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

OK! The Stray Cats were cool with it!

were Seven Mary Three pissed at Pearl Jam?

I know I was!

>:(

lol

Twisted Sister released the follow-up to their 1984 smash Stay Hungry. Come Out and Play was, well, it was not particularly great. While the album was popular enough to go gold, it didn’t quite have the hits that the previous album had and was reportedly one of the first CDs to go out of print. You can get a hint of the direction of the album from its lead single, a cover of the 60s girl group the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack.”

The multi-platinum success of Stay Hungry led the band to go for broke and take a shot at the mainstream with “Be Chrool To Your Scuel.” As the headline references, not only did the band recruit fellow Long Islander Billy Joel to play piano on the track, they also called in Alice Cooper, who’d also written his own anthem about school. Bruce Springsteeen saxophonist Clarence Clemons, Stray Cats guitarist Brian Setzer and the Uptown Horns, were among the others that played on the track.

Never even heard of this! Sub-Meat-Loaf!

http://www.metalinsider.net/news/today-in-metal-twisted-sister-team-up-with-billy-joel-alice-cooper-for-come-out-and-play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWAJG71Urbw

1950s retro was just in the air

see also: neil young everybody's rockin', released one week before an innocent man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fprpTNVM8EY

Tell Her About It closes Side One on an upbeat note. Its Motown stylings and avuncular wisdom made it Billy's second Hot 100 number-one, for one week in September of 1983 - between the longer stints of "Maniac" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Naturally, it also topped the Adult Contemporary chart (where it helped keep "Human Nature" and Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" to #2), and was a top-ten hit in Australia, Canada, and the UK. Naturally, it also had a video.

The 12" single featured a 5:35 remix by John "Jellybean" Benitez on the A-side (it's weird) and on the reverse, "Easy Money" and a live version of "You've Got Me Hummin'" (made famous by Sam & Dave, and previously covered by Billy with the Hassles); again, as it's a live number, I'll just link it here rather than treating it as a separate song entry.

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Like I said upthread, "The Longest Time" and "Uptown Girl" have lived longer in public memory than this thing.

Gotta admit, it's a bouncier closer to Side A than what Nylon Curtain had.

Also, this is the second video we've watched this week where a black guy looks directly into the camera and does a WATWUZTHAT face.

Ooooooohhoooooohooooo

"The Longest Time" and "Uptown Girl" may be more ubiquitous this days, but this song is the most played out of those, for me. If I think that "The Longest Time" is magical and this is simply meh, it might have a lot to do with my having a much greater familiarity with Motown than I do with doo wop. I've lived with so many better versions of this song for about the same length of time that I've lived with this song, so it's never really had the chance to register as anything other than "oh, I see what he's doing there" for me.

I wonder what Joel and his crew thought the real overlap between "MTV watchers" and "Ed Sullivan show fans" (or even people old enough to remember Sullivan) was?

Anyway, I love this tune -- it's like the lyrical riposte to "Sleeping With The Television On." Guys, don't be afraid, talk to women and tell them how you feel!

Not enough discussion yet around this record about how well the band adjusts to all these different 50s-60s rock idioms. Stylistically they're stepping a little more outside what they've done on past records. Liberty and Doug in particular seem to be having a great time on every song.

Good points.

The Ed Sullivan thing -

One of the reasons I feel old is because I remember the big deal made about the 20th anniversary of the Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan. So by the time this video appeared, I was more than aware of Ed Sullivan, Topo Gigio, Señor Wences, Jackie Mason, and "Let's Spend Some Time Together."

Weird to think that if they did that video today, they'd just CGI Ed Sullivan in there somehow, and miss out on having him standing on the side of the stage. (Or they could just do what the Rutles did 40 years ago.)

(40 years since the Rutles! Good grief!)

I like that he's having fun with the same advice-giving voice he did so seriously in "Vienna" and "James" and so on.

Listened to this whole album a lot, but I'm gonna be straight with you, this was the track that spoke DIRECTLY to 6th grade me. It gives me goosebumps even now.

"Listen, boy" -- I'm listening, Billy!

I loved Glass Houses but never really grasped the cynicism. This I grasped. And craved. A grownup man who'd had a girlfriend telling me, look, take it from me, just be yourself and be a good guy and it's gonna work out -- I mean "not automatically a certain guarantee," but in the long run, this is how you do it. Of course you heard this from a lot of people, but from Billy Joel I BELIEVED IT.

