Week 8: BILLY JOEL (420 to 30: A Music Retrospective)
The piano isn't a staple piece for most rock musicians, but for Billy Joel it most certainly is, taking tones from mellow to melancholy to manic. He's a thoughtful and talented songwriter and his album, The Stranger, was one of my most-played growing up. (Note: This week in music started off with my 29th birthday on July 9, which I refer to in my #50 song's write-up.)
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from Billy Joel.
Week 8: BILLY JOEL
#050/420 - Billy Joel, “Only the Good Die Young”
“You got a nice white dress and a party on your Confirmation. You got a brand new soul and a cross of gold. But, Virginia, they didn't give you quite enough information. You didn't count on me, when you were counting on your Rosary.”
😎
Day 50 and welcome to 29. One year to go on this countdown.
My dark sense of humor has chosen “Only the Good Die Young” to commemorate my birthday.
I attended a Catholic grade school as a kid and was maybe a bit of a pariah outside from my sense of humor which has always been a good way to connect with even the people most diametrically opposed to who I am. But nonetheless, I didn’t “quite” fit into the desired mold, mainly because my jokes tended to be inappropriate or blasphemous in some way (such as praying to Pokémon in church) and I was a little overeager to chase after girls like good old Billy here. I tried organizing a co-ed dance with my friend in 4th grade but the school shot that down. Tried asking girls to movies, parents said they were too young. The brutal rejections of a 9 year-old. And unfortunately now as an adult, in general, my standing with Catholic women has only gone down.
For example, I was talking to a Catholic girl from Germany not too long ago while in New Zealand and as soon as she found out I made a movie called Batman & Jesus, she pretended to shoot herself in the head. I guess you could say that girl “never cared for me, but did she ever say a prayer for me?”
But what this song is really about more specifically, is not grade school dances but Catholic girls not putting out soon enough. ...Maybe my transition from 2Pac to Billy Joel isn’t all that jarring after all. Also, "only the good die young."
“They say there's a heaven for those who will wait, some say it's better but I say it ain’t. I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.”
#051/420 - Billy Joel, “Uptown Girl”
An Innocent Man is a tribute album to many musicians of the 1950s and early 1960s by Bill J. “For the Longest Time” is another good one on here, but the highlight for me is this song, his tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
Really manages to capture that Four Seasons sound while remaining very Billy Joel as well. A William for the Joels if there ever was one.
#052/420 - Billy Joel, “The River of Dreams”
In 1993, Billy Joel released his twelfth and final studio album, “The River of Dreams” and this was the lead single. If you ask me, it’s no coincidence Elton the British Billy wrote “I Just Can't Wait to Be King” and “The Circle of Life” for The Lion King within a year of this Joel coming out because he definitely Rafikied the sound a bit as it is also very easy to imagine those Lion King elephants stomping on beat to this song.
It doesn’t sound too much like Billy Joel’s most well-known music from the 70s, but I consider it a nice redemption from somewhat of a slide to my tastes through the 80s. For instance, if we know Billy Joel was going to retire as a songwriter, I’m glad he retired on “The River of Dreams” instead of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.
“We're all carried alooooong by the river of dreams, in the middle of the night.”
Long live the 90s and long live Billy Joel, the REAL Lion King!
#053/420 - Billy Joel, “Goodnight Saigon”
Billy Joel’s tribute to the veterans of the Vietnam War and one of his best ballads. “We had no cameras to shoot the landscape” I think is a very sad and powerful line. The whole song also has a strong intended feeling of camaraderie. “And we would all go down together.” How sad.
It's very much like, "we were just kids." They "played their Doors tapes."
It’s a bit of a melancholy song, but today is a melancholy day.
There is hope yet for us all.
#054/420 - Billy Joel, “The Stranger”
One of the better songs I can think of to feature whistling, and also my favorite piano playing from Mr. B. Joel as well. A nice sandwich of a song with two calm pieces of bread with a little salami in the middle.
And how about the theme of the song? Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?
#055/420 - Billy Joel, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”
Billy Joel once told Stephen Colbert that this was his favorite song he had made. Well, that is good news because we now know Billy Joel has good taste in his own music. You could say this is Billy’s magnum opus, and I would pretty much agree and extend that to include this entire album, since I think it is the one case in Billy Joel’s career where he really hit it out of the park. It may as well have been a “greatest hits” album. My favorite Billy Joel song is also off of The Stranger, and despite having already listed 3 songs from the album, it would be reasonable to guess that any of the other songs I haven’t picked yet could be what I pick tomorrow because they’re all that well-regarded in his catalog.
This song is also pretty much to blame for the fact that any time someone asks me if I want a bottle or red or white wine, I can’t help but say, “perhaps a bottle of rosé instead.” Almost like how Michael Scott on “The Office” can’t help but say, “that’s what she said.” Yeah, that’s pretty much my problem with, “perhaps a bottle of rosé instead.” Okay? It’s a serious problem you guys. I don’t even want rosé when I say that, it’s just because of the song! I actually wanted red, okay! …. or… on second thought, not red… “perhaps a bottle of rosé instead.”
DAMN IT!
#056/420 - Billy Joel, “She's Always a Woman”
High praise, I think this is the most insightful song about losing in love from the male perspective I’ve ever listened to. I’ve heard it throughout my life and there’s been more than a time where the words of this song could have nearly choked me out in the way they laconically described my headspace after such events. Me listening to this song by Billy Joel is like Matt Damon listening to Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. It hits me.
“She can lead you to love. She can take you or leave you. She can ask for the truth but she'll never believe you. And she'll take what you give her as long as it's free. Yeah, she steals like a thief, but she's always a woman to me.”
There are some deep lines in this song, and there isn’t one that I wouldn’t like to quote here. “She just changes her mind…” Is there any better way of putting it? It’s hard to let yourself fall in love when this is what can happen.
“She will promise you more than the Garden of Eden. Then she'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleedin’. But she'll bring out the best and the worst you can be. Blame it all on yourself, ‘cause she's always a woman to me.”
It’s a very good song. Believe it or not, it actually cheers me up to hear it. I like his calmness in expressing these things. The music works with the words perfectly. Not just sad, but also beautiful. (I just don’t want it to ring true in my life again.)
I think this song may get dismissed by some as “just another” Billy Joel love song, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s the crown jewel.
The Stranger sits firmly among my favorite albums and there’s lots else in Billy Joel’s catalog to enjoy as well. He may never write another song, but he doesn’t have to. As far as piano men go, Billy Joel is right up top.
Next week, we’re going to stay in pretty much the exact same era this time for a group primarily active at almost the exact same time as Billy Joel. The band to feature one of the greatest white man afros of all time and who practically defined the genre of symphonic rock/pop, ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)
We didn't start the fire and piano man are my two favorites, I will listen through your selection, always a woman to me is great.
Cheers!
Level 👉👍
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