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

Browne plays piano too!

billy plays guitar too! (more or less)

GODDAMMIT WHY DO I HAVE TO EVEN DEFEND BILLY JOEL AGAINST MOTHERFUCKING JACKSON BROWNE IN A THREAD THAT ISNT EVEN ABOUT JACKSON BROWNE IN THE FIRST PLACE

you are all wrong and you should all shut up imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKrd0lv_p1c

Root Beer Rag is the first of two instrumentals on the record, and perhaps reflects the enthusiasm for ragtime following the massive success of The Sting the previous year. Somehow, Columbia managed not to make it the b-side to "The Entertainer," which surely could have snagged a few unsuspecting Joplin fans, but in an odd twist it would be used as the b-side for several 52nd Street singles in different markets. Meanwhile, per Wiki, it saw plenty of use as TV theme and incidental music, including as the opening to the very first, local-to-Chicago Siskel & Ebert program. It's also been covered a few times, including an a capella rendition by the German Wise Guys.

Joel remains fond of the song; here it is live in 1978 (there's the Moog next to him!) and 2013. Finally: "Root Beer Rag" was also the name of a Billy Joel newsletter (now defunct) published in the late 1970s to late 1980s.

By the way, since the album cover came up, here's that entry from Pop Spots, a charming site previously invoked with regard to the original Piano Man bar location.

And, from that link, this great ad which I missed when introducing the album:

http://www.popspotsnyc.com/streetlife_serenade/Steetlife_Ad_1_800.jpg

Um, cute?

nightmarish

a city full of Billy Joel's talking about Billy Joel, that's some malkovich malkovich malkovich shit

original concept for Longest Time video iirc

lol that'd be amazing. each new vocal part, another advent-calendar window pops open or another target-practice cut-out springs up from the ground, hey it's billy!

"root beer rag" makes me ridiculously happy.

tbh I'm kinda looking forward to getting to the video-era cuz BJ videos are ridiculous

Tip: do not google "BJ videos."

unless, y'know...

"Root Beer Rag" was also the name of a Billy Joel newsletter (now defunct) published in the late 1970s to late 1980s.

A proud former subscriber, right here.

Was about to make some lame joke about using this on Zen Arcade instead of Mondays Will Never Be the Same, but held back for once. Then I open up DC's link and see that the Streetlife cover was from San Pedro! Take that, Huskers!

So, any ragtime heads on this board? The most I can say about this song is it sounds nice on the record and it's probably real fun to play. The instrumentals on this album are usually cited as evidence of how dry Billy's well was, but I think this one at least is fun.

...oh well! Moving on!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4HygPI9lA

Roberta closes out side one of Streetlife Serenade. This is one of several "woman's name" songs in Joel's quiver around this time; "Rosalinda" and "Josephine," heard on the Sigma Sound performance, were never recorded for an album. An "I'm in love with a stripper" tale, it seems in some ways like the most "Billy Joel" song we've heard so far.

This seems like the kind of offbeat sentiment that Billy could really get into, but the song never really builds up any steam.

Root Beer Rag is fun, def makes me nostalgic for commercials of my childhood

Roberta is good, best non ragtime song so far

(on this album)

Yeah Roberta's really good and *very* Billy as Dr C rightly points out.

Piano sounds really beautiful on this - I don't know much about pianos so I'm not really sure why it sounds better than other piano songs he's played. Maybe it's just the way he's playing? It is a mystery. But I like it.

I'm following this thread with interest, my first agonizing "which record do I but with my allowance" choice was between Glass Houses and The Cars' debut. I'm still glad I went with The Cars, but it's interesting to see how much more of a soft spot I have for Joel's schtick than I do with (to pick another ILM "listening thread") The Eagles. Joel is putting down his friends/lovers, singing "I don't care what you say anymore," extolling the virtues of early death, and riding his motorcycle through the rain. The Eagles are telling a desperado to "come to his senses," getting lost in hotels, and warning about the dangers of a fast life. I know which worldview I prefer in my pop songs!

but = buy

agree

i think "roberta" may be the first great billy joel song, his first perfect marriage of lyric, melody and performance. love love love this one. the sad sack looking for love at the strip club (or the escort ads, or wherever) could be just another way for billy to express his self-loathing and/or woman-loathing and/or all-around bitterness, but that's not what he does here. "roberta" is sympathetic to both the narrator and the object of his affection, and there's a newfound ease in the vocal performance that sells both ends of that. a lot of what we've heard so far is a singer who hasn't quite grown into his voice yet, or who's trying a little too hard. here, finally, he's just singing. and it's a really sweet melody, which the "i'm in a bad way" bridge takes up a notch. A-plus.

it's quite possible he stole the intro to "roberta" from this 1971 neil diamond classic:

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

Hey y'all, I don't quite have it in me today to make the next post, given the state of things out there. Should return tomorrow though.

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

The Entertainer opens side two and brings back the Moog with a vengeance for what always feels like the album's centerpiece or keystone track to me. The sole single, released a month after the LP, it peaked at #34 on the Hot 100, getting to #30 on Easy Listening and the Canadian charts both. This makes it one of the bigger hits left off of Greatest Hits Vol. I & II in its original release (it was added to the CD version). Ironically, given the lyric, the recording was cut down from 3:41 to 3:11 for the single, screwing up the instrumental buildup. The printed label invokes a third running time as a cheeky punchline.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Entertainer.jpg

http://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/billy_joel-the_entertainer_s.jpg

http://images.45cat.com/billy-joel-the-entertainer-columbia.jpg

Continuing the line of country covers of Joel tunes, Waylon Jennings substantially re-interpreted it as an album-closer for 1984's Never Could Toe The Mark. The Internet suggests that an Australian mime (?) named "Reg Livermore" may have also attempted it, but it's possible The Entertainer was simply the title of one of his albums.

