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

I want to go on the record as saying that I feel I am being swift boated as a being part of the Shakey Billy Haterz Clubhouse

I have complicated adult relationship w/Billy Joel that is very full of nuance

<3

I want to go on the record as saying that I feel I am being swift boated as a being part of the Shakey Billy Haterz Clubhouse

I have complicated adult relationship w/Billy Joel that is very full of nuance

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, November 7, 2017

^^ these are the days to hold on to

Your perspective is welcome and valued, UMS. Shakey's too.

I'm just sayin: the main diss on Billy seems to be that he just turns in half-baked tossed-off pastiches of Sting or Henley whatever, then rakes in the dough. And yet, here is a work that at least strives toward transcendence and a kind of wisdom, presented almost as a refutation to the serial selves he presented only one album earlier.

ME, IN 1986: "More like 'This is the Time'... that I start listening to Mötley Crüe!"

Gööd for yöü

were it not for the chorus and the general vibe of domestic ennui, i'd consider this song kinda post-apocalyptic

yeah apart from the glimmer of hope in the chorus this is downright Ballardian. I kind of admire it's commitment to 80s AOR schlock production values right down to the chorus box guitar lead and plunky synth backdrop (I suspect that setting is probably "Peruvian percussion"), this glistening surface undercut with ennui and exhaustion, so very very Boomer-in-'85. It's not a patch on "Boys of Summer", but they kind of do different things - "Summer" is more propulsive and this is more "white curtains billowing in an empty house" ethereal.

DON: Billy Joel is a fine craftsman, and it's been a pleasure watching so many of his songs become standards.

GHOST OF GLENN: All I know is that whenever I heard "This is the Time" on the radio when I was making my own record, I kept thinking how myself and Don might have approached the same concept: "This is time...TO CHUG ALL NIGHT!"

DON: Well, yeah.

re: adultiness and nostalgia - well, he did indicate in "Keeping the Faith" that the "whole revival" was wrapped up and that "tomorrow's not as bad as it seems." And then "The Night Is Still Young" is about wanting to pack in the touring career, spend a long night with your lady, etc. It's almost a promissory note for songs like this one.

As well, since the last album was a throwback (albeit with many 80s sonic developments), we're really feeling full force the gulf between early 1982, when The Nylon Curtain was recorded, and early 1986, when this album was finalized. The Greatest Hits bonus songs hinted at this, of course, but those aside it's a big jump from the lingering 70s Beatle pop-rock style of TNC to this archetypal mid-to-late-80s recording. I still mostly buy that Billy and Liberty could be in the same room recording this, but there's a certain chill and isolation to the sound, for me. Maybe that just reflects a bit of the prom-night sensibility from "This Night," but it's hard to disaggregate that from the general spaciousness of 80s digital production.

That said, its three weeks at #1 on Adult Contemporary were sandwiched in between runs by hits like Billy Ocean's "Love Is Forever," Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and "Mandolin Rain," Billy Vera's "At This Moment," the Jets' "You Got It All," and Lionel Richie's "Ballerina Girl," most of which sound far more like an isolated vocal track slotted into tech demos of DX7s and pad-triggered drum machines. (The exception is Vera's track -which is actually a 1981 live recording given new exposure on Family Ties, a genuine time-capsule of yacht-era AM gold... down to a Cannata-esque sax part.)

I was in grade school at this time and this sound is still basically what I think of "adult contemporary" as sounding like. As square as VH1 was in the 90s, by then I still think I mostly heard these in dentists' offices if anywhere. Credit to Billy for getting out something that sounds at least a little more live and band-like. And, probably, for making the chart careers of people like Hornsby and Vera possible in the first place.

re: the post-apocalyptic beach hotel: first thing I thought of was King & Straub's The Talisman, which came out in 1984. Are we getting a glimpse into Billy's airport-bookstore shopping?

That said, its three weeks at #1 on Adult Contemporary were sandwiched in between runs by hits like Billy Ocean's "Love Is Forever," Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and "Mandolin Rain," Billy Vera's "At This Moment," the Jets' "You Got It All," and Lionel Richie's "Ballerina Girl," most of which sound far more like an isolated vocal track slotted into tech demos of DX7s and pad-triggered drum machines

I also think of Carly Simon's comeback "Coming Around Again," huge on A/C in late '86 and early '87, and also haunted by death.

