30th Anniversary-Can You Guess the Album?
The 30th Anniversary was actually last year, but a new box set of the album is coming out this month.  The year was 1977: Reggie Jackson, Son of Sam, Elvis died. This album took the world by storm. What was it?
For the answer:Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SwrklEY2ZM&feature=user
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Posted on July 9, 2008, in Music, Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 74 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
John Harrison
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
KulturBlogGuest
MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
Ben
Marcus
Brad Williams
gibsonbn
I was only 11 but I remember this album very well. I went to the concert (my first one) at the Salt Palace. He wore a tuxedo with white tennis shoes. He played four encores. The last thing he said was, “Good night Salt Lake City, don’t take any sugar.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it was awesome.
I never understood all the hate for Billy Joel. Yeah it wasn’t great music but it was fun and beyond what you typically get in pop music. Goodnight Saigon in particular was pretty good I thought. As was Piano Man.
Holy smokes.
Billy Joel, in spite of the critics, was and is the whole package. He’s a great pop songwriter, an incredible lyricist, and the best live performer I’ve ever seen (both musically and as a showman). Yeah, if you buy his albums he has a lot of misses but, with 40ish years in the business, of course he has a lot of misses. But he’s got even more hits: each of his albums that I’ve heard has way more great songs than just the singles (although almost every album has a song or two that should be skipped).
Ah, I was hoping it was Styx – Paradise Theater. =)
I’ve liked a lot of Billy Joel over the years, but hey, he didn’t start the fire…
I think this album in particular stands out. It’s definitely one of the greats. You can argue about some of Joel’s work (especially the later stuff when he became somewhat self-indulgent), but this one was great when it hit and it stands the test of time. It was awarded both song and record of the year at the grammys (for “Just the Way You Are”). It stands between the disco and punk movements in time yet is part of neither. Go back and listen, It still holds up after all these years.
FHL, Styx is whole other post.
My favorite Billy Joel song will always be “Only the Good Die Young” because I had it on 45 as a kid and listened to it repeatedly. “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints…”
I’ve got a thing for melancholy bluesy piano music – and a good number of Billy Joel songs hit that spot for me.
I had always thought “Just the Way You Are” was a Barry Manilow song, shows what I know, but is also reflective of my opinion of the song.
So you love it, then?
Ugh.
arJ, Barry thanks you for the compliment. He also said to tell you he needs his clothing back.
A great album from 1977? Hmm? Gotta be My Aim is True…. But maybe Never Mind the Bollocks…. Or maybe Rocket to Russia? In the City? Lust for Life? The Clash? Young, Loud, and Snotty? Marquee Moon? Damned, Damned, Damned?
(Clicks link)
WTF?
Susan, in the video Joel says that the Catholic church banned that song, which of course caused sales of the album to skyrocket. I remember wondering what it was that Catholic girls started much too late…
arJ,
“Just the Way You Are” features Phil Woods on saxophone. Mr. Woods is one of the great saxophonists; his jazz work sounds pretty damn close to Charlie Parker’s (which is clearly a good thing: I wish I could play sax anything like the Bird).
So the song’s cheesy. Just listen to the saxophone: it will blow you away.
kuri: There were a lot of great albums that year, a surprising amount in fact, but by any measure The Stranger is among them. One way to tell that is that there are not many other albums that are getting the 30th anniversary re-release treatment. There is a reason that’s happening for this album and not some of the others you mention.
random john,
Are you going to start dissin Barry Manilow, now?
He writes the songs that make the whole world sing. Plus! He wrote Copacabana.
I rest my case.
re: Billy Joel. I have musical taste that is almost infinitely stretchable. But, for whatever reason, it won’t stretch to Billy Joel. There are two things I can just never get passed: the we didn’t start the fire song, and the Uptown Girl video.
Pure Prarie League, America, Carly Simon … even truly syrupy stuff, like Bread – I can do all that. But, no Billy Joel, por favor.
