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

God that's horrible, especially with the video. Never liked anything he did from this point on.

that weird, I had totally blocked that song from my memory but it was really popular at the time

what a weird song. i love the totally synthetic backing, it's like a less-complicated scritti track

oh my fucking god the video

https://i.imgur.com/BoufZMZ.png

Wings of Desire (1987, dir. Wim Wenders)

The kid is cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs8yvzYwQOU

The Night Is Still Young is the other 'bonus' song, this time an epic drama of aging and sex. The video is again a must-see period piece, albeit for different reasons. The single version, trimmed down from 5:27 to 4:08 and backed (oddly) with "Summer, Highland Falls," peaked at #34 (#13 Adult Contemporary), and has never been anthologized in its own right.

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A meta note: tomorrow, nearly four months into our shared Joel adventure, we will cross into what I've been thinking of as his discography's final phase. In the first thirteen years of his solo career, he released nine studio albums, but in the last ten, there were only three: The Bridge, Storm Front, and River of Dreams. There'll be some miscellaneous material in between, and following RoD a couple of B-sides and some kind of roundup of covers provided for soundtracks, etc., but basically that's the remainder of his (pop) discography.

The slowdown corresponded with huge world tours and other activities, of course, and these albums were very successful (the latter two hit #1). But somehow I've always had the impression he was running out of steam, and I've never listened to these records in full before. I do know a handful of songs I like from them, and I suspect there must also be buried gems, so I'm looking forward to delving into this phase! But basically, with certain items consolidated into a single day's listening, we should be all wrapped up in another month, month and a half tops.

Yeah. The Bridge is his first theme-free record since 1980 if not The Stranger.

Like I wrote yesterday, a certain rock critic loves 'The Night is Still Young' more than any other Joel song.

Also, say goodbye to Phil Ramone from here on (I believe).

Nope, he helmed The Bridge. It's Storm Front that punts Ramone, along with Stegmeyer and Javors. Liberty sticks around, but then only shows up for like, one track on River of Dreams.

Totally forgot The Bridge even existed! Thought we were on to Storm Front next.

I kept up through Storm Front - it was among my favorite tapes - but he utterly lost me with River of Dreams.

So, "The Night Is Still Young"... the weird, low delivery on the verses of this does make it stand out in his catalog. I think it also meant that I never really paid attention to the lyrics in the way I did for the bigger, melodic, confidently-belted hook-every-five-seconds kinda songs. There are some good moments - "Young enough to still see the passionate boy that I used to be / Old enough to say I got a good look at the other side" is an interesting way to open (wonder how the "passionate boy" relates to the "angry young man"); "I can see a time coming when I'm gonna throw my suitcase out" is evocative, and "Rock and roll music was the only thing I ever gave a damn about" gives him one more chance to make a clean retirement after An Innocent Man's look back at those rock and roll days.

Some of the rest feels a bit boilerplate power-ballad, but the main issue is that there's something about Billy's entire steez that doesn't make me want a "keep makin' love to you" song out of him. That said, the chorus and the OHHHHH OH OH OHH OHHHH stuff has gotten stuck in my head more than once over the course of this Billy season so I guess that's something.

All that being said, and again not really knowing what we're in for on the next record, but I'd be really surprised if it was so chockablock with greatness that it couldn't have absorbed these two songs. The greatest hits needed "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" more than this. Then I dunno....open side one with "Travelin' Prayer," find a place for "Honesty" or "Sometimes a Fantasy." Any of those would make a better and more representative set than capping Side 4 with ten minutes of awkward mid-80s sonic adjustments. I can at least see the logic in excluding "An Innocent Man" and "Keepin' the Faith," 'cause otherwise you're practically asking all the people who bought An Innocent Man to buy it over again.

It wasn't until you updated the Greatest Hits poll that I realized, wait, I've been offering these same old bon mots for years now.

But that said, this is still sadly true. Hope I hear some more gems I've overlooked.

The Today Show had a full week of interviews with Billy Joel when this comp came out, with the highlight being the world premiere of HIS NEW VIDEO.

My heart dropped a little the first time I saw "You're Only Human (Second WInd)" and even though "Matter of Trust" was the jam later on, it was around this time that I started moving toward the Beatles and metal.

― pplains, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 9:48 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like "A Matter of Trust" a lot -- the song from this era that still gets lots of airplay -- but I'll have more to say in a few days.

sorry i need to do this

WHOOOAAOHHHOHHHHH
OHHHOOOHHH
OHHHOOHHHOOOOHHOOH
WHILETHENIGHTISTILLYOUUUUUNG

Feel we’re gonna need a BJ Line Readings / Vocal Schtick poll at the end of this.

Special category for finding just the right extra syllable to add: "dangerous ker-rowd," "chev-uh-ro-lay," etc.

The muttered verses used to really bother me; I think as a kid I assumed that anything said in that low a tone must be important (this is how parents talk when they don't want kids overhearing them, even if it only ever has the effect that something really important is being said and that I should strain to pay closer attention). And the song does feel kind of adult--"rock and roll music was the only thing I ever gave a damn about" implies a life misspent, albeit for reasons I could not understand whenever I'd listen to GH as a kid. It also has the effect of closing out GH on a bit of a sour note--such observations feel more depressed and hopeless than the drunks in "Piano Man." Like "Piano Man," though, this has a big sing-along chorus, but a far less indelible one: for better or worse, "sing us a song, you're the piano man" became a signature that Billy has never been able to shake, while "while night is still young, I'm gonna keep making love to you" sounds like it could belong to anyone making their attempt at being the next Springsteen from roughly 1975 to 1987.

otm, especially about it being the wrong note to end on. it "feels" like a closing track - but for a nylon curtain type Serious Adult Rock Album. which I guess the cover photo here is telling you you're gonna get but... idk. i'd say screw chronology and put Miami 2017 there. or actually, "scenes" would make a greeeaaaat closer.

