My #25 all-time favorite album is THE STRANGER by Billy Joel, the great piano troubadour from Long Island. Released in 1977 in the middle of the horrid disco era, it was a bright spot in a desert of popular music back then. Just the Way You Are was Joel's big Grammy-winning hit song...not exactly my favorite track from the album, and as it turned out, not his, either. Still, all the songs on The Stranger were pretty damned good...here's my listing of tracks by my preference:
1 Scenes from an Italian Restaurant: an album rock radio staple in 1978, it's a whimsical look back at high school with Joel's trademark piano virtuosity and a killer saxophone...
2 The Stranger: the title track features beautiful whistling and a message similar to The Doors' People are Strange from ten years earlier...
3 Movin' Out: the opening track lays out Joel's disgust with the rat race and its disciples, and he's splitting the scene (on his motorcycle). This song goes well with My Life from his following album 52nd Street...
4 Only the Good Die Young: some didn't like this tune because of its irreverence toward organized Christianity, particularly the Catholic Church. But that's exactly why I like it, plus the beat's awfully catchy and it's funny, gosh darn it...
5 She's Always a Woman to Me: what I liked about this one is the way Joel's lyrics paint the picture of a complete human being from anecdotal descriptions about her. As I mentioned in an earlier article each of us is a complex tapestry of both good and bad...
6 Get It Right the First Time: I enjoy this song, but ultimately disagree with its message. After all, it's the fear of NOT getting it right the first time and risking making an ass of yourself that prevents many of us from trying anything new...
7 Just the Way You Are: I probably would have liked this song more had it not been overplayed on the radio. The perfect lounge act song. Years later it stands up well...
8 Vienna: a slower piano ballad as Joel exhorts someone to slow down and realize "Vienna waits for you" and "Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true"...lots of cool lyrics here...
9 Everybody Has a Dream: not a bad song per se, it just seems to drag a bit...maybe Joel should have kept it short. I really liked its ending, when the whistling title theme closes out the album...
The Stranger is one of those special albums that is thoroughly listenable...no need to skip any tracks. For me it marked a passage of time as I entered into early adulthood and began to haltingly establish myself away from home for the first time...
Next week I discuss Album #24...
No comments:
Post a Comment