Hadn't connected it to "Sleeping..." but somewhere upthread it occurred to me to read it as a retraction of "Just The Way You Are," specifically the "unspoken passion" so thoroughly dismembered by Veg. As on "The Stranger," Billy's advice-giving is much easier to take with him painting himself as "a man who's made mistakes" than when he's just telling James off for not being as cool as him.

I wonder how this played for Elizabeth Weber - was it like, "oh so NOW this has occurred to him"?

"This Night": A bit labored, like the opposite side of the doo-wop coin from "The Longest Time", but not bad. Great use of Beethoven there, by far the best part of the track

"Tell Her About It": I used to roll my eyes at Billy's "take it from me" songs and still do a little bit at this one (though much more at a song that should be coming up soon). Feel like the dude has always been an old man ready to dole out advice. The melody here is undeniable though, and I have an inexplicable love of songs that change the key for the chorus, if it's done smoothly

weird that this was the biggest hit, it sounds totally unfamiliar to me (beyond being a bad Motown pastiche, which is def familiar)

man you are not even remotely sympathetic to Joel, eh?

i love the rhythm & consance of the T sounds in this line:

“Listen boy it’s not automatically a certain guarantee”

and the way it tumbles out so quickly

it’s very pleasing to me

This song is about emotional honesty and telling someone how you feel. I will be emotionally honest and tell you all about my feelings: I don't like this song. Never have.

Like Οὖτις I don't think it's even a good Motown pastiche. Plenty of Motown songs have bouncy melodies and joyful horns and straightforward messages, but none of them come off this leaden and labored and flat. Sorry.

Phil Collins' did this bit better, I hate to say it

man you are not even remotely sympathetic to Joel, eh?

I find his hammy self-deprecation (which *really* comes across in the videos) charming, but it masks a lot of anger and bitterness which creeps through the cracks in unattractive ways.

Phil Collins' did this bit better, I hate to say it

Absolutely agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Ea5RtNwa0

Dave Gruber Allen playing some phat basslines there

I like it more today than I did last week but it was never on the radio enough for me to develop feelings for it one way or another.

omg this CLOBBERS collins's efforts in this vein. it's not even close to my favorite song on the album but this is soooo much more fun and energetic. agreed about the tumbling-out of "not automatically a certain guarantee," best part of the song imho.

man if "behind the lines" counts as this bit then yes phil collins feat. the earth wind and fire horns totally steamrolls over "tell her about it" or whatever

Doctor, I usually respect and share your taste but on this point we must part ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-0Oect0nVQ

Uptown Girl opens side two with another joyous mega-hit, the album's second single and basis for its most giffable music video. Held to #3 in the US by "All Night Long" and "Islands in the Stream," it topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. It was his first time in all three markets; in the latter, while it was his only chart-topper, it held the spot for five weeks (blocking out "Say Say Say" and Paul Young's "Love of the Common People"). It became the UK's second-best-selling single of 1983 (behind "Karma Chameleon") and 19th-best-seller of the 1980s (below "Ghostbusters" and above "Ride on Time"). Again, I'm not sure how or whether these sales sort out between the 7" and the more appealing 12" single, which in this case offered another three older hits for late-comer fans.

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Predictably, this success gave rise to later covers, and in 2001, Westlife would get to #1 with their own, dreary and bland rendition. Ska and punk bands seem to relate to the song's underdog narrative, with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and The Holophonics among the notable downtowners. The Shadows, apparently still a going concern in 1990, knocked out a generic instrumental version before packing it in; supposedly, genuine old-school Philly soulsters The Stylistics took a stab at it on their 2013 album Cover With The Stylistics, but I can't find that online.

can't knock this one, totally spot-on Frankie Lymon pastiche with hooks to spare

Held to #3 in the US by "All Night Long" and "Islands in the Stream,"

haha beaten by the Gibbs

I've warmed to this one too.

at it's core it has the classic Joelian underdog POV but it's all aspirational without a trace of sourness, and the vocal arrangement is great, kinda reminds me of the Raspberries (who were enamored of similar nostalgia exercises). and there's no fat on the track, no showy rhythmic switchups or aimless bridges, all the different little melodic bits are precisely arranged to flow smoothly.

ahhhhh i love this

so much of my childhood was endless hours singing this song into a hairbrush microphone in front of the mirror

i love the way the drums almost literally *crack* they’re so sharp

Can I just say how much I love the handclaps in this song? Because I really, really do.

