

Alec Baldwin: You don’t read music?

Billy Joel: I used to but I don’t anymore. I forgot how.

Alec Baldwin: If I took a piece of music that you didn’t know, if I got a score and put it in front of you and I said, 'Play this—'

Billy Joel: It would be Chinese.

a lot of this feel very much like a "first album"...pleasant enough, he's obv a talented guy and piano player but a lot of it kinda fades out of my mind the mind the song is done

also definitely doesn't have the sort of chutzpah (for lack of a better word) that I associate with Billy...to me his is maybe the ultimate "try hard" in music history (to his credit and discredit)....like it's funny in that clip above where he's imitating Elton, Neil and Leon Russell, he's like a really good piano student showing off for his parents almost, like look at I can do what they do, and in particular he seems to talk a little sideways about Neil like "I would never write anything like that, it's too simple" or "Elton's more rhythmic, I do more five finger stuff" haha, like Neil in particular I think drives "try hard" people really nuts (like the Eagles and Stephen Stills) because he just puts stuff out there half formed at times or just abandons really great stuff for no reason, or does shit like On the Beach or Tonight's the Night when he's perfectly capable of making something really polished like "Old Man" or "Heart of Gold"...his indifference towards his own gifts must drive a work ethic guy like Joel nuts

I go back and forth cause his try-hardness also comes across in his later vocal style, the sort of almost bellowing, HERE'S THE HOOK I'M A CROWD PLEASER force behind the big lines and OHHHHHHHHHH she takes care of herself, etc... most of which I *love*, but listening closely to this album, and especially those songs that show up again in later live versions, I'm a little torn. Like until this week I would have always agreed 100% with the Songs in the Attic liner notes that the later live versions, undoubtedly with a tighter, beefier performing unit, were the definitive, ripened versions of these early songs. On most of those I agree, but there are moments when that confident for-the-bleachers singing seems like he's almost deliberately rubbing out some of the vulnerability of the songs, like he's embarrassed about what a twee bedroom saddo sap he was.

Tighter, beefier, ripened. No bot writes like that.

She's Got a Way is definitely better on Songs in the Attic. I guess I agree that he's effacing the Sensitive Guyness of Cold Spring Harbor but that's not much of a loss.

You want sensitivity, go buy one Dan Fogelberg record.

I think i can sum up most, if not all, of Cold Spring Harbor as pleasant juvenilia, but I'm anxious to hear him develop the qualities that I more closely associate with his songwriting and performances. "Everybody Loves You Know" is probably the closest that this album gets to what I think of the classic Billy style--cranky lyrics given a tuneful presentation that only partially obscures his withering scorn.

yeah that's OTM

basically I can see why, if I were an A&R back then, you'd sign the kid, but also in the immortal words of Tom Petty's fictional A&R: "I don't hear a single"...but the future was wide open

before we leave cold spring harbor behind, here's billy on the unfortunate mastering:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCxAr69kLv8

Got to Begin Again: damn that is gorgeous
Maybe my 2nd favorite next to She's Got A Way

It's clear from the album that he has ~something~.
Aiming for the AM radio mush market may be what is creating that overarching "well, it's nice but meh" feeling from these songs

the confidence to show more of yourself/to understand & define your "style" in yr writing comes with experience imo

Like even just to relax enough to sing in a way where he sounds like he's from Long Island is a leap he hasnt quite made yet

Exciting to see this early Billy tho, I've enjoyed it

Exactly, VegemiteGrrl. It's interesting to see him in the larval phase, but the Lawn Guyland Brawler in him deserves full rein. So does the Tin Pan cheezemeister.

He could have gone the tweemo bedroom saddo route, and been James Taylor With a Piano, but we would miss out on so much that is to come.

i mean, imagine if they'd been like," nah these guys are a dime a dozen, NEXT"

In a sense, that's what happened! I don't really know the ins and outs, but what with the ginormous mastering screwup (not rectified) and the difficulty of finding even, like, posters from 1971-72 (the kind of thing you'd figure fans would have obsessively webified years ago, if they existed), I don't get the sense that Family was really doing much to promote the guy. Maybe I'm wrong and Artie Ripp was driving around delivering payola and calling in favors on his own time but I dunno.

I guess they at least managed to get him booked on regional radio shows, because the next key piece of Billy's narrative is that Philly "Sigma Sound Studio" radio gig that I've linked a couple times. The whole set is worth listening to as a well-preserved and high-quality recording of what he sounded like at that point, and he's already stepping away a bit from the AM Gold stuff, with a guitar solo taking the place of some of the bused-in orchestra on "Tomorrow Is Today.". But anyway, one of the new songs he was gigging with by that point is a bolder and much more distinctively Long Islandy ode to suburban anomie called... "Captain Jack.". We'll be dealing with that song soon enough but the thing is, it became this big airplay hit in Philly, most requested song in the station's history, that kinda deal, and this is what led to Clive Davis signing him up at Columbia, who *did* promote him. If not for that he really could be a totally forgotten dime-a-dozen guy and not this megaselling inescapable cultural force.

thread delivers, thanks

with the ginormous mastering screwup (not rectified) and the difficulty of finding even, like, posters from 1971-72 (the kind of thing you'd figure fans would have obsessively webified years ago, if they existed), I don't get the sense that Family was really doing much to promote the guy.

