Day 175: Billy Joel – The Stranger
How am I a music fan with only a passing knowledge about the discography of Billy Joel? I don’t know, but I do my best. I obviously know your usual Piano Mans and Viennas, but I can say with 100% certainty I’ve never listened to a whole album. I decided to go for The Strangers, widely regarded to be his best, at least according to one Rolling Stone reader poll.
Album cover courtesy of Columbia Records
Billy Joel was born in the Bronx and grew up in the suburbs in Long Island. He played at piano bars when he was at school, but he dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music full-time. He joined a group called the Echoes when he was 16 and later left the band to join another called the Hassles, then starting a metal band called Attila, but none of them reached particularly high levels of commercial success. When he was young, he was also an amateur boxer, and you can see a nod to that on today’s album cover.
He began his solo career with his 1971 debut Cold Spring Harbour, but it ended up being a commercial failure. Contract disputes and the poor success of the album led to him moving to Los Angeles to play at piano bars again, but this time under a pseudonym. His song “Captain Jack” ended up becoming a bit of a sleeper hit through being played on a radio station in Philadelphia, so Columbia Records offered him a new record deal.
The Stranger was Billy Joel’s fifth LP. It was released in September 1977 and it was the first of his albums to be produced by Phil Ramone. It was his first critical and commercial success that turned Billy Joel into a household name, spending six weeks at number 2 on the Billboard chart.
This was another album where I thought I knew a few songs but I ended up knowing most of them, barring a few here and there, but you don’t need to be a big music fan to know songs like “Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)” or “Just the Way You Are”– they’re modern soft rock classics. The writing on the album is where he really shines, as he makes these little snapshots into people’s lives that do tug very effectively at the heartstrings. I was listening to it while out and about and had to turn down “Vienna” so I wouldn’t tear up in an IKEA parking lot.
One thing I have to say is that “Just the Way You Are” is a beautiful song and I love the writing, but I’ve never really paid any mind to how big of a roast it is for him to say “I don't want clever conversation” and then follow it up with “I just want someone that I can talk to / I want you just the way you are,” an emotional way to say “you’re a bit of a thicko, but don’t worry about it.” Nevertheless, gorgeous song. It reminds me a bit of Stevie Wonder at times.
That’s not the obvious comparison, though. When it comes tosoft rock by American men who grew up in the suburbs and made music about life from the point of view of a working class person, I kind of feel like Billy Joel is the cleaner-cut cousin of Bruce Springsteen. It’s not like they’re hard to tell apart, but vibes-wise, they are similar artists, except Springsteen has a little more grit.
My favourite fact that I found out about this album is that “Only the Good Die Young” wasn’t selling well, but then it got banned by the Catholic Church because it contained (to them) a very saucy remark about premarital sex:
Come out, Virginia, don't let me wait
You Catholic girls start much too late
Aw, but sooner or later it comes down to fate
I might as well will be the one
As a result, it started selling as the youths ran out to buy it to hear the Forbidden Song. Billy Joel wrote to the archdiocese of St. Louis telling him to feel free to ban his upcoming single, too.
Soft rock isn’t my usual thing, but this is such an universally appealing album that it just does not matter one bit. It’s lyrically gorgeous, well produced and immediately recognisable, with many of the songs being modern classics. I have no hot takes here, aside from finding “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” to be a bit too much on the cheesier side for my liking. The album is still easily a 9/10.