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

Oh, thanks for linking that! Popular entries always worth a reread, and the discussions can be a great parallel track (I guess sometimes overlapping) to ILX hivemind.

Very hard song to deny the appeal of, but out of all his catalog, it's also the song I am most sick of (even more than Piano Man). I used to love the hell out of it; nowadays I'm 50/50 to find it delightful or cloying. Depends on my mood

It's funny, listening to Valli tonight, I never would have noticed it except via Uptown Girl but the Four Seasons were classic victims of "wimpy early 60s recordings of rhythm sections" syndrome. Obviously their biggest records are stone cold classics, so this isn't a jab, but the extra jolt of energy you get with Liberty's whip-crack drums (and Ramone's 70s-finding-its-way-to-the-80s production savvy) really transforms the sound. I mean it's basically the same steady stomp as on "Sherry," the same "open with a drum flourish" approach as "Walk Like a Man," but so, so different.

The Four Seasons might also be unusual in terms of this album's lineup of pastiches in that they'd had a hit comparatively recently, with "December, 1963," which topped the charts while Billy's career was at rock bottom, in between Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles. So really it's not so shocking that one could have a hit with this stuff in 1983, though I'm sure it still startled Valli. Perhaps this was the impetus for the first Four Seasons studio LP since 1977, 1985's Streetfighter, but you'd never guess it from the title track and its pathetic video - Valli goes synthpop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLhSTo9bq0g

I guess these lyrics are sorta like "Uptown Girl," if it sucked:

I know how to jump over rooftops
I know how to wire a car
I know how to deal with people on the street
That's not where you are

You come from a special place
A place I don't quite understand
Baby I would change the world for you
But I can't change who I am

Guess I’ve always heard the line as “As long as anyone can hop the can” (picturing an Oscar The Grouch type garbage can).

i like that better

I listened to this like 4 times yesterday, it is great. It would top my (admittedly short) list of good Billy Joel songs.

I mixed up Valli w Lymon upthread a ways, my bad

catching up:

"Easy Money" - really good songwriting! to the point where I'd like to hear an actual soul singer with a little better chops and subtlety cover it, Billy as always a little overblown in the delivery, but didn't know this one, one of the better new discoveries

"Innocent Man" - like the chorus, a little lukewarm on the verses

"The Longest Time" - pretty goddamn incredible, total pastiche that meets the level of the stuff it's aping...kinda crazy in terms of arrangements in the middle of the glossy high-80s production era, it's so minimal, claps, bassline, and some slight brushed drums...

"This Night" - get this phony, gloppy Sha-Na-Na shit outta here bruh

"Tell Her About It" - kinda reminds me of the music that might play in a party scene in Police Academy or something, this type of thin digital piano "rock n' roll" with overcooked horns was so prevalent in the 80s

"Uptown Girl" - you just can't argue with some songs, so I'm not gonna....I'm sure the A&R dude shit his pleated slacks when he heard this. His voice is interesting, sounds almost artificially high -- i wonder if they did the old trick where they slow the tape machine a half or whole step down while recording, then playback at 30 ips

That's what I thought happened.

yeah I mean Uptown Girl is obv ubiquitous and I have heard it in the wild for decades, but I'm not sure I ever even pegged it as a Joel song! maybe I thought it was Huey Lewis or something. it doesn't even sound like him, IMO - is it all just Valli-aping? did he ever sing high like this again?

Huey's allright but this song is way out of his league

he's claimed in interviews that he did the "innocent man" note with a sense of "this is probably the last time I'll be able to do this note so what the hell.". but it's not like he ever did a lot of high notes in the first place! maybe the "do!" in "all for leyna" ...?

it would probably would have added some life to some tracks tbh - "half a mile away" for example really needed some high end and more of a sense of exuberance cutting loose from the meat n potatoes band. "it ain't no cry-ee-yi-ee-yime" ...

xpost shakey ot fuckin m

pretty stoked that this is the song where shakey joins the club, however brief this moment may shine

hey now I have expressed appreciation for some other tracks on here! I'm not made of stone.