He featured "The Entertainer" this past weekend at Wrigley Field, btw:

Set List:
Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
Pressure
Go Cubs Go [cover of Steve Goodman]
The Entertainer
Vienna
The Lion Sleeps Tonight [cover of Solomon Linda]
The Longest Time
Your Song [cover of Elton John]
Zanzibar
A Day in the Life [cover of The Beatles]
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
The Downeaster Alexa
New York State of Mind
25 or 6 to 4 [cover of Chicago]
Allentown
Sometimes A Fantasy
She’s Always A Woman
Don’t Ask Me Why
My Life
The River of Dreams / A Hard Day’s Night [cover of The Beatles]
Nessun Dorma [cover of Giacomo Puccini, sung by Mike DelGuidice]
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Piano Man

holy shit "roberta" is super good

real talk: i've never liked The Entertainer
that crazy Moog riff is like knives in my brain

Also re: "The Entertainer": This pre-album version, with no Moog and different lyrics opens with a little run through Joplin's rag of the same name, a trick which he's apparently kept alive in recent performances. The profoundly uninspired rhythm section gives some hint of why he might have been looking around for a tighter touring ensemble around the time of this album. This 1977 live performance, in turn, adds a few flourishes and a mysteriously long intro, maybe there to give Billy some knob-twiddling time on the Moog. In my fantasy two-disc version of Songs in the Attic, this song is a must-have.

haha, I'm a sucker for really bubblegummy/AM-goldy uses of synths in this era - Moroder/Chicory Tip's "Son of My Father," stuff like that. I didn't hear this song until I got the album as an adult and it seemed such a fresh surprise. If all the tracks here were as peppy and sunshiney, or at least as hooky, this would be a classic record IMHO. Wonder if the label under-promoted the album as a slap on the wrist for the snarky lyric, or if they just didn't think there were any other hits here.

The Moog is a bit shrill at times, yes, but I love everything else about this song. It initially feels like something that should have come from later in his career in terms of its cynicism; for all I know, he'd had enough bad industry experiences to justify the tone, but he's clearly playing a character of a music biz vet (would this have been too early to be referencing Elvis in Vegas?). I love how the lyric "It took me years to write it / they were the best years of my life" balances out the hackiness that we might otherwise perceive in the character--he's "The Entertainer," yes, but he's also a committed artist--and nowhere else in the song is the collision between the bitterly comic tone in his delivery of the vocal and the tragedy of pouring your heart and soul into something that is ultimately left to the heartless discretion of suits more striking. If "I get put in the back in the discount rack / like another can of beans" is inelegant as hell, its fits perfectly.

i love the way the arrangement just gets more ridiculous as it goes

Yeah, it's of a piece with, say, John/Taupin's "Bitter Fingers," but that one's written by people who were really on the top of the industry, looking back at all the flacks they'd had to toil under along the way. I feel like Billy's resentment was probably pretty heartfelt, what with things like the debacle of his first album in his recent past, and of course the actual cutting-down of "Piano Man." Surprised he didn't try for a lyric about the mastering job on Cold Spring Harbor - "It was a beautiful track but they cut it too fast / Sound like a Chipmunk but they don't give a fuck / How can I tour on this?" I dunno.

holy shit that moog riff in the Entertainer is HELL STYX

haha

those lyrics are def better than what he actually came up with and omg that moog riff is obnoxious as fuck

xp

ha, i meant to mention styx's joeliciously titled "fooling yourself (the angry young man)" - thanks again to fact checking cuz for introducing me to that one. the twiddly, renfest-ready quality of the riff here, as much as the timbre of the instrument, connects some dots.

moog riff sounds like an icecream truck in reverse .. in hell

i srsly cannot get down this song guys

try playing it louder... perhaps out of an ice cream truck

The single cover where he's joelspreading on a backwards chair, gah.

And it's that old-timey kind of bentwood chair with a vaguely feminine curve. The implication is clear: when he says he's The Entertainer, he means that he "entertained" your mom. With his celebrated organ.

#ifyouknowwhatimean #andithinkyoudo

mulletspreading

gross

does he have a black eye on that one cover?

"the entertainer" is one of my least favorite billy joel fan favorites. it's a cute idea, and the "3:05" line always made me smile, but it wears thin kinda fast. the melody isn't strong enough to sustain the verse-verse-verse-verse-verse structure, and though he's trying his hardest to make it more interesting with all the arrangement cutesiness, it just sounds like cutesiness. and yuck that drum roll after "laid all kinds of girls." my favorite part of the song is the instrumental coda, mostly because i've been waiting three-plus minutes for something different to happen. also, this sounds even more like a harry chapin song than the last one that i said sounded like a harry chapin song.

lol many of these comments. The moog was reminding me of ELP "lucky man." Much more awful than I remembered. Anyway, The Entertainer is jaunty and jaded. Heard it many times before but once was enough for right now.

Just catching up with the last four or five: damn, lot of Moog on this album, even a little on "Root Beer Rag". I always thought "The Entertainer" was a one-off. I think the songs so far maybe stand out a little more than on Piano Man, but not much more

"The Entertainer" has always been a favorite Joel track of mine. Cynicism suits him, and paired with that cheesy Moog melody and banjo picking makes for a strange but memorable song. Even the usual clunker lines in the song make me laugh rather than cringe