Billy Joel - Rarities and Slept-On Gems

I've never understood the cultural bashing Billy Joel gets. Yes, his best known songs are big pop hits that get played on soft-rock radio and will continue to get played until the end of time, but those are his biggest hits as opposed to his catalog. His songwriting chops are generally undervalued by the uninformed, with the assumption being that he wrote a hundred Just The Way You Are or Uptown Girl knockoffs.

In reality, Billy Joel is closer to the American Elvis Costello. Throughout his career he's written music in whatever genres he's chosen with no concern for popular taste, and he's never made himself out to be anything more than he is. That's to say, he grew up in a rough part of New York, played piano as a child, had to learn not to take shit from anyone and comes off hard because that's how he grew up. Why is it hard to imagine the guy who grew up a little rough might have deeper feelings than "kick some ass!", but even more so, why can't people accept that the guy who wrote tons of lovely songs like Piano Man and Just The Way You Are can rock? If Elvis Costello can write great tunes like Alison or Everyday I Write The Book alongside more rocking fare like Pump It Up and Watching The Detectives and be accepted as his eclectic self, why the hell can't Billy Joel be accepted the same?

Whatever the reason for Billy's lack of acceptance as legitimately cool, he probably doesn't care because he knows he has his fans, and hipsters are, were and will continue to be fickle. His live shows are immensely entertaining events where he talks with the crown regularly, sharing stories of his life and taking songs that were more catchy than rocking, like You May Be Right, and making them rock hard enough to get everyone in an arena on their feet and dancing. SERIOUSLY. Everyone can stare at Radiohead in awe and be entertained, but can you say you really had a fun time there?

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a big fan of Billy Joel, and I'm defensive of him because I've heard far too many people write him off as a powder-puff pop artist. I'm not defending everything he's recorded, as his later albums like Storm Front and River Of Dreams, while good pop records, don't hold a candle to his earlier output, although they have their moments like the hauntingly sad and beautiful And So It Goes or the enchanting Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel).

For me, Billy's late seventies and early eighties output stands as his best output, at least in album length. 1980's Glass Houses, for instance, is generally regarded as Billy's attempt to rock, but the songs are all excellent and he and his band sound energetic and inspired. It's "punk" in the way The Police were punk, which is to say they may not have had the punk songs or appearance but they were firm in their beliefs and didn't give a damn what anyone thought, and that's what punk is really about. There is also 1982's The Nylon Curtain, best known for Allentown, but the rest of the album sounds like a love letter to Lennon and McCartney, especially on Laura, a song about a love/hate relationship but actually about Billy's mother. And if you're going to listen to Billy at any length you have to hear Songs In The Attic, a live compilation of Billy and his 1980 touring band consisting entirely of songs from before his breakthrough album, The Stranger, given the full-band treatment and rocking way harder than most would ever expect.

Those three albums really stand out for me but it's worth noting that his other really well-known albums, The Stranger, 52nd Street and the fifties throwback An Innocent Man, are all wonderful, and his earlier releases like Turnstiles, Streetlife Serenade and Piano Man, while not nearly as consistent, have lots of wonderful moments throughout.

For the moment in our modern musical world, with lots of great music from the seventies and eighties being given a renewed respect, Billy still gets the odd stigma of being treated like a one-trick-pony, which is ridiculous. It's really odd to see so-called "yacht rock" getting treated like a hidden treasure while Billy, with his truly wonderful songwriting chops, gets ignored, so I wanted to take a minute and post some of his rarer cuts and a few slept-on favorites most people may not have heard. So, I hope you enjoy these cuts and you should grab Glass Houses and Songs In The Attic next time you're in a used record shop. You shouldn't have to pay much more than five dollars for a used copy of either and you'll find they have really stood the test of time.


Billy Joel - Rarities and Slept-On Gems

01 Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) (Live)
This version is from Songs In The Attic. The original version appears on Turnstiles.

02 Sometimes A Fantasy (Extended Version)
This song is taken from Glass Houses, although this slightly longer version that doesn't fade out was released as the single.

03 Laura
From The Nylon Curtain.

04 You Got Me Hummin' (Live)
A cover of a Sam & Dave song written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Billy originally recorded this with one of his early bands, The Hassles. This version was recorded in the early eighties with his touring band and appeared as a B-Side for the Tell Her About It 12" single.

05 Stop In Nevada (Live)
A legitimately unreleased song for which I don't have the date of performance. Really good song!

06 Zanzibar (Unfaded Version)
The standard version of Zanzibar appears on 52nd Street, whereas this unfaded version of the take used for the album appears on Billy's My Lives compilation. My Lives is a four CD, one DVD retrospective box set. It features a ton of demos and unreleased