"got to begin again" turns out to have been the perfect sentiment to end his first solo album with. the solo album itself was him beginning again after two failed attempts to make his name with rock groups, and a suicide attempt, and who knows what else. but he'd have to begin again, yet again, as it turned out. and it's almost like he already knew.

Probably this is the best song on the second half, but the first half of the album really outshines the second. The trademarks I recognize in later Joel can be found in the first three tracks especially, like he already knew some of his strengths

woah suicide attempt??

He got his second wind.

woah suicide attempt??

yup. see discussion of "tomorrow is today" lyrics, above.

...or, yeah, see discussion of "you're only human (second wind)" two or three months from now.

guys.

i think i figured out the problem with the first album.

it's all bcz of the mustache.

it's a'me, maury-joel.

LOL

that was a terrible, wonderful joke pplains

This thread is amazing, and we haven't even gotten to Piano Man yet.

watch the rats jump off the ship at that point

A bit more background before our next song... so Billy spends late '71 and '72 on the road, playing shows. Wiki tells us that the band consisted of Rhys Clark (drums), Al Hertzberg (guitar) and Larry Russell (bass). Clark had been on the record, the rest not AFAICT. They opened "for groups such as the J. Geils Band, The Beach Boys, and Taj Mahal," which sounds like pretty good work!

http://www.onefinalserenade.com/uploads/2/9/1/2/2912571/billy-1971_1_orig.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/16/fa/86/16fa864f13b27aa1dfe0440971bbf584.jpg

As noted above, someone from Columbia (I said Clive Davis, but Wiki says Herb Gordon) notices the "Captain Jack" buzz in Philly and gets him signed up, though as we've discussed, Ripp held on to a piece of Joel for basically forever. As best as I can reconstruct events through very lazy Internet research, relocates to Los Angeles late in '72 with Elizabeth, she his lyrical muse and manager, formerly wed to his Attila bandmate. He picks up a piano-bar gig for six months or so, which some claim as the source of the "Piano Man" lyric - - - though if you dig around for more than a few minutes you'll find this disputed in the comments section by old-time New York Staters, who will insist variously that it was actually their local bar in Oyster Bay, Huntington, Massapequa, or somewhere up the Hudson. I'm sure people who've read actualy Joel biographies can untangle this - was he searching for inspiration? Biding time until a hole in the studio schedule? No advance from the label? Or just trying to make ends meet, with Eliabeth having a kid from her previous marriage? Anyway, the sessions for his Columbia debut don't begin until September of 1973 - right alongside his marriage to Elizabeth. Congrats!

The new album was produced by Michael Stewart (brother of the Kingston Trio's John, father of Xiu Xiu's John, and veteran of "You Were On My Mind" hitmakers The We Five). Apart from one track carrying Rhys Clark over, it's an all-new lineup of session guys (various players on various tracks), and, when the album drops in November, it's an all-new marketing campaign:

http://www.52ndstreetband.com/img/memoir/pianoman%20poster.jpg

http://www.onefinalserenade.com/uploads/2/9/1/2/2912571/cold-spring-harbor-promo_1.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/xAMg9NxlniJkVu-9coFXAioEf-I=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1674119-1373588955-6612.jpeg.jpg https://img.discogs.com/L_hukCWbcx68ycA2YUu32VQS4nE=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1674119-1373588958-7290.jpeg.jpg

The title track is a moderate hit; I'll get into the chart performance details when we get there. Columbia issues three more singles, none of them "Captain Jack" - obscenity concerns? - and while they make far less of a splash, the promotion is enough to get the album to peak at #27 on Billboard - #56 on the year-end pop album chart. Not bad for what is effectively a second debut.

Oh - - - and in one of my biggest and most obvious blind spots as a Joel fan, I've never heard the Piano Man album. Every time I've seen it in the cheapo bin, I pause, think about it, then look again at that cover and go "....nahhhhh." So this is almost all new to me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1K80k4NLio

Travelin' Prayer kicks off the record, and was later issued as the third single, peaking at #77 (#31 on Easy Listening). It's also one of a couple of Joel songs to get a prominent country cover later on - it won Dolly Parton a Grammy when she covered it in 1999.

And man... what a way to introduce an album called "Piano Man."

It's a'me,

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/16/fa/86/16fa864f13b27aa1dfe0440971bbf584.jpg

I like Parton's cover.

This is OK: he may have himself heard a Parton song or two by this point. Reverse influence!

And man... what a way to introduce an album called "Piano Man."

Not to get ahead of ourselves, not to slam the song-a-day format, but the segue between this one and the title track is one of my favorite of his.