tell billy about it!
tell him everything you feel!
give him every reason to accept
that you're for real

Billy Joel's Greatest Hits EP as Compiled By Me

1. Uptown Girl
2. Movin' Out
3. The Longest Time
4. You May Be Right
5. Only the Good Die Young

Burn the rest

chill out -- "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" is coming soon!

holy shit Billy Joel just had another baby last week

i wonder if christie lee is ever like "dooooon't forGET your SECond WIFE"

He's making up for the dudes who never had time for a wife.

billy has loads of time for many wives

'snippet from the ed sullivan show' was a very popular music video trope. l.a. guns did it for 'never enough,' and obviously nirvana did it in a more absurdist fashion.

Wow, this guy had quite the act!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D91KfEf6vPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD18zj1UYDY

Careless Talk leads us into our accustomed stretch of lesser-known side-B tracks, which this time around will be a short run, given the album's barrage of singles. Your basic "don't believe the rumors" song, it was the B-side to "Uptown Girl" in some markets.

A well done pastiche that does little for me as a song.

^^ this

the "TALKy, talky talky" backing vocals get stuck in my head. and the "ah yah yaaahh yah." i think i like it, but it's possible i would like it better with the lead vocal swapped out for a saxophone or surf-style guitar.

It's not by any means terrible.

catching up.

tell her about it – i like this song more now than i did when the album came out. i think back then it seemed like too much of a retreat after the relatively modern/new-wavey twists of the singles from glass houses and the nylon curtain, and i had wanted more of that, and this song in particular struck me as the least natural and most self-conscious of all the stylistic exercises on an innocent man. hearing it today, i can't help but smile at the craft and at billy's newfound self-confidence and optimism. also, i am wondering right now if certain style council songs wouldn't have been better off with billy singing them instead of paul weller.

uptown girl – this on the other hand i loved immediately. a perfect fit and a perfect rip. the key changes are indeed sublime, as noted by a couple posters above. the lead vocal, all the vocals, are peak billy. every time i hear it again, i think i'm not sure i need to hear it again, and yet i can't turn it off. that said, as downtown-boy-meets-uptown-girl songs go, i'd rather hear the four seasons' "dawn."

careless talk – the mathematics of peak billy: craft + confidence = mediocre side 2 album tracks that are way, way better than his previous mediocre side 2 album tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru-gkHHwDb4

Christie Lee tells the tale of a horn-loving heartbreaker, set to some old-time rock-n-roll. For a (slightly) more relaxed, bar-band-flavored take, check the demo.

https://i.imgur.com/N6dH9fC.gif

I'd always hated this song without really paying attention to the lyrics, on the assumption that it was just a dumb compliment-brag about his cool girlfriend. Actually paying attention to it, it's more a harmless dumb punchline song, where most of is there just to get us to "all she wanted was the sax." Cute. If it was a minute shorter, as it surely would have been in 1958, I'd give it a full thumbs up, since I don't mind the effort at an 80s-ification of Jerry Lee Lewis. Kind of amazing how little the Piano Man has gone in this direction, with "Weekend Song" maybe the closest thing we've seen.

in asbury park in the 1980s, you could walk into the stone pony on any given nite and find a local group of really good bar-band musicians playing sets of roy orbison, sam & dave and wilson pickett covers, with one or two originals thrown in that would sound exactly like "christie lee," but better.

That punch line is pure Billy: something makes you smile and roll your eyes at the same time.

"She was a nice piece of music" – mm lovely. Guess this ruins what would've been Joel's best hits-plus-filler album to date.

Both these last two are pretty uninspired, but "Christie Lee" would be fun live, i imagine. "Careless Talk" gets old before the second chorus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHpIC4Kk0MU

Leave A Tender Moment Alone leads us towards the finish with another study in self-directed romantic advice. It doubled as the penultimate single, peaking at #27 on Billboard (#1 on Adult Contemporary). In the UK it was released as a double-A-side with "Goodnight Saigon" and as a 12" backed with "Goodnight Saigon," "Movin' Out," "Big Shot," and "You May Be Right." They really were trying to build up his prior efforts! It peaked at #29. Elsewhere, it was backed simply with "This Night" or "Easy Money."

