Poll: 'The Stranger' (1977) album by Billy Joel in your collection?

I've got everything he's put out and then some. The Stranger is overplayed but it's a stone cold classic. I loved it when I listened to my parents' vinyl copy as a kid in the 1980s, when I got it on cassette in the early 1990s, and on CD the last 20+ years. The Legacy Edition has a great show from Carnegie Hall the month before he started recording the album.

 

I own the MFSL 45. And the SACD.

When I was about 8, I had the TC8 Track Tape. I carried it around like it was important. Yes, it is an overexperienced album.

It had a very deep impact on me because of the amazing ideas and melodies, stories and pop sensibility. It was a really good record.

 

Have several versions of The Stranger , plus what I consider to be the best from his "classic" period (Piano Man, Turnstiles, 52nd Street and Glass Houses)...... Turnstiles being my favorite of the bunch.

 

I have and like Greatest Hits volume 1 through 3.

 

I lived in the US for a couple of years in 1977/78 as a kid and "The Stranger" was all over the place -- specially "Just the Way You Are"

I always thought of Billy Joel not only as a supremely talented pop writer and performer but as being quintessentially American. So I was totally surprised when I started actively surfing the Internet some years ago, to find out that he had been so mistreated by contemporary critics in the US.

I think he is up there with the best writers of the American Songbook.

 

So, people aren't allowed to express their opinion of the artist in question? I didn't see a 'no negative views allowed' comment in the OP. Besides, I've not really seen anything that really derides Billy Joel in the thread (other than he was a meany to his old band). People are just saying the dislike his music. It's not like this is an 'appreciation thread' and people are coming in and thread crapping.

 

like the music itself, that's subjective opinion

 

What's a 'subjective opinion' in what I said? He was unkind to his band?

 

No - never been able to stand even a single Billy Joel song. The idea of a whole album of them, one right after the other, sounds like the definition of nightmare fuel.

 

you stated that folks just put opinions. i subjectively feel "hell no" to be derisive.

 

Okay, I gotcha. It was. You're correct on that one, but you have to consider the source. Never the less, point taken.

 

loathe billy joel

 

At least we know Mr. Suave has good musical taste. I saw Songs In The Key of Life tumble off the shelf.

 

All recorded music by Billy Joel. That means:
- All studio albums
- The following live albums: Songs In The Attic, KOHUEPT, The Millennium Concert: 2000 Years, 12 Gardens, Shea Stadium, Live At Yankee Stadium DVD, A Bridge To Russia Bluray
- The My Life box set
- Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2
I'm missing the Hassles and Attila stuff, as well as Fantasies & Delusions, except for what's on the My Life box set.

 

Uh oh, please don't tell anyone, but the album this track comes from is...'digitally recorded, mixed and mastered" That means, everyone on this forum will automatically call the album cold, sterille, and unenjoyable to listen to, even if it contains some of his most ambitious and most "Beatle-esque" songs, song that you'd think EVERYONE would enjoy.

 

nothing and I'm from the New York metro area...I don't like him as person.

 

I have two jobs and at one of them, the radio is tuned to a classic rock station. I am literally the definition of a captive listener. It's amazing how dull Classic Rock Radio has become.
This appears to be the formula: Billy Joel-Queen-The Eagles-Something ( anything, every track is in rotation) from the Boston debut album- "Free Fallin'"-Repeat....

 

That's a very good point. Elton's golden 1970's run was just about at an end in 1977 and Billy was right there.....

 

I like Billy Joel and have most of his albums.
The Stranger I have as an original (early) CD and MFSL.

 

Everything thru The Bridge, have I.

 

i used to sing stupid lyrics and turn them into joke songs. it kind of eases the pain.
the thing is though. even if i am sick of hearing something, it doesn't make it bad music, it's just bad radio programming.
the radio programming has been bad for decades. when i first got to the u.s. i listened to the radio for about two weeks. the first week i thought "cool they have a broader list than the aussie radio", but by the seventh day i knew it was just a different list. it's like they say to themselves. "there are fifty billion songs, but we are just going to play one hundred and twenty two"
i have stuff in my collection i may never listen to again, but who knows in another ten years i might think "oh, it's a while since i heard that" and i'll have beaten radio

 

My situation is not listed in the poll.

I used to like him, but don't anymore. I used to own a lot of his material, but it just got overplayed, and at some point I lost interest in him. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that his "retirement from pop music" in 1993 had something to do with that. As I still know that music like the back of my hand (even after 25 years), I don't see that changing (as far as my non-ownership of him). There are so many other things I am more interested in now.

I will never forget the conversation I had with a friend in 1993 (whom I am no longer in touch with). When I first heard the song "Famous Last Words", I was like "he's quitting". My friend responded with "no way". I guess I was right.

In those earlier days, I did see him in concert about half a dozen times (and about two or three of those were those US/UK shows with Elton John).

 

GH Vol. 1 and 2 is all I need.

His album filler just annoyed me. Can't put my finger on why. Maybe the words.

To quote Christgau's (wrong) summary of Tom Petty: his secret isn't that he's a natural singles artist--it's that he's too shallow to merit full concentration except when he gets it all right.

 

I have the 30th anniv. release with the live album and DVD.

 

Ah, sorry.... Just your first day on SHF.