~
MCQ,
The reason is that 1977 was probably the year that cemented the gigantic mid-70s through 80s gap between what was popular and what was good, and The Stranger was a very popular album.
I think it’s hilarious that they did a special vinyl reissue of The Stranger as part of this campaign. The fact that someone at the record company thought a $20 heavy vinyl reissue of what is probably the most common album ever is a perfect metaphor for how stupid record companies are. I defy anyone in America to look through a dollar bin in their town’s record/Half Price Books store and NOT find a copy of The Stranger.
Just The Way He Is – article by the New York Times on the same subject.
I love the song “Just the Way You Are.” It is, in my opinion, a perfect pop song and a perfect expression of what an ideal relationship should be like – someone who loves being with that other special someone and isn’t trying to change her. Maybe that’s too corny for some – but I’m a believer and a fan of that idea. However, the linked article above notes that Billy Joel is aware of the irony and (in his view) hypocrisy of the song – since he is now long divorced from the woman he wrote it for.
I don’t get the comparison between Barry Manilow and Billy Joel. Maybe they share a lot of fans but as artists/musicians – I see them as quite different from each other.
Where I grew up, the local classic rock station would occasionally play a Billy Joel song. On the same station you would _never_ hear a Barry Manilow song.
I have to concede, however, that “We Didn’t Start The Fire” provides an excellent basis for cyncicism and even intense dislike. That one is garbage. But I always figured he was married to Christie Brinkley at the time – so one could understand if he was a little, um, distracted.
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” is absolutely not an excellent basis for cynicism or dislike. Sure, it’s not a very good song. He has lots of not-very-good songs. But that’s because he has lots of songs. Frankly, if every song you write is great, you’re not stretching at all (unless, of course, you’re Bach). Like I said, every album (or at least almost every album) that I’ve ever heard (except maybe his live in Russia, but live albums are like greatest hits albums) has a song or two that isn’t terribly good. But come on: he wrote country songs, he wrote latin-beat songs, he wrote easy listening, he wrote punk, he wrote rock ‘n’ roll, he wrote pop, he wrote doo-wop: give him a break if some of his songs don’t work out.
(Not to suggest, danithew, that you said you don’t like him; I’m more responding to the sentiment that some people believe.)
I must’ve missed Billy Joel’s punk era.
http://thingsthatsuckworsethanbillyjoel.blogspot.com/
I can’t think of any Billy Joel songs that qualify as punk. He might mention the word punk in “It’s All Rock and Roll To Me” … can’t remember for sure.
Could be; I was being more approximate than exact (I don’t tend to look for precision before 8:00 am). But I stand by the concept.
We Didn’t Start the Fire is truly an atrocious song. Plus every time I hear it to me it sounds like he’s singing flat and some of the instruments are out of tune.
We Didn’t Start the Fire is a list song.
Every now and then an artist/band will put together a song that has some kind of programmatic list in it – and those songs often suck because they are songs that tend to write themselves.
Another example of a list song is the Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love.”
Ugh.
I actually don’t agree. It’s a bad song, yes. But it’s not any worse than hundreds of other bad songs, other beloved bad songs, even. (Frankly, it’s probably not even the worst song on the Storm Front album; it’s been a while since I listened to it–I had it on tape, and it’s been a whole lot of years since I had a tape player–but, IIRC, “That’s Not Her Style” is the worst song on the album, an otherwise pretty good album.)
I think “It’s Still Rock n Roll to Me” is my favorite Billy Joel song – fun lyrics. I used to want a ‘bright orange pair of pants.’ Maybe not so much anymore.
(For another list song, try Life is a Rock (but the Radio rolled me) by Reunion. )
I’m assuming REM’s It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) would also count as a list song. And maybe God by John Lennon.
REM’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” is one of the list songs I like … and I’m not even much of an REM fan. For whatever that is worth …
When “We Didn’t Start the Fire” came out, I honestly wondered if Billy Joel heard the REM song and thought he’d write his own version.
