“Don’t take no shit from anybody” announced Billy Joel to a mid-80’s concert audience in Cincinnati that included my now-estranged father. My dad recited the Joel quote to me the day after the show and thought it was just the coolest thing ever spoken; obviously he (and Billy Joel) felt like they were taking too much shit from people. Billy Joel speaks to the blue collar working man in a very musically-sophisticated way, and perhaps Joel’s biggest, most profound statement ever was his 1977 album, The Stranger. Sony Legacy Records has just put together an amazing 30th Anniversary box set edition of The Stranger, and it has me floored.
In my early teens, I don’t think I understood what my father liked about Billy Joel, but I always have memories of hearing it in his car on the way to the movies or the drive-thru pony keg (a Cincinnati thing). But my appreciation for Billy Joel’s music has grown exponentially in the past 10 years, accelerated by such life-changing events as falling in love, moving to New York, getting married, and becoming the ‘grown-up’ that I am now (though some might argue that). I grew up hearing Joel’s unique songs, not really ‘getting it’, but knowing that there was something special going on there.
My wife and I have been immersed in the Sony Legacy 30th Anniversary box set of The Stranger for the last couple weeks, and it has been very pleasing. First of all, what a great package! It contains a remastered version of the original album, another CD featuring a live Carnegie Hall show from the summer of 1977 just after the album’s release, a DVD with an 11-song performance recorded for the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, two live promo videos, and a 30-minute ‘making of’ documentary with new interviews with Billy Joel and Phil Ramone. But wait! There’s more: a foldout poster for the sold-out Carnegie Hall shows, a replica of Joel’s songwriting notebook for the album complete with food stains and scratched out lyrics, and a book with tons of photos and great liner notes from Rolling Stone’s best music writer/lover, David Fricke.
Something really struck me as I skimmed through the songwriting notebook where Joel lists all the diverse acts that he has opened for up to 1977…Bill Withers, J. Geils Band, Yes, Taj Mahal, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Kinky Friedman, Jeff Beck, John Sebastian, Janis Ian, Seals & Crofts, Anne Murray, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Stevie Wonder, and Olivia Newton-John, to name quite a few. It really had me thinking about just how different an artist Billy Joel is…not quite cut out for classic rock radio (Joel’s music is a classic rock radio no-no), not quite the classic crooner (like Franky and Deano), not really the typical singer/songwriter of the era (James Taylor, Dan Fogleberg), and not quite flamboyant showtunes-man (a la Manilow), yet all these things are somehow wrapped up in his own unique style. It’s almost like he created his own genre.