“Running on Ice” is ok, nothing too memorable but pleasant enough to listen to

I secretly love “This Is The Time”.., ok well not even secretly. I just love it.
Has a sad, slightly haunting quality that I really like... something about this song reminds me of Carly Simon’s “Let The River Run”,

It belongs in that small category of secular crossover songs that could play at a funeral or a wedding, like Bridge Over Troubled Water (but not as good as that obv)

Epic sap.

re: the post-apocalyptic beach hotel: first thing I thought of was King & Straub's The Talisman, which came out in 1984. Are we getting a glimpse into Billy's airport-bookstore shopping?

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, November 7, 2017 10:21 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

woah....that's good

Surprised some of y'all don't know this song - it got so much play on the A/C station my mom favored when i was growing up. Not to mention it's on GHV3. Nice song and production, a bit relaxed for him. Someone said sophistipop - I think that label fits. Actually I think of this era on as a distinct phase of Joel, where he sings in a low, calm register much of the time

My school also had the choice of this as our prom theme, but went with "All I Want is You" by U2. As we got to the sixth minute of me awkwardly dancing with the platonic friend I had invited to prom, I dearly regretted not voting for the shorter Billy Joel song

the first 15 seconds suggest a pretty good steely dan album track could be coming.

the second half of the chorus, where he tries to push the song to eleven with one extra celestial pop hook ("this is the tiiiiiiime, but time is gonna chaaaaaange"), kind of ruins the mood for me. a little *too* adult contemporary all of a sudden, like he brought diane warren out of the bullpen to finish the game for him and she came right in with the diane warren high heat, same as she throws every night.

i'm basically indifferent to this one.

Hard to believe this is the same guy who gave us the curdled sneer of “The Stranger” or even the schizoid paranoia of “Scandinavian Skies” just a couple of years earlier.

I dunno, it's pretty easy to believe to me -- I can see the sneer in "This is the Time."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fGHuwWMZ1w

A Matter of Trust, with its roots-rockin' video, was the album's second single. It peaked at #10, getting to #17 on Adult Contemporary (too much rockin'!), and #3 in Australia, South Africa, and... Poland. Joel's Eastern Bloc popularity would lead to an invitation from the Kremlin to perform a six-date tour of Moscow and Leningrad. This in turn produced a live album (Концерт) to which we'll touch on briefly in a few days; its 2014 expanded rereleased was titled A Matter of Trust: A The Bridge to Russia.

https://img.discogs.com/diBJZR92j_4UNFQTuW5nYPOLk0g=/fit-in/565x573/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1928226-1406545514-6177.jpeg.jpg

my favorite billy joel song i think

unfortunately i will now think of it whenever i play rilo kiley’s “silver lining”

The knockkneed rhythm and Joel's barking shouldn't work but they do, like hell. This is the post-1983 single I hear most on the radio.

Whenever he plays it live, he straps on a guitar too.

I've gotten to like it a bit in the past few years, having not really grown up with it. It's super stiff but I don't hate this particular form of dad-rock... I just wish it was maybe 1:30 shorter. It's got a lot of lyrics and a lot of them wash by... I wonder, if someone had put their foot down and said, you have to cut two stanzas from this, what would he have picked?

I forget about this song's existence sometimes, but it's one of his absolute best. The melody is so strong that I think Phil Ramone and the band are just trying not to step on it - very basic arrangement, but it works. The rhythms of the lines are really memorable, and there's a couple little moments that I love: the understated guitar line during the B-section and the sung count-off

not sure if it was intentional but I always the video as a play on the Beatles rooftop concert. knowing Joel, it is

unfortunately i will now think of it whenever i play rilo kiley’s “silver lining”

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, November 8, 2017 8:10 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Holy crap, I never made this connection before. Nice!

I love the beginning of the video -- "First two chords are open fifth, second two chords are open fifth." ROCK AND ROLL!!!!

The rhythmic stiffness dovetails with the lyric: he's steady, dependable, count on me, girl.

Feel like if you kept the stiff rhythm and just fiddled the sliders on Ramone's recording deck you might arrive at something like an "Addicted to Love" prototype.

In my top three. Possibly my favorite rocker. The bridge (npi) is very satisfying.

"I know you have doubts, but for god's sake don't shut me out" is thematically linked with the previous song's similar pleas ("stay with me baby, I've got plans for you" / "you've given me the best of you, but now I need the rest of you").

We're a long way from "I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life." Makes sense thematically as well as with where Bill himself is personally at this time - settled family life, new baby, not wanting to tour.

Whoa at Addicted to Love. I mean, it would've made more sense to hear Palmer do this one than New Day Rising.

Wish I could find the post from sunny successor where she recalls this song coming on the radio at a red light while her mom was taking her somewhere.