To be fair most of Joel’s worst stuff is late in his career. Consider where Led Zeppelin was with their last album. And that’s one of the greatest bands of all time. Or Pink Floyd with The Final Cut. Most bands deteriorate with time.
To add, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Joel is among the greats by any measure. But I don’t think he’s bad. He’s Madonna level and given a choice I’d take him over Madonna any day of the week.
I’d take Madonna over Billy Joel.
Cold Spring Harbor / Piano Man / Streetlife Serenade / Turnstiles / The Stranger / 52nd Street / Glass Houses
All those Billy Joel albums are consistently good and worth listening to … after that it gets dicey, though there are a few songs on later albums that are very nice songs. I’m thinking of Baby Grand (sung with Ray Charles), And So It Goes and a few others.
There are a lot of songs on those earlier albums that I listened to so much (by choice) that I can’t listen to them anymore. But some of the songs on those earlier albums, songs that weren’t hits, are still great songs.
clark,
I’d listen to Zeppelin’s crappy final albums many times over before I’d listen to much of Billy Joel. Same goes for Pink Floyd. I’m absolutely floored that people seem genuinely excited about the 31st anniversary of a Billy Joel album. And I’ll admit that I owned Storm Front at some point. I might still own it, I haven’t looked at my CD collection in ages.
Ick.
Brian, that website is fabulous!
I like a lot of Billy Joel songs. That’s pretty much my input. Have a nice day.
arJ,
I’m floored that anyone would not be excited (especially about The Stranger). It’s as strong as, if not stronger than, any Pink Floyd or Zepplin album out there (and I like Pink Floyd and Zepplin).
(Or, in the infamous words of The Onion, your favorite band sucks.)
Dude, The Final Cut, while I admit it’s a lot of Waters whining, is still a notch above a lot of albums.
Didn’t INXS have a list song on Kick?
I’m floored that anyone would not be excited (especially about The Stranger). It’s as strong as, if not stronger than, any Pink Floyd or Zepplin album out there
Way to lose all your cred, Sam.
[The Stranger] is as strong as, if not stronger than, any Pink Floyd or Zepplin album out there.
Holy Mother of God!!!111
Sam, you better run. They’re looking for the tar and feathers now…
[mouth hangs silently agape]
You know I like both The Final Cut and the Pros and Cons of Hitchiking. But they really aren’t great albums. And that last Zep album was pretty much the same as a Robert Plant pop album. Although Plant did, in his solo career, have two good songs on The Principle of Moments album. I have to say I absolutely loved My Love is A Freeway and Horizontal Departure.
I think they should do a deluxe reissue of the Atilla album.
Susan,
I apparently lost all of my cred when I said I liked Billy Joel. If so, so be it. I actually don’t have any of his music on my iPod right now (we got a new computer a number of months ago, and I haven’t really bothered updating my music). But frankly, if I ever had cred, I assume passing Mick Jagger’s magic 30-years-old and having a child blew it.
But to redeem my faltering cred, I give you the best album of 2008 (seriously–listen to it, plus read the Slate article).
Oh—and also the fact that my wife got tickets to the free Bon Jovi concert tomorrow night in Central Park (to which we’ll take our 2-year-old). If Bon Jovi isn’t cred-blowing, I don’t know what is.
Sorry—last thing on this. My wife got the tickets because they were free and in Central Park and for the thrill of competing with the rest of New York (and of course New Jersey) to get them. Before yesterday, while she’d heard of Bon Jovi, she couldn’t have named a single one of his songs.
Calling The Stranger better than any Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd album > Bon Jovi concert attendance in terms of cred-blowing.
Brian,
As good as or better.
Of course, it depends on your criteria for what constitutes greatness in music. Is it the songwriting? The performance? The technical skill of the musicians? The influence?