Terrific key changes in this song, too -- from the home key for the opening chorus, it pivots to a new key based on the flatted fifth for the verses, then again to the flatted fourth for the bridge. Great songwriting.

yeah, it's pretty cleverly done, doesn't draw attention to itself

er, flatted THIRD for the bridge

We'll forgive you this time, Phil, but don't make such an egregious mistake ever again. We have standards here.

musically this is an incredible gem imho and possibly his greatest song of all. yeah it's a pastiche but almost every billy joel song is in some sense "in the style of" and it turns out he inhabits frankie valli's shoes so naturally it just feels like a billy joel song. so packed with energy and excitement in a short running time. when liberty's drums announce the hook around 2:05, now with stop-and-start drama, and the wash of background vocals takes center stage - - - that might be the most transcendent moment in his entire catalog, and from there to the end of the song it's just joy, joy, joy, "my UPtown giiiiiirl!" gives me goosebumps. i still basically stand by most of the following from five years ago:

(Billy) had this really convincing match-up between his own look-and-feel (tics, fashion, visual associations generally) and the material of his songs, which added up are like the ten-year story of a grouchy, alcoholic New Yorker with contempt for everyone and years in the trenches playing shitty house-pianist gigs and relentless touring to back it up. If he were a lesser songwriter that'd just leave him as a memorable grump with a predictable cult, but the thing is his songs were really really earwormy and he had a genuinely solid backing band, great producer, and somehow wedded all the baggage of his persona to something you would kind of relate to. Joel never casts himself as the sad-sack you're rooting for - he's the underdog you think of yourself being, who actually tells the boss off and skips town and rages against the phonies and hangs around in scuzzy alleyways with a saxophone because after so many Friday nights in this city, man, you get over trying to be in the coolest places at the coolest times. It just works as a package, and even if the songs had stayed as strong, the rest falls apart completely once he gets an MTV budget and a huge arena stage with a vast battleship of a piano.

So An Innocent Man is the last solid moment not just because it has his last amazing grab-bag of singles ("Uptown Girl" is in my top five for this poll), but because it completes the character arc: the boomer settles down, actually delivers on the claim way back in "Angry Young Man" that he's over it all (or the "got a new wife" narrator of "Italian Restaurant"), and nestles in with some well-delivered nostalgia. Would have been a perfect album to retire on - but of course you don't retire at age 35 with three top ten hits.

And Greatest Hits I & II is in this sense the perfect Joel album because it gets the whole sweep of that, but just jumbles up the order so it makes a consistent melange of bitterness, redeemed bitterness, righteous bitterness, bitterness hoping to be proved wrong, and trying to get into girls' pants. No wonder it's such great house-cleaning music (I was doing dishes to Joel just the other day).

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 19:25 (five years ago) Permalink

(...)

I think I may actually be swinging "Uptown Girl," god is it hook-laden and boy is it the perfect conclusion to my hastily sketched Billy Joel metanarrative above - - not only does he finally get the girl, he finally LIKES the girl, even though she is an uptown big-shot kind of girl, like he seems to have maybe gotten over his bullshit a little.

And I mean, Frankie Valli is awesome, why not make some more Four Seasons songs?

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 15:35 (five years ago) Permalink

agree that I don't think he has a song that tops this one (at least not so far, and I don't have high hopes for what comes after)

• One of the reasons Billy gives for him and Elle Macpherson breaking up was him seeing a photo of the two of them together, and him thinking he looked like a little organ grinder's monkey, following her along the boardwalk. So with that said, apparently he got over that feeling.

• It's been edited out of the YouTube, but the intro to the video originally panned down to Billy in the garage office, watching MTV. And when it finally debuted on "Friday Night Videos" four weeks later, Billy was watching that vectored record needle sequence! Hey, it impressed me at the time.

• This album is just a lot of fun. I get most of my kicks from the sourpuss Billy, but I had forgotten about what a hoot this song is.

• Elton John never forgot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxiMVafp0mY

"She's been living in her white-bread world as long as anyone with hot blood can" is SUCH a great line. Very McCartney-esque. And "You know I can't afford to buy her pearls, but maybe someday when my ship comes in, she'll understand what kind of guy I've been and then I'll win" is quintessential Billy.

lool i giess i never read the lyrics
i always thought it was “as long as anyone with half a chance”

The key change in the last part is affecting and effective.

the wordless...sub-chorus (?) constitutes literally the best fifteen or so seconds of the entire billy joel catalog

I enjoy this more than I should, given what a hard time I have listening to Frankie Valli. Still, this song's legacy for me will always be The Simpsons.