Artist Review

Billy Joel:
The Piano Man to some. An 80's cliche to others. To me, he was my musical mentor

So call me a dork. Call me a bit of a nerd. But Billy Joel, is possibly one of the biggest musical influences of my formative years. An odd looking fellow from the wrong side of the tracks who kept plugging away at a craft that eventually led him to become one of the worlds foremost songwriters.

But lets start from the beginning…

In the late 80’s, I had a High School teacher called Mr. Cooper. An English teacher that either ruled with an iron fist or a pat on the back. All dependant on how able you were to understand what he required of you as a person. (Yes, we’ve come a long way from the 80’s) I’ll admit that I wasn’t the only one who had difficulty sliding through a year 9 English period unscathed. That was until we had the lesson that very possibly affected me more in retrospect that I care to admit…although thats what I’m doing now. (Thank you grammar nerds)

The lesson in question involved Mr.Cooper asking all of us to bring in a song we loved so we could go through the lyrics and begin to better understand the song and furthermore the artist by understanding what they we’re writing the song about. Admittedly, I don’t recall having any clue as to which song I chose to bring in, but as an introduction to the exercise, good ol’ Coops began proceedings with a song of his own. The song? Billy Joel’s ‘Goodnight Saigon’.

If you don’t know the song, I’m not going to hold it against you. It wasn’t exactly a regular feature on Casey Kasem’s Sunday night American Top 40 but for Billy Joel diehards, I discovered that it represents more than just an album filler. Off one of my favourite Billy albums ‘The Nylon Curtain’, it is a seven minute tribute to the shitty post war treatment of Vietnam Vets.

As a mid teen, it wasn’t like I had first hand knowledge of anything like this, but what it did do was spark a flame. A flame that burns stronger today than at any other stage of my life…and its growing.There was something about that lesson and subsequently the continual play rewind feature of my Panasonic RX-C36 that had me entranced. I didn’t realise it at the time, but essentially I became enamoured with Billy Joel the songwriter more than the singer or musician. To this day, I still believe he is one of the best musical poets we’ve seen.

My Panasonic RX-C36 ~ circa 1986
Sure, he’s not pushing boundaries like Pink Floyd or Bob Dylan. And he’s definitely not breaking musical ground like The Beatles or The Mothers of Invention. But what he was, was right in the slot of early 80’s pop music. I think that he often gets put into the same bucket as Elton John from a sensory aspect, meaning his temperament and variation of his songs range from the heartfelt ballad to the straight up catchy pop song that sticks in your head like an annoying neighbour that you only miss once they’ve stopped whining at you.
I shouldn’t say whining because personally I love the way he whines on. I think its really poetic and could listen to it all day long. I’d be the neighbour to take a bottle of Pinot Grigio over to the annoying neighbour just to hear them keep on about whatever the fuck is getting their goat that particular day. Stumble home tanked as a mullet and reflect fondly on how wonderful those afternoons were. (I’m a sucker for a great story spouted by someone who knows how to tell it)
So, for those Billy fans out there, if you remember in the late 80’s he released his 11th studio album ‘Storm Front’ and after trying to find some music with soul (it was the 80’s), I’d found my musical muse….shaped as a middle aged man from Long Island. I’m so not kidding here. I kinda fell into all his back catalogue and quite quickly had every album he’d produced on cassette which in turn I played the bejesus out of. Knew every lyric, every click, every whistle.
Somewhere I knew that it wasn’t exactly the coolest music to follow. I remember never really telling anyone aside from Mr.Cooper who in turn seemed to change his ‘Mykel Outlook’ dramatically to become a more pat on the back kind of relationship. I did however have a small army of two  parents who were understanding of my new found musical love and proceeded to buy me tickets for me and my best friend to see Billy at Rod Laver for the Storm Front tour.
Totes pumped, I rocked up only to find out I was sitting behind the stage!?!?! WTF Mum? “Its all we could get sweetheart…” Head hung low, the concert began and we made the best of it. Surprisingly, we could see a great deal of what was going on. In fact, we were so close we probably had a better view than 80% of the arena and in true Billy form, 3/4 through the show, the piano that had been parked centre stage drops into the floor and pops up at the back of the stage about five meters from where I was sitting! “Holy shit Mum, this is awesome!!!”
As soon as the 1993 album ‘River of Dreams’ came out, I was back in there booking tickets in the first row behind the stage hoping I could get a little closer to my musical hero. Without trying to pump up how excited I was, I’m sure you you can imagine how borderline hysterical I was (total fanboy) when half way through the concert, the piano drops again and pops up in the same place and in the midst of Goodnight Saigon’s chorus of  ‘…And we would all go down together…’, Billy reaches over the one metre gap between our front row seats and back of the stage with his microphone stand and lets a handful of us avid Billy Joel-ers sing the chorus into his microphone.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
It was such a turning point for a young man trying to find rhyme and reason with a world that was slowly becoming more disposable with each Morris Minor and the Majors track that was being released. At this point, I wasn’t really concerned with how popular my music choices were. Somewhere within these years in my bedroom with my trusty RX-C36, I think I cemented a love for storytellers. If I’m really honest, my favourite artists in any field are those who have really unique points of view partnered with the courage to tell them in their own way.
I saw Billy one more time when he toured with Elton John in 1998. It was OK…I really enjoyed the company of a best friend who’s birthday it was but being so far away from the artists takes a real shine off the intimacy I was used to when it comes to anything Billy Joel.
With over a dozen studio albums and an intimate knowledge of pretty much every one of them, I will say that its hard to determine an album that I would say is my favourite. I have nearly every album he has on vinyl now that I’m older, but there is one that I own that comes from my parents collection. In fact, its even got a bullshit white catalogue sticker on it that our dear parents used in an effort to have some sort of semblance with no concept of how to handle a collection of music without ruining it with something from the stationery store. But, I think its that sticker that pulls on my heart strings and reminds me of how they would play this album like we would play Radiohead, Jay-Z or Metallica.

