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

in the wild: frankie valli and the four seasons in the supermarket tonight. spent out 10 seconds trying to place the song before i realized it was billy. "uptown girl," obvi.

oh man now that i have my computer back online again it's high time i opened up the spreadsheet and unveiled another late-period billy jam!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkmj6_hufko

All My Life, not to be confused with a somewhat better-known song with a similar title, was one of two non-album singles Billy issued in 2007. It was his first original composition to see the light of day since 1993 - and Phil Ramone was back at the console! Intended as a second-anniversary tribute to third wife Katie Lee (b. 1981), it was first released as a Valentine's Day exclusive through the website of People magazine. It then became an iTunes exclusive, and eventually got some kind of limited release as a CD-single (including in Japan, where it made it to #94 on the charts). There seems to have been a video (mostly in-studio footage), but the only versions I can find online look like they were taped off the air and then digitized at some pathetically low resolution, so I won't bother.

I can't recall ever hearing it before. It's... nice? Reminds me a little of the verse from "I've Loved These Days" filtered through the Sinatra/Bennett classicist-pop sensibility he'd been exploring in some of the other post-River releases.

https://img.discogs.com/cvpMDlCbPLArPAIl1YaulBKwvrI=/fit-in/500x500/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4149460-1356921856-2201.jpeg.jpg

i had no idea this song existed. decent sinatra/bennett/etc imitation, but kinda terrible song. the bridge starting at 2:15 showcases some of the worst singing he's ever committed to tape and is just ugh. and, wait, there are still more than 3 minutes to go in this song? excuse me while i get a glass of milk and a snack. i'll be right back.

Sounds like a cut from a Julia Roberts soundtrack.

Everyone needs to go online and search "Billy Joel 69" today.

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

It's his birthday!

nice

Very good this and hella illuminating about all sorts

http://www.vulture.com/2018/07/billy-joel-in-conversation.html

wow yeah that is a v good interview

wait, did we know before this that rick rubin wanted to do an album with him?

i would love to hear that album!

I think you can safely assume Rick Rubin has approached every single canonical old rocker and offered them the "Johnny Cash Treatment"

ha, fair point. i do not want to hear the billy joel johnny cash roots album. but i very much do want to hear the billy joel billy joel roots album. "miami 2018."

Or Billy Joel's tribute to the great American songbook.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

It's Too Darn Hot

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'

Etc.

this is a great interview. billy getting yessed out!

"I’m looking at Axl like, Aren’t you interested in, you know, meeting these women? No, he just wanted to talk about “Captain Jack.”"

Axl plans to sit at home and maahstabate

lol

And look: he loves ROD too!

I had no idea he stopped writing songs in his mid 40s.

I'd say thanks, but the damage is done.

I forget, which movie was Christie Brinkley in, Mr. Mom or Gung Ho?

https://i.imgur.com/aen03vh.jpg

vacation

saw billy's madison sq garden show tonite and hearing "pressure" and "say goodbye to hollywood" rendered live by this 69-year-old man who seems like he can hardly walk and who gave us a close-up shot of the hand he burned pretty badly by spilling coffee on it recently and who is prone to missing words here and there gave me serious chills. the good kind of chills.

on the other hand, my desire to never hear "piano man" again was reaffirmed. just watching him strap the harmonica around his neck gave me a mild panic attack.

on the other other hand, "and so it goes" was really nice.

so jealous

wow

roberta flack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, August 29, 2017 7:24 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still loling

loling you softly

X post to the annoying co worker / disgusting savages thread;
“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like BJ. Even if you don’t love him, you have to say he has a few good songs.”

He has roughly five good songs tbc

I know I'm an emotional girl.

Where's "NY State of Mind"? Sometimes I think that's his best song.

It wasn't a single!

Ah, fair enough.

The longest time?

Ah, yes. Corrected.

this is really good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4UYUYFV3c

https://i.imgur.com/yDz5n0q.jpg

TROUBLE IN THE SEWEHS!

wow yeah, cool link fcc! for those who haven't clicked: don't mind all the radio-DJ trappings - it's a deep dive on the "We Didn't Start the Fire" mix, playing with the sliders to pull out all kinds of details somehow panini-pressed into that mix. super interesting imo.

For those geoblocked by YouTube:
https://soundcloud.com/theklossessions/billy-joel-we-didnt-start-the-fire
I dug into the series after that - some are amazing, check out "Once in a Lifetime" and "Killer Queen":
https://audioboom.com/channel/the-session-with-christian-james-hand

omg, the once in a lifetime episode is fantastic.

The "Panama" one was fantastic.

jfc, listen to bob costas defend billy joel with his very heart and soul in his interview with dave marsh, looooooool

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

it's a wide-ranging interview, but the billy joel bit is at the beginning.

actually, at the very beginning is...

the youtube comments, too

the whole thing with billy joel, his fans, and the critical perception of billy joel, and his fans reactions to that...i love all of it.

Billy Joel stiff?! You're joking...

habyss
habyss
3 years ago
I agree with him.

Brian Holt
Brian Holt
8 years ago
Dave Marsh sucks! He couldn't do what Billy Joel did ... He should retire his big mouth!

what's crazy is that bob costas argues that the critics dislike billy joel because he's too popular, and has had too much success. but if you watch part 1, which is mostly about Bruce Springsteen, Costas takes the exact OPPOSITE stance - that Bruce Springsteen is bad (in 1989) because he’s too popular now. it’s such a ridiculous hypocritical take, on both Costas, in both cases.

you know what. FUCK YOU BOB COSTAS

This Bob Costas hatred must be a Missouri expat thing.

If you think I'm ever going to take Dave Marsh's side in an argument, then you're going to have to see me LATER.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
WITH BOB COSTAS.

And you can not handle COSTAS

lol pplains

just seeing his name is pavlovian for me, regardless of whatever opinion he has (inevitably smug & wrong)
FUCK YOU BOB COSTAS

"You know, Ivan Pavlov put his name in the history books with a series of experiments on conditioning, that quite frankly and by his own admission, was completely accidental. However on the opposite side of the spectrum, it was hard work and determination that paid for greats like Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, and one William Martin Joel of Hicksville, Long Island..."