I don't know exactly who he's trying to emulate on this song - Bruce? Bob Seger? - but it's very boring. The fact that this and "You're Only Human" placed in the top 40 shows the momentum he was riding at the time

Here's my version of what should have been on the original GHI&II, with a few caveats:

1. Had to mostly adhere to the lists from either the tape or CD versions. I did add "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" after removing "The Stranger". Trying to get those moms shopping for CDs at Sears!

2. Each side had to be between 24 and 26 minutes. Or so.

But that said, I went the Led Zeppelin box set route. To hell with chronology.

(Also, my feelings about this track sequence could rightfully change within the next 24 hours.)

Side One
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Piano Man
Say Goodbye to Hollywood
Just the Way You Are
Scenes From an Italian Restuarant

Side Two
Captain Jack
Honesty
My Life
She's Always a Woman
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

Side Three
You May Be Right
Pressure
Big Shot
New York State of Mind
Goodnight Saigon

Side Four
Allentown
Uptown Girl
Only the Good Die Young
Don't Ask Me Why
The Longest Time
Tell Her About It
She's Got a Way

oooh "she's got a way" as finisher is smart programming. good set.

nice work pplains

actually, "scenes" would make a greeeaaaat closer.

Could’ve been his “Champagne Supernova.”

Good sequencing, but leaving out the "The Stranger" feels like a kick between the eyes

Had to disregard the danger.

Why were you so surprised?

I still wouldn't recommend that comp - or the real one- btw.

But if this is how we get WMJ into the tape decks or the Case Logic visor holders of North America's Toyota vans, then so be it.

Once I used to believe you were such a great compiler.

I'm too afraid to try again, though.

I think it's a great set btw! If one permits "greatest hits" at all to those unlikely or unable to assemble a complete Joel discography, it delivers the goods and obviously was a gateway for many future fans as seen on this thread. Of course it leaves out some ace tracks but his deep cuts were not super-consistent imho. I think the only way you get a better set is to go to three discs, or imagine him as one of those label-jumping artists so that there's a weird early comp in between Turnstiles and The Stranger, another one after Glass Houses, etc. Or, if the double came out *before* An Innocent Man, I guess. But man, growing up without "Uptown Girl" on that cassette...!

Here, feel free to add this one back to the Hits.

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Following a major tour in 1984 and Joel's marriage to Christie Brinkley, Billy recorded his tenth studio album, The Bridge, at various studios between 1985 and 1986. (Alexa Ray Joel was born in December of '85.) It was released July 28 of the latter year, as the final album to bear the Family Productions logo - god, what a crappy contract provision that was. Supported by another big tour, the record underperformed An Innocent Man while still doing very well, peaking at #7 on the Billboard album charts and producing three top-forty hits with two making it to #10. In the US it was the year's fiftieth best-selling album and has been certified double-platinum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wk0r8CeiKc

Running on Ice opens the album with a nervous, jumpy pastiche of a certain popular act, then recently defunct. The stoop-leaning doo-wop artists have been left far behind - couldn't go back to the greasers, I guess.

One of the catchier Police pastiches, yes, and three years too late. Not terrible, though.

Don't know what you're trying to insinuate there, DC.

https://i.imgur.com/47y63lo.jpg

I think I prefer Weird Al's "Velvet Elvis," but that's after a different aspect of their sound. The later, colder, jitterier sound heard here is more rarely imitated. I like how he even gets the tendency for Sting's choruses to repeat the title of the song as much as humanly possible.

and wau @ pplains link. good idea. we should do an ILM covers project imo.

The Bridge, which I got on vinyl in July at a college radio station giveaway, sounds like contract fulfillment: no unifying style or purpose. You have standard 1986 rockers, a Cyndi Lauper appearance, a Ray Charles duet for fans besotted with An Innocent Man, the obligatory ballad.

I'm still hopeful of finding some gems, but it has to be admitted that the Sirius XM chatter for this one launches almost immediately into:

I was at the point where I was kind of tired of the process of recording - - writing, recording, touring, writing, recording, touring... I didn't have much of a life. And at that point I wanted to have a life, once that baby was born, I wanted to be home. And I hear in the writing on The Bridge a certain reluctance to continue. (...) There are some... not-well-written songs on there, I was in a hurry to get it over with. And that would be similar to the process that happened with Streetlife Serenade. The Bridge has some good stuff on it, but I can also see that there is weak material on that album as well that I'm not that proud of.

I dunno, "Running on Ice" has me hopeful. It's energetic. Reminds me oddly of "Travelin' Prayer" in terms of opening the record with a nice busy, uptempo rhythm. And it's definitely not something we've heard before, so even if the songwriting's not all great on this I'd be into just seeing where he goes sonically with each track.

I admit, though, that "A Matter of Trust" had left me thinking this might be his "guitar album" or something, which would have been an interesting (if possibly bad) move. Doesn't look now like that'll be the case.

Here's Billy basically saying what DC already mentioned above in regard to this record.

Two bonus items here: 1. Half-decent Cyndi Lauper imitation and 2. He might not take shit from no one, but ships on the other hand....

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

huh. hell of a pastiche but i like it!

best part: the post-chorus "you got to run run run run whoaoaaoaaa"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHC3M7KL2ns&feature=youtu.be

He's actually being kind to Cyndi, whose normal speaking voice sounds even more like a parody of itself than Billy's imitation of it.

Billy Joel imitating the Police is a nightmare scenario, a horrible oroborous of regrettable aesthetic decisions

have you heard it?

I made it through the first minute and a half

I'm trying to think of some analogous combo. the Eagles doing U2?