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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CopYqp0HZkY

Shades of Grey closes side one - though at this point the only "sides" are on cassettes, as this album did not get an American vinyl release until 2014. Self-produced by Billy, the track features the album's lone contribution from Liberty DeVitto (I should also have flagged up Richie Cannata's one-off return on "A Minor Variation"). It reminds me of... Boston?!

Speaking of Bryan Ferry...man, does Joel sound mannered on this one.

I like this one.

I didn't listen to this album in full until maybe 2003 or so. Was expecting to hear a bunch of singalong Lion King songs like the hit, but this was the one that shook my lapels by surprise.

(And yes, I know I keep bringing up the Lion King here. It was one of the first major children's milestones to happen after I had become "an adult," something to be avoided at all costs. That time and this album, by a musician I so revered as a kid, happened simultaneously.)

chorus is definitely Boston! this has some good energy

verses ask the musical question "What if Ritchie Sambora joined the Police?"

dig it. feels like something that could have been on Glass Houses

feels like something that could have been on Glass Houses

guitar stabs definitely calling back to "sleeping with the television on"

"What if Ritchie Sambora joined the Police?"

I'll take "Questions no one has asked in the history of ever" for $500, Alex.

just asking the tough questions

i'm the mike wallace of richie sambora

man, does Joel sound mannered on this one.

i can't tell if he's trying to be mannered or if it's just that he just sounds like different singers depending on which part of his range he's in. this is one of a couple songs on this album side that, in a blindfold test, i might guess were sung by two or three different singers.

when he sings "shades of grey are the colors i see" in the last chorus, i swear i'm suddenly listening to the hassles or attila. not sure if it's the vocal tone, the melody, the way he's harmonizing it or all of the above. but i'm kind of interested in hearing more. doctor c expressed his mild disappointment, when we began this album, that it is not a series of style exercises inspired by Nirvana, 10,000 Maniacs, Faith No More, R.E.M., and Tori Amos. if the album opened with "shades of grey," i might beg to differ.

also, this is a decent commentary on the state of politics in 2017.

whoa this song is great

that instrumental part right before the chorus = chef's kiss

his voice has also been in really good shape this whole record

this is liberty on drums right? bc he's fucking killing it

"ok i've only got one track on this album, better bring out the metal fills"

liberty delaying the beat on the last line of the verse ("my faith has fallen away")... exquisite

I like the wearied scornfulness of the lyric ("I'm old and tired of war"), but I really get what Alfred is saying about the mannered vocal. Hearing this in 2017, I'm mostly reminded of Brandon Flowers.

guys I am pretty sure this is Boston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSxWCosMM0

All About Soul opens side two and is part of Billy's "faith being rediscovered" section of the album. Backing vocalists include Color Me Badd as well as Frank Simms, better known as "the voice behind such iconic characters as the Kool-Aid Man, The Craver (the bug-eyed, fuzzy mascot of Honeycomb Cereal), the GEICO ringtone, and more."

Released as the album's second single in a remixed version (listen here), and backed with a non-album cut that we'll come back around to, it made the top 40 in several markets and peaked at #29 in the US (#6 on Adult Contemporary). The video, a four-minute "live in the studio" rendition, looks ready to take VH1 by storm, even if a piano-less Billy seems unsure what to do with his hands.

If that's not enough versions for you, One Final Serenade points us to the demo version, clearly titled "Jericho Road" but dubbed "Motorcycle Song" for the My Lives box set.

https://img.discogs.com/Ai_iekfNmFUlGPkEa2sZ62CUXDI=/fit-in/600x596/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2287684-1463608718-9475.jpeg.jpg

"Shades of Gray": first song that's a misstep for me. The vocal style is so restrained compared to the arrangement. I like that he's trying some new ideas, but this one isn't good

"All About Soul": this got a lot of play on the AC station I grew up with, and I always had a soft spot for it. Melodically, this is classic Joel - catchy, straightforward. The "na-na-na" part especially is hard to shake. But I much prefer the shortened radio version that cuts out a full verse/chorus. 6 minutes is too long

Oh I didn't see you linked the radio version. Time to see if it actually matches my memory!

Enjoying the "Billy Joel's Approximately Infinite Shoulders" aspect of the cover art

"All About Soul," which I also remember getting a radio push, is a better "I Go to Extremes."

The florid vocal style of "Shades of Grey" applied to a composition that warrants it. Unfortunately, I'm not really a fan of this style.

I have a memory of his performing it on SNL.

Man, this one just isn't sticking in my head. I could see the hook (with the backing vocals especially) eventually locking into my brain the way the chorus of "That's Not Her Style" did, but the rest just floats away as soon as it's done.

the woman's got soul!

"All About Soul," which I also remember getting a radio push, is a better "I Go to Extremes."