SS sings along with the intro ONE - TWO, uh-ONE TWO THREE FOUR.

And on FOUR, her mom just takes off across the intersection, red light be damned.

Also, the font position on that 45 sleeve is messing with me a bit.

https://i.imgur.com/Vp116iO.jpg

There's this unreleased Wilco song that always makes me think, "What song does this sound like?"

Until I hear "Matter of Trust" later and go, "Wait, someone else did a song that sounds like this."

HUWUNN
TWOOOO
HWUN TWOO THREEE FAWW

Wish someone would dub that onto the beginning of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swwjTfdOjo4

Best countdown intro ever.

like most great Billy songs my inclination to think I should dislike it is overwhelmed by its sheer gusto

i really like the guitar tones on this

the lyrics juxtaposed with christie brinkley and the baby's cameo is kinda sad in retrospect

love the video's Ferris Bueller multiculturalism, something that will never die in the hearts of the hacks of Hollywood, seen as recently as the ill-fated Kardashian Pepsi commerical

love!!!!!!!!!!

all the swagger and confidence of an innocent man without the retro trappings. if any number of the bands he was paying homage to on that album tried to make a mid-'80s comeback, this is pretty much the exact song i'd want them to do it with.

agree w/doctor c that it's a little too long. but that swagger carries me through. i get what you're all saying about the stiffness, but there's also an ease of performance here that i think makes this one of billy's sexiest songs. i sometimes wonder what someone like tom petty could have done with this.

such a bizarre feeling to have a Billy Joel song stuck in my head that i DON'T know all the words to. my brain just keeps banging a few distinctive phrases together with filler miscellaney. some women wanna buy you a soul, it's all a racket in the ultimate state of control.... AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T SHUT ME OUT!

Some love is just a lie of the spleen, the cold remains of what began with a passionate bean...

now it's turning into perry/loggins "Don't Fight It." Some love is just a-hearing a groove, they're shaking heads because they still aren't able to move / But that won't happen to us, 'cause it's always been a matter of trust...

btw not really clear, how is it being a matter of trust an answer to anything else in the song? trust is like faith, right? all you can really say is, i'm trusting that this bad fate won't befall our relationship. but that can't be a reason WHY they won't happen. or is the relationship itself "a matter of trust"? so because they have such good trust levels the spark will never go out? i dunno this seems like a classic billy conceptual non-sequitur to me, two things that kinda seem like they go together but don't really add up to an argument. works while you're hearing it though.

"now i can't offer you proof / but you're gonna face a moment of truth" makes him sound like kyle reese.

some love is just alive in the knees
a soap impression of his wife who up and made him eat bees
but that won't happen to me
cause i'm ready at the shake of the keys

or is the relationship itself "a matter of trust"? so because they have such good trust levels the spark will never go out?

i think that's basically it. i like this lyric. there are a few lines along the way that don't quite add up, but yeah, he's saying we'll get through our doubts as long as you trust me and i trust you. right?

This is one of those cases where no one remembers the host album but everyone remembers "A Matter of Trust."

sam shepard's last great play, "a lie of the mind," opened off-broadway seven months before the bridge came out. it features a horrific act of domestic violence and it "may be its author's most romantic play," frank rich wrote in his nytimes review.

I mean, even people that trust each other can find the flame fades after a while. Although I guess, the trust will help them develop a relationship not dependent on that.... I dunno, feel like some of the anxieties and overconfidences of a still-youngish relationship are on display here. Doesn't ruin the song for me - I had similar "huh?" feelings with "My Life," a song I love - just along with the excess of stanzas it makes it feel a little unfocused.

TBF, I don't even remember the name of the song from a few days ago that finished off GHI&II.

I remember Billy jumping through that portal in slo-mo.

WHADDANIGHTASTEELYUHHHHHHHH

feel like some of the anxieties and overconfidences of a still-youngish relationship are on display here.

otm

no one remembers the host album

i'm not sure cyndi lauper remembers the host album

im sure your a werewolf
we both have a sherrif
bees live with two lungs
when the hole that you’re itching was wrong

This schlock was on the alarm radio every time I woke up during this time. Particularly annoying aspects of the song include the countdown mentioned above, the forced sibilence of “you can’t go the distanccccce with too much resistanccccce” and the overly earnest pleading “for god sake don’t shut me out” which has no place in a pop song. Don’t go away mad Billy, just go away.

the overly earnest pleading “for god sake don’t shut me out” which has no place in a pop song.

it doesn't?