Piano man (Billy Joel) (LP 2871 - 2878)

Billy Joel  Piano Man (Vinyl and CD, CBS Records, 1973) ****  

Billy Joel  Turnstiles (CD, CBS Records, 1976) ****  

Billy Joel  The Stranger (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1977) ****  

Billy Joel  52nd Street (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1978) *** 

Billy Joel  River of Dreams (CD, CBS Records, 1993) ***

Billy Joel  Songs in the Attic (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1981) **** 

Billy Joel  12 Gardens Live (CD, Sony, 1977) *****

Billy Joel  Live From Long Island (CD, Immortal, 2008) **** 

Genre: Pop, rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Shona Walding's collection, Hope collection, Graham Purdy collection, Kings Recording (12 Gardens Live), The Warehouse (Live from Long Island)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: You're My Home (Piano Man)

Gear costume: New York State of Mind (12 Gardens Live)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

Active compensatory factors: My Billy Joel collection is pretty spotty. Of the studio albums I have number 2 (Piano Man), numbers 4, 5, 6 (Turnstiles, The Stranger, 52nd Street), and 12 (River of Dreams). Then a couple of live albums, and two compilations.

I've bought a few, but most were either gifts to my mum (#5 and 6) or were gifted to me from other collections.

I think this reflects my uncertain approach to him. Some of his stuff is very soppy, some too bombastic and there are a few classics in the mix as well. Some of the soppy ones I like for various reasons, and I love the live versions of some of the bombastic ones as well.

Some are vinyl, some are CDs, some are even DVDs. Basically, I'm all over the shop.

Piano Man is an early peak for me. It's his usual mixture of styles but it all hangs together somehow. Travellin' Prayer is a brilliant opener and You're My Home is a song I never get sick of hearing. I loved listening to it in the Middle East when Jacky went home to NZ early for health reasons and missing her while listening to this CD helped.

Captain Jack, Piano Man and The Ballad of Billy The Kid are all career highlights. And they were on his second album!

The CD has a bonus disc of an earlier live gig (1972) but beware - the sound is weird on his voice. It's a speeded up, unsettling sound. Not good!

Turnstiles has three Joel classics of its own: Say Goodbye to Hollywood, New York State of Mind, and Miami 2017 (seen the lights go out on Broadway). The New York mentality unites the album, even though he swings through various styles of music again.

The Stranger was an album I bought for my mother, based on the fact she loved Just The Way You Are (I bought that single for her as well). I heard it a lot, so I guess she liked the record, but I suspect she liked it because I bought it for her, if you know what I mean.

The record certainly holds up. There is a toughness to the sound, thanks to using his touring band rather than session guys, and the songs are some of the best he's written.

I also got 52nd Street for her, but I didn't hear this one as much, so it's not as instantly recognisable as the songs on The Stranger. There were smash hits on it again - the guy can sure write catchy, hit singles. This one has another three: Big Shot, My Life and Honesty.

I lost track of him for the remainder of his career, although I did own Nylon Curtain for a while for Allentown and Goodnight Saigon. I sold it off at some stage, I think because the rest of the material didn't do it for me.

River of Dreams came to me from a donation. I've kept it, but I can't say it gets much airtime. I like the cover (by his then wife - Christie Brinkley) and the title song, but the rest is a bit ho-hum. It's his last studio rock album because it didn't do much at the time.

And so - on to the three live albums. I prefer Billy Joel in a live setting - for me that's where he is his true showman self, and where the songs come alive with the audience becoming like another instrument.

Songs in the Attic came out in 1981. It includes material from his studio albums up to that point - all performed by his 1980 band. There is plenty of muscle added to these songs.  

12 Gardens Live is even better! While Songs in the Attic was a collection from various concerts and wasn't meant to be a definitive live album (his words), 12 Gardens, although taken from his run of gigs at Madison Square Garden, is presented as a definitive concert.

Billy is in a passionate state of mind - as in he delivers these songs with gusto! Songs come from all over his career but mainly from his classic years rather than albums after An Innocent Age. It's a non-stop performance - not much stage chatter here, as on Songs in the Attic. The music is the thing.

Try The Downeaster 'Alexa' for size - he almost bursts out of the song - 'I am trolling Atlantis' indeed!! Or Matter of Trust - superior to the studio version in every way.

Final album on my list is Live from Long Island - recorded live in 1982 at Nassau Coliseum. It's good - a spirited performance again from 1982 with some key tracks not on 12 Gardens like The Stranger. He was touring behind The Nylon Curtain and those songs sound better live to me.

Where do they all belong? Apart from a couple of live DVDs - Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium, and two essential type compilations, that's it for Billy Joel. The compilations or 12 Gardens are probably the best place to start if you are new to his work. Each are chocked full of a surprising number of great songs.

I couldn't love you any better (Billy Joel) #181

Billy Joel Just The Way You Are/ Get It Right The First Time (CBS, BA 461796, 1977)

I bought this for my mum at the time because she loved the song when she heard it on the radio. It's easy on the ears, that's for sure.

Billy Joel had me right from Piano Man - the song and the album, but he was kind of a guilty pleasure by 1977. My mates didn't like him much, which is a factor when you're at an all boys school and the Stones rool. The sentimentality oozing from Just The Way You Are had by 1977 replaced the cutting edge of Captain Jack - which me and my mates loved from Billy's second album.

Truth be told - that Piano Man album had also contained the wonderful You're My Home which indicated early on that Billy could write superb melodies with affecting lyrics.

I bought the parent album The Stranger for my mother in 1977 as well. Both it and this single stayed in my father's possession until he passed away in 2009. Now I have them in mine - safe and sound.

Hidden gem: The B side shows Billy's rockier edge which by 1977 had become quite slick. Billy had earlier spat the dummy when radio stations prompted music biz types to edit Piano Man (The Entertainer's lyrics reveal his disappointment with the music industry - "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05") but Get It Right The First Time at 3.54 showed that he'd learned his lessons. He's got it right the second time as GIRTFT is pretty much a conformist rock song.