As a moderate hit, it's been a bit forgotten by time, and was passed over on all three Greatest Hits discs. It finally got anthologized in 2001 on both The Essential Billy Joel and The Ultimate Collection.

https://img.discogs.com/1wK_ONECROmoH7L_8bZc8iEL82U=/fit-in/570x572/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-477490-1298907005.jpeg.jpg

My A/C radio station plays this all the time – one of his most relaxed set pieces. Toots Thielemans' harmonica is a perfect touch.

Love this song, and because it was missing from the three greatest hits albums, I discovered it much later in life. Wistful and timeless melody that he wisely and aptly left alone (mostly). Not surprised it wasn't a big hit though

Could just be Billy fatigue... also, the Thriller model can mean that by the fourth and fifth singles, a lot of your target market now owns the album, and there are diminishing returns unless you keep bringing in new constituencies (and now... the country song!).

Gotta be in the top 5 harmonica songs ever.

For me, this is one of the first glimmers I saw of his "hey, by the way, I'm also a grownup" side. I had only heard pop hits so I wouldn't have known about "I've Loved These Days" or various other ventures into more reflective material.

"Leave a Tender Moment" and the later "This Is the Time" are mentally shelved with sophistopop: "This Much Is True," "Brilliant Disguise," and "Life in a Northern Town."

Enjoy this much more than I used to. Reminds me so much of AM Gold, like "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" or even something like "Alone Again (Naturally)".

"Raindrops Keep Falling" hits that exact same feeling, good call

I caught this one on the radio a few days ago and ended up getting bored and changing the station after a minute or so. That said, I'm not surprised to discover that many people have an affection for it--it's well performed and not without hooks, but it's just not my thing.

"raindrops keep falling" thirded. i love all the falsetto. while it's typical billy to be so literal with it (chest voice: "to keep the conversation..." head voice: "...light"), he has a really pliable voice that he doesn't always take advantage of. as a singer, he's peaking on this album.

this is a quintessential billy line: "i put my foot in my mouth 'cause i'm just avoiding the facts." i often can't tell if he's super awkward, super good at narrating his own emotional instruction manual, or both. the thinking man who's afraid of rejection, as a wise man once put it. but he seems, for now, to have gained the wisdom to bathe in the wonder of that awkward moment instead of retreating to his hotel room. to let the raindrops keep falling on his head, as it were.

catching up:

"careless talk": this is ok but it's so close to being sorta good that it's frustrating, the chorus is just... doing nothing
"christie lee": idk this is a trifle but it's a fun trifle
"leave a tender moment alone": wow this song is fucking wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBUj8TPWE9E

Keeping the Faith, the album’s closing track, final single, and imo biggest grower, offers a summary statement on his teenage revivalism, set to a musical backing closer to the chart-toppers of the early 70s. The video, in turn, could only be a product of 1984. It’s cute, but for me cheats the song of some of its affecting sincerity. The track peaked at #18 on Billboard (#3 Adult Contemporary), rounding out the album’s quintet of top-forty hits. With "An Innocent Man," it would be held off the first Greatest Hits double-album, arriving only on Volume III in 1997.

Some versions of the single include longer mixes, and a Wikipedia editor on a mission declares: The actual 7" and 12" mixes have never been released on CD or even in digital format for stores like iTunes - despite customer demand. You can hear the cluttered, five-minute “Special Mix” here and decide for yourself how serious an injustice this is.

https://img.discogs.com/UnRwyB9G-TkKvF8Sk0DZ_7hgtZY=/fit-in/600x579/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3848693-1412726958-4071.jpeg.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/hkwbN-nSGsJaXnTJRiCjStU3cmg=/fit-in/600x562/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3848693-1412726959-9525.jpeg.jpg