Songwriting is probably a toss-up; Zepplin and Floyd both have produced great songs, but generally have stuck to one or two genres (not counting the post-Zepplin stuff where they’ve individually incorporated Middle Eastern stuff and Allison Kraus—but if we count post-band stuff, we unfortunately have to count Goverdale Page, too). All three have written incredible songs and duds. Performance? The only one I’ve seen live is Billy Joel. I’ve heard Pink Floyd concerts are amazing, though. Musicianship? On The Stranger, Billy Joel’s band, hands down. Phil Woods, by himself, decimates any other player who has played with Billy Joel, Led Zepplin, or Pink Floyd. (If you took out Phil Woods—that is, if it were any other album, I may come out differently).
Influence? Probably Zepplin. Zepplin, though, as much as I love the band, is only great compared to other white bands that ripped off the blues and sold it to white audiences. Compared to actual delta blues musicians, however, they’re a cheap copy.
Zeppelin … please. Not Zepplin.
I can’t believe this conversation is even happening. Are you winding people up, Sam?
Zeppelin and Floyd basically created genres.
Susan,
Pink Floyd did (as far as I know: it’s possible that others pioneered psychadelic rock before Pink Floyd came around, but I wouldn’t know who it was). Zepplin didn’t. In spite of the fact that they paved the way for hard rock/heavy metal, they were clearly a bunch of Brits infatuated with American blues. And there’s nothing wrong with that—I’m a white American infatuated with American blues, and frankly I like Zepplin better than Pink Floyd (because of the blues influence), and I like a lot of Zepplin better than a lot of Billy Joel. But I like Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy and Watermelon Slim, etc. etc. better than Zepplin.
There’s nothing wrong with Zepplin taking the blues: it was basically the white Brits (including Zepplin and Clapton) that put some spotlight back on blues and probably raised the profiles of the people they were copying. But the history of rock music is, unfortunately, white musicians getting rich off of what black musicians barely survived on.
Compared to actual delta blues musicians, however, they’re a cheap copy.
This is a tired and (I think) fatuous argument. It’s, if you’ll forgive the cliche, apples and oranges. Zeppelin were not blues musicians and they weren’t trying to play traditional Delta blues, so trying to say their music is better or worse than Delta blues is basically another way of saying, “I like one of these genres and I don’t like the other one.” They took their love of blues music and turned it into a new and different form of rock music, like Susan said.
As for your argument that Zeppelin and Floyd only stuck to one genre, who cares? I’d rather hear someone do one thing really well than do ten things in a not-very-interesting way. “Hey, look, I can do reggae and I can do loud rock and I can do Tin Pan Alley. I don’t do any of them well, but look how many things I can do.” That doesn’t impress me at all.
Like Susan said, I’m still not sure this isn’t a wind-up or a bit of trollishness. Still, I guess it takes all kinds.
Brian,
Not a wind-up or trollishness. (Although my original response to arJ was exasperation with his out-of-hand dismissal of Billy Joel based on . . . what? It wasn’t meant to devolve into an argument about Billy Joel vs. Zep vs. Pink Floyd.) My point, though, is to question what criteria are being used to dismiss Billy Joel? Arguing that you’d listen to Zep’s crappy final album over and over (not your argument, but the argument I was initially responding to) is just as pointless as arguing that blues musicians are better than Zepplin. It may be true, but what does it prove?
Ultimately, I’m not sure why critics (and others) dislike Billy Joel so viscerally. He’s a fine, sometimes great, songwriter. He’s a stunning performer, especially as a pianist, but also as a showman. He backs himself up with a consistently solid, if not better, band. I don’t see any substantive reason, other than that he’s somehow unhip, for the vitriol he inspires. Sure, you don’t have to like him. But why (seriously) does he inspire such strong negative emotions for some people?
I’m off to look for some tar and feathers too…
Are you INSANE? Have you ever heard David Gilmour hit a Note?
But why (seriously) does he inspire such strong negative emotions for some people?
Uh, because he sucks? Seriously though, I can’t really explain why I find his music so worthless, but I do. And I say this as someone who loves Elton John, so it’s not like I’m adverse to piano-driven rock/pop music or anything like that. It’s nothing to do with hipness or critical favor or anything like that – I just think he writes lousy songs.
Shun the unbeliever! Shun Him!