Just on production value alone, this track makes Cold Spring Harbor sound like a paper sack full of gray slush found at the end of the driveway.

yeah no kidding. I don't know if I've ever heard him get this country, but this works just based on the arrangement

The single version, by the way, runs to 3:03 (not quite 3:05, an important number later on). I can't find it online so I'm not sure what was cut, but I have to assume the majority of it is the instrumental jam at the end. Mouth-harp fans were not a key demographic in the early 1970s.

Incidentally, folks here probably know this, but the Easy Listening chart, which would be good to Joel from this point forward, was the precursor to the Adult Contemporary chart. While certainly more laid-back (and overwhelmingly whiter) than the main chart - this is Carpenters territory for sure - it was sonically a little more open than you might expect, and the country flavor of this song may reflect a desire to score with precisely this audience. Just to give a sense of the musical landscape, toppers of this chart in 1973 include Carole King's "Been to Canaan," Weissberg & Mandel's "Dueling Banjos," Edward Bear's "Last Song," Dawn and Tony Orlando's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon," Wings's "My Love," Helen Reddy's "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" and "Delta Dawn," and B.W. Stevenson's marvelous "My Maria." In 1974, when this single came out, highlights include Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were," Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway," MFSB's "TSOP," The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again," Dave Loggins's forgotten and underrated "Please Come To Boston," Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love," and three each by Reddy and John Denver.

Ready to make that mouth-harp outro my ringtone.

Heard now, this comes off as a bit too self-conscious in its attempt to do country (the fiddles! the banjo! that boingy sound!), but as a performance, it's solid. Agree that it feels like a big leap from both the production and the overall quaintness of CSH; he's making a statement here about his range, and this song is anything but indistinct.

"Captain Jack is one of the strongest musical pieces ever created for the popular music idiom" - haha okay Dennis Fine at Zoo World, pump yr brakes buddy...good tune and all but

also I want a t-shirt with that Mar Y Sol 72 triangle graphic so fucking bad

Travelin' Prayer is an odd concoction!

Like uh....Meatloaf meets Pure Prairie League or something?

haha when the bullfrog jaw harp comes in is great

love the breakneck tempo

drummer on this is great

this song is a lot of fun and yeah the production is such a dramatic step up

Yeah, this is cool! Billy must have been stoked to get home and put *this* on for the first time. Even though I don't normally think of him and country in the same breath, he feels like much more his own person than on the last album - not a lot of McCartney here. But as before, short and sweet, and a nice showcase for his piano skills (tho that's really confined to one stretch in the middle). The rapid-fire phrasing continues the approach from the Falling of the Rain, but with more rests, you can take it in better. I dig this. The forward momentum reminds me a bit of Albert Hammond's "I'm A Train," also released in '74 (and charting higher than anything from this album, though like a lot of Easy Listening hits, totally radio-homeless these days).

it won Dolly Parton a Grammy when she covered it in 1999.

hfs - I love this Dolly album but totally missed that this was a BJ song

has a 70s Gene Clark vibe to it

xxp yeah I was gonna comment something to the effect of "RIP Easy Listening format"

it's pretty much gone the way of the "Oldies" stations, i.e. mostly vanished from the American psyche

Albert Hammond's "I'm A Train,"

goddamn that's a great song

We've touched on the sad decline of Oldies before, maybe in the Three Dog Night thread - tons of great, great songs that I still heard on the radio in the 80s, and maybe some of 'em in dentists' offices through the 90s, but now lost. Particularly sad since the 70s AM gold era (which obviously would overlap a lot with this chart) was basically the best period ever for the marriage of fabulous studio musicians and professional songwriting, imho.

Yes, all those great songs, music that just makes you feel good - but if you had to hunt down all those songs individually, it could take you years, and you could spend hundreds or thousands of dollars... and those scratchy, noisy old records! If only there were an easier way!

i've always adored "travelin' prayer," which absorbs its country and gospel influences casually and confidently, as if this is what billy joel actually sounds like. it's a good, crisp, straightahead country-rock road song. but it's *not* what billy joel actually sounds like, is it?, and i've therefore always found it a strange song to lead off what most of the world thought was his debut album. while there's still more toying with country-rock to come, and while, yeah, there was lot of that in the easy listening air in the early '70s (see also: elton john, of course), it's still basically a career-launching head fake.

this is a good line that sort of acknowledges the head fakiness: "said now if this song seems strange it's just because i don't know how to pray."

well, to be fair, the calling card was really "piano man" as lead single, so unless that completely flopped, they probably figured people arriving at the album would find this an interesting curtain-raiser, where's this headed, seems like it'll be a stylistically diverse album etc. and then maybe if "piano man" did flop they'd have a backup plan: force a bunch of country numbers on him and start repackaging the "john denver of the adironadacks."

goddam this is great

*waves goodbye to Cold Spring Harbor*

it feels like a legit country song, the structure, the repitition, the arrangement: shakey otm about 70's gene clark

has billy talked about how he ended up writing recording this one, where it came from?

and a fkn great way to start an album

i'm excited!