Billy Joel album-by-album thread

The Russian concerts took place just a few days after I had seen BJ at Wembley Arena so I was excited to get this but it was immediately disappointing. It is so long since I have listened to it that I cannot remember why now. It failed to capture the excitement of the Wembley concert or the essence of the studio albums. It felt like it was released for its significance rather than its quality and maybe a live recording from one of the other, earlier shows on the tour would have been more representative and enjoyable.

 

It wasn't a hissy fit, though. He told the film crew to stop lighting the audience, and they didn't listen. He wanted the audience to be more in the dark, and for them to be able to enjoy the show.

It's Billy's show, and he's the boss, n'est-ce-pas?

 

This!

 

This album is the end of an era, as Billy's jettisoned his guitarist and bassist...Doug Stegmeyer had played with Billy since 1974, and Russell had played with Billy since 1976...and David Brown left in the middle of The Bridge tour...from 1989 on, Billy adopted that arena-rock sound and had too many extra players.

I like Billly when he had bass, drums, 2 guitars and organ/sax...that's just me

 

I remember when this was in the stores...but as a teenager on an allowance, a double album was just too pricey. It was years before I learned the reviews were mostly negative anyway. I still don't think I've ever heard a single performance from here.

 

If you've never listened to the album, just watch the documentary film, it's much more interesting IMO.

Though I agree that it has the definitive version of Angry Young Man.

 

I thought the album was OK - though the most memorable thing for me was that at the end of Side 3, after the fade out of the last track, you can hear some very faint gibberish. Played in reverse, it's Joel yelling "Stop lighting the audience! Let me do my show for christssake! Leave 'em alone!" I always wondered whose idea/decision it was to include that on the LP - a sly nod at the "controversy."

I did think the 2014 documentary was outstanding, and have probably watched that more often than I've listened to the album.

 

Wow! I didn't know that. The CD doesn't have breaks between the songs so it's not on there.

 

His vocals definitely lack his usual energy, but the new documentary is by far more interesting than the record itself now. To see him blow his voice then really struggle with having to do a show goes to show the stress of constant performing and the pressure these guys are under. And the trip inspired his song Leningrad, one of my favorite later tracks from him.

Regarding going to the USSR, Elton John did go in 1979 (and even he wasn't the "first" pop star to do so) on a very intimate solo tour of 8 shows, which was during an even more delicate time between the USSR and Britain. But Billy's tour definitely led into the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall - and how appropriate it was "The Bridge" he was promoting.

 

Angry Young Man is the best song on the album. But, if you want definitive, check out this one:

 

Storm Front (1989)



Released: 17 October 1989
Recorded: 1988-1989

Side A
"That's Not Her Style"
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
'The Downeaster "Alexa"'
"I Go to Extremes"
"Shameless"
Side B
"Storm Front"
"Leningrad"
"State of Grace"
"When in Rome"
"And So It Goes"

Joel's eleventh studio album. It features one of Joel's three No. 1 hits, "We Didn't Start the Fire", a fast-paced song that cataloged a list of historical events, trends, and cultural icons from after World War II (when Joel was born) until 1989, and "Leningrad", a story-song about a friendship between an American and a Russian during the final years of the Cold War. "I Go to Extremes", a song describing the ups and downs of his emotional life, placed at No. 6. Other songs that placed in the top 100 were "And So It Goes" (No. 37), "The Downeaster 'Alexa" (No. 57), and "That's Not Her Style" (No. 77). The cover depicts the maritime storm warning flag indicating wind forces 10-12, the highest intensity on the Beaufort scale.

Storm Front marked a radical change in Joel's backing band. Since his last studio album (The Bridge), both Russell Javors and Doug Stegmeyer, long-time members of Joel's band, were discharged from their respective duties as rhythm guitarist and bass guitarist. Javors was replaced with Joey Hunting for the record and by Tommy Byrnes on tour while Stegmeyer was replaced by Schuyler Deale. Band regulars Liberty DeVitto, David Brown and Mark Rivera were retained. Joel also hired the percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero beginning with this album.

Joel got the idea for "We Didn't Start the Fire" when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a friend of Sean Lennon who had just turned 21 who said "It's a terrible time to be 21!" Joel replied to him, "Yeah, I remember when I was 21 -- I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y'know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful." The friend replied, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties". Joel retorted, "Wait a minute, didn't you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?" Joel later said those headlines formed the basic framework for the song. Unlike most of Joel's songs, the lyrics were written before the melody, owing to the somewhat unusual style of the song. The song was a huge commercial success and was Joel's third Billboard No. 1 hit. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.



See also
Billy Joel Talks About The Album "Storm Front" - SiriusXM 2016
Billy Joel - Q&A: Tell Us About "We Didn't Start The Fire"? (Oxford 1994)
Q&A: Do You Like Garth Brooks' "Shameless"? (Nuremberg 1995)
Q&A: Tell Us About "Leningrad" Lyrics? (Nuremberg 1995)
Q&A: Origins Of "The Downeaster Alexa"? (UPenn 2001)

Music videos
"That's Not Her Style"
"We Didn't Start the Fire" (beginning cut off)
'The Downeaster "Alexa"'
"I Go to Extremes"
"Leningrad"
"And So It Goes"

Eye of the Storm - LaserDisc music video collection, includes the full introduction for "We Didn't Start the Fire"

 

As a history minor, I got a big kick out of "We Didn't Start The Fire" (I know it's a punching bag and Joel has pretty much disowned it - whatever, it's catchy as hell and not as pretentious as the "socially-conscious" tripe Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were pumping out at around the same time), but the best single from this one I thought was "I Go To Extremes".