The 1978 album ’52nd Street’ seems to be in every bargain bin, but there is something understated about it compared to his later albums like ‘Innocent Man’ & ‘The Bridge’. Its like it was the last vestige before a more commercial side of him took over. There is an offbeat jazz feel about this album that musically holds more water for me than most his others. Don’t get me wrong, I reckon I could name three to four songs off every album that I would put in my Billy Joel favourites playlist (yes, I actually have one of these), but tracks like ‘Zanzibar’ and ‘Stiletto’ warm my heart because they aren’t very popular and yet they are beautiful tracks that I know inside and out. Just personal preference I think.

I have a couple of wonderful friends who remind me how good ‘The Stranger’ is every time I visit them for dinner by playing it super loud on their vinyl whilst drinking red wine next to a fire place. What I now know is the most appropriate place to enjoy his music.

Look, I’ve grown up knowing that Billy Joel isn’t the coolest person to idolise. Especially when all your friends are into Mötley Crüe, Madonna or Bon Jovi, but I will tell you something. To this day I think he is a talisman not only for the working class New York region, but for anyone who understands that quality always trumps quantity. If this energetic man who ~ lets be honest, never really fit the cookie cutter superstar mould ~ can impact the music industry so thoroughly, then maybe there is hope for all of the rest of us who never quite fit.

I think that this is his most endearing quality. He’s an everyman. After years of contemplating it, I think that this is what really drew me to him the most. On top of it all, somehow he married Christie Brinkley! I swear my 15 year old self was saying “…..huh?”. But there you have it. Looks are only wrapping. His wrapping was unconventional, but the contents were gold.

So to this day I always tell my kids that if you’re into some kind of music, stick with it. Anything that stirs the inner part of you is worth exploring…no matter how much of a dork you feel like because believe me, there are ALWAYS other dorks out there who feel the same. You just gotta find them.

I wish I could sign off with some awesome Billy lyrics, but there are so many that I’ll just leave you with this. If you need something new to inspire you, spend some quality tie with our old time friend Mr Joel. If you’re not put off by the idea of him (which I know some people are), find a quiet Saturday afternoon and chuck an album on. Then really listen to it. Its like an old friend who you haven’t thought about in years turning up on your doorstep to help you remember how good it felt to hear their voice.

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American Artists Ballads Pop