Billy Joel

Billy Joel is the type of musical artist that people tend to either love or hate. The blog Slate has an article by Ron Rosenbaum excoriating this celebrity’s works. The main gripe, as I see it, is the tendency for Joel to display the persona of a very cynical critic of others in his lyrics. Ironically, it’s often those songs of his in which he’s ripping others that I like the most! Joel also seems to be quite the egomaniac, although in his case he’s just being honest about expressing this not-so-pleasant personal trait. Other artists go to great lengths to conceal this fact about themselves (I think one has to be a bit of a head case in order to make it in the entertainment business).

I first heard Billy Joel’s music in the spring of 1974 when his Piano Man single came out (greatly liking it). The follow-up single Travelin’ Prayer was quite good, too. It showed Joel to be a virtuoso on the keyboard, as did subsequent releases. Later, I had the opportunity to listen to the whole album Piano Man and liked quite a few tracks on it, especially The Ballad of Billy the Kid, Worse Comes to Worst, and Captain Jack. From the next two albums, I particularly liked Root Beer Rag (an instrumental), Summer Highland Falls, and Angry Young Man (Joel’s ultimate piano show-off piece). In 1977, The Stranger was released and proved to be his greatest album (to me), all of the tracks being good. My favorite track from it was his “epic” piece Scenes From An Italian Restaurant. From the following two albums, my favorites were the defiant My Life, Sometimes a Fantasy, and Don’t Ask Me Why. And then Joel really got political and serious with his Nylon Curtain LP. Allentown, Pressure, and Goodnight Saigon quickly became personal classics, and it looked as if this artist was entering a period of profound artistic output. But in 1983, he reversed directions and came out with the album An Innocent Man, which marked the beginning of the end of my enjoyment of his music. To me, the tracks from this album were simple-minded homilies to a never-never “Happy Days” brand of fifties rock n’ roll fantasy that, quite frankly, I’m utterly sick of (epitomized by the movie Grease). Although later works of his contained some good songs (e.g. A Matter of Trust and The River of Dreams), Joel never seemed to regain that sharp edge of his that I liked so much (and others apparently despised).

Billy Joel has retired from recording, or so he has said. But I don’t believe it. Sooner or later, he’ll reinvent himself and start cranking out new stuff. But I may just remain stuck in his early years, thank you. Here’s a top-ten list of my favorite Billy Joel songs:

1---Pressure
2---Angry Young Man
3---Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
4---Allentown
5---Summer, Highland Falls
6---The Ballad of Billy the Kid
7---A Matter of Trust
8---The Stranger
9---Piano Man
10---Goodnight Saigon