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, December 10, 2017 12:03 AM (twenty hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess i see this but the chorus is much less tidy, it's just kinda strolling unconsciously through its changes. it's not leaping out at me as a Great Song but it certainly exists and seems to earn it. album version's length is staggering but possibly the choir and the handclaps are worth it

Neither is a great song, but AAS > IGTE as far as late '80s boomer soul cliches go.

you just dislike it bc it doesn't go to extremes

album version is twice as long as it needs to be and the emoting is twice as big as it needs to be, but it's catchy, the craft is strong and the na-na-na's are a great payoff. a damn good boomer soul cliche, imo.

"i go to extremes" comparison otm.

running time wise, it could be called "I Go To Great Lengths"

haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gav66byYJMw

Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) takes it back to Billy and his piano, with some strings adding color. Joel recalls it being inspired by Alexa Ray, age six or seven, asking about what happens after people die. He connects this inquiry to his declining relationship with Christie Brinkley; they divorced in August 1994, which I probably should have mentioned as part of the background to the album overall. Though the song reminds me again of Nilsson, it reportedly began life as a monophonic plainchant introduction to "The River of Dreams" (in Latin and everything!), then for a while was an interlude within that track, and then late in the album's gestation it was plucked free and turned into a song in its own right.

As a single (here's the video) it peaked at #77 on the Hot 100 (#18 on Adult Contemporary); it is the last single released from a non-compilation Billy Joel album. It ultimately became a children's book (like "New York State of Mind") in 2004, and has been covered many times, most notably by Celine Dion.

https://img.discogs.com/Q_Id8ZbtTtItXnXA_4tBcK9INb8=/fit-in/600x612/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2167865-1267679924.jpeg.jpg

This is the other one I was dreading. A lot of this was timing: for some reason, a drippy lullaby to a child didn't strike me as all that cool when I was 15. These days, I admit, I'm more apathetic towards it: it is what it is, and more to the point, I'm not curmudgeon enough to begrudge new(ish) parents one token song of this nature (hell, even Jay Z has one).

beats liam gallagher's!

also i'm just a sucker for billy singing over the piano in an unforced voice. one of pop's great ineffable combinations imho.

Yeah I think one is somewhat affecting. Definitely not as good as something like "She's Got a Way", but still pretty. Could do without the last verse, the "lullabyes go on and on" one. Don't make it so easy for us to criticize you, Billy

lovely and, yes, very nilsson-y. a classic billy joel album closer, not used as an album closer for reasons that i believe will become obvious in three days.

i hate the way he stretches out and enunciates the word "ocean." if i may quibble.

so River of Dreams exceeded expectations, no? I think it's one of his five best.

https://i.imgur.com/aK5xTKZ.jpg

"No, it's very sweet, Daddy. Um. Wanna do 'Movin Out' again?"

it's definitely much, much better than i'd always been led to believe by AllMusic. i dunno how often i'd pull it out and listen to it but i was prepared for a completely tuneless slog by a man convinced he was supposed to write some songs but with no interest in writing any. it's more like a man interested in writing songs, whose powers who aren't quite what they used to be but who still has an ear for a hook and who, thank god, is back to a decent producer making him sound good.

can't go top five, at least based on what we've heard so far. for me it's, in some order, the run from turnstiles through innocent man, minus nylon curtain. i like my billy albums stacked with hook-packed singles and quality pastiche, i guess.

It's exceeded my (very low) expectations.

river of dreams has been my favorite thing about this listening party. i wrote it off almost immediately, in its time, as an album of those aforementioned boomer soul cliches. the two previous albums had severely tested my billy devotion and i never even thought to give this one a fair shot. where did this burst of creativity come from? it may well be top five for me.

it's better than a couple of those '70s albums.

it's better than streetlife serenade for sure... i'd need to go back and listen to the first two to be sure. as rough and reedy as cold spring harbor was, there's something about the enthusiastic energy of a young and less-trained songwriter that appeals to me. some of these later songs, i feel like billy's main inspiration was finding a chord change he hadn't used before that he thought was neat.

on a related note, i recently picked up the self-titled Hassles album, put it on for the first time last night and it sounded great. totally and utterly generic for the period (garage band doing soul covers, struggling to be psychedelic in the vein of Moby Grape or something), but i like the period and i like teenage billy's rockin' instincts on the electric organ. i think once we've wrapped up the chronology i'll double back for some selection of tracks from that period, even if it's just me on the thread....

I probably like it better than any 70s album except The Stranger.

I will grudgingly confess that RoD is better than I remembered, but is still not going to become a fixture on my turntable.

i think once we've wrapped up the chronology i'll double back for some selection of tracks from that period, even if it's just me on the thread

i believe you will not be alone on the thread. and while i don't know if this makes it better or not, in my memory the second hassles album, hour of the wolf, was more, um, interesting.

After The Stranger, Glass Houses, and Innocent Man, RoD is probably my next favorite, but those three are in their own tier

man i love this song, wow

the minor key derivation in the middle is such a rich choice