See Brian, I’m almost the reverse. I love Elton’s stuff from the 70s (back when Bernie Taupin was cowriting), but I’m not a big fan of anything beyond that.
And I can accept that you think he writes lousy songs, although that pretty much ends the discussion. I think he writes great pop songs, but can’t formulate why (at least not at work, when I’m supposed to be thinking about other things).
And tracy, musicianship: Phil Woods on Just the Way You Are. I’m not arguing for the rest of Joel’s band, but Phil Woods’ solo ending the song is one of the more sublime pieces of musicianship in pop music. Given that Mr. Woods holds a reasonably high place in the pantheon of post-Bird jazz musicians, that’s not meant as a dis by any means of David Gilmour. But it is meant has high praise for Phil Woods.
See Brian, I’m almost the reverse. I love Elton’s stuff from the 70s (back when Bernie Taupin was cowriting), but I’m not a big fan of anything beyond that.
Oh, I wasn’t trying to say that I like current (or even recent) Elton John stuff. I pretty much only like the 70s stuff – I don’t like anything past Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
Okay. Amen, then.
Sam B.,
I haven’t expressed anything that could even remotely be described as visceral. I think I started things off my admitting that I’d always thought that a certain song was by a performer other than Billy Joel. You’re the one getting visceral. I frankly don’t care.
I have a hard time saying Floyd only stuck to one genre too. They have some real Jazz elements. (Check out the middle songs in Meddle for instance) Plus The Wall was a completely different sound than what came before. While they more or less were on the forefront of psychodelic music their stuff around Dark Side became much different with the stuff in the 70′s being quite unlike the stuff from the 60′s.
Likewise I agree with those who note Zeppelin is unique. Yeah there’s influence from Robert Johnson and others – and outright borrowed phrases, licks and so forth. But it’s a very different sound. Especially in the drumming (which I’d argue is the heart of the band).
Likewise I agree with those who note Zeppelin is unique. Yeah there’s influence from Robert Johnson and others – and outright borrowed phrases, licks and so forth. But it’s a very different sound. Especially in the drumming (which I’d argue is the heart of the band).
Totally. If a concrete example of LZ’s unique way with blues is needed, compare their version of When the Levee Breaks with Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie’s 1929 original. You’d be forgiven for not recognizing the two as the same song.
I was wondering if anyone was going to bring up John Bonham. Musicianship and all that.
Here’s the original Levee:
And just for fun here’s Plant w/Alison Krauss doing it:
You people are all insane. But speaking of list songs, here’s one I rediscovered lately:
“Positively Lost Me” by the Rave-Ups.
Listen to it here:
http://www.myspace.com/theraveups1
MCQ, I like that one. I remember hearing it a long time ago.
Maybe there should be a post about list songs – if we haven’t already discussed it too much in this thread. It would be interesting to see the ratio of good vs. bad list songs.
I was just reading a NY Times article about Billy Joel playing at Shea Stadium and it reminded me again of this post and the comments that followed.
It may be that for some of us, Billy Joel is a NY thing. If you grew up in NY during the eighties, you would have heard Billy Joel songs playing right alongside the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd on the classic rock station. No joke. Somehow he was allowed to fit in with those guys in that genre.
That’s why the mention of Barry Manilow (as a potential comparison?) back in comment #10 actually stunned me when I read it. I don’t think of those two as being anything alike … though I should say I know next to nothing about Manilow.
Then again, that was unique to NY and that time and is something that definitely shaped my tastes in music. Of course, a lot has changed since the eighties. Perceptions of what is and is not rock has changed.
It’s occurred to me that a lot of folks who read here grew up in the 90s or later and may have caught the tail end of Billy Joel’s career/albums (his last album of new material was put out in 1993) – which in my opinion were much less than his finest. So I could understand the antipathy towards him, on that basis.
Also, just to establish how antiquated I am – when I was listening to Billy Joel back then, it was all on vinyl and the records were kind of old, even at that point. 30 year anniversary is right …