 

This is certainly an interesting album as it is Billy Joel's Glass Houses for the 80s, very much trying to rock out in a conscious way, especially on songs like the opening track "That's Not Her Style", "I Go to Extremes" and the title track.

The most ubiquitous song on this album, "We Didn't Start the Fire", is in my opinion saved by the production. While I'm sure a lot of people find it obnoxious and bombastic, especially since it was made in 1989, I think the soundscape with the different effects for individual lyrics keeps the song alive and interesting, although personally I find the song quite catchy (I know a lot of people don't like it and Joel hates the melody).

 

One funny story - I had friends at Cornell at the time. One of my buddies ran around with a guy who was something of a Billy Joel fan (and we liked Joel well enough - we were never hip enough to be condescending toward Joel's solid, middlebrow product). They asked their Billy Joel loving buddy what he thought of Storm Front a few months after it came out (because like me, they were impressed by "I Go To Extremes" and toyed with the idea of picking up the album). His reply was perfect:

"JFK. Blown away. What else do I have to say?"

 

6/19/90 @Giants Stadium - Probably the last song I expected to hear from "Storm Front" was my favorite from the album, "And So It Goes". And after the main set was over I "knew" there was no shot ... and then he opened the encore with it! One of my favorite concert memories.

 

I like Storm Front more than The Bridge - I Go To Extremes can stand with the best Billy Joel has ever done.

 

This is possibly his most emotional and powerful song. The frustration is driving the protagonist insane.

 

The last, great Billy Joel album! It's also one of my favorites, and I can listen to it all the way through. It helps that i'm a fan of Foreigner, and it still sounds like classic Joel, especially on songs like "I Go To Extremes", and "Shameless". That's right, Garth Brooks fans, BJ wrote and recorded it first!

I find it interesting that he was trying to get Eddie Van Halen to produce it. One wonders how it would have turned out if he had.

 

His first album to come out after I became a fan (I was literally just a few months too late for The Bridge, but that's never been a favorite of mine anyway), I was 16 and I still remember being really excited about picking up the cassette (hah!).

While I have since joined the ranks of those who don't like "We Didn't Start the Fire" at all, I did like it at the time. Being a teenager in love with history and especially recent history, I found it both fascinating and touching. No apologies for that now; I was only 16 after all! I do still like the video; although it's the very definition of a stereotype of postwar families, you can bet there really were families of that era in which every single thing depicted in the video happened. The song is also the source of a rare funny story about my family (with whom I never got along): My mother heard the title somewhere and asked, "What's that, some whiny Generation X anthem about how it's not our fault the world is so messed up?" I said, "No, it's a Billy Joel song," and for some reason that got her even more irritated. Nevertheless, the title became a within-the-family shorthand phrase for "it's not my fault," i.e. "Why didn't you do something about your sister's temper tantrum?!" "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't start the fire!"

The rest? Well, "Shameless" is great, "Leningrad" is dated at this point, but really, that's a good thing, isn't it? In any event it stands pretty well as an interesting snapshot of a very interesting time in history (one thing I remember about 1989-90 is my friends and I had all been aware of the Eastern bloc as our greatest enemies all our lives, there was still the threat of nuclear annihilation, and now suddenly it was all falling apart and no one was even really sure why). "The Downeaster Alexa" is a great story of a problem that was too easy for everyone but fishermen to miss. But "And So It Goes" is, for my money, the best song on the album. These days it's the only one I still listen to regularly. For all his efforts at rocking out, this is what Joel really does best. And it's arguably the last time he ever really did it, too.

The rest? Forgettable. I don't hate it, but I'm mostly indifferent to it at this point.

 

Random thoughts:

• My first Billy Joel album was GH 1&2 which I got for 1 cent via Columbia House (!) and I still have it.
• The Longest Time was a favorite of mine from when I first heard it on the ratio (I think I was around 3 or 4). Years later in 7th grade we had a section the piano and that was the song we had to learn. I never did get the 'left hand" down, but could play the melody line - and still can!

I think after that the next album, not knowing what I was buying - sort of a close your eyes and grab one purchase - was Songs in the Attic. Summer Highland Falls was the song that caused me to make the transition from Greatest Hits fan to "let's see what's hidden on these albums" fan.

 

Has some of my favorite songs of Billy's - And So It Goes, Leningrad, Downeaster Alexa. I Go To Extremes is also one of his best. While We Didn't Start The Fire is a simple song melodically, it's not about the music, it's about the lyrics. And they're pretty well crafted for the concept of the song. The fact that he made a song that Social Studies teachers use as a framework for history lessons is pretty impressive.

For me, his last strong album.

 

Almost forgot to post this interesting blog, part of a series called 'The Girl in the Video', this one for "We Didn't Start the Fire":

Noblemania: The Girl in the Video: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (1989)

 

This version of "The Downeaster Alexa" available on the rare "That's Not Her Style" 16 track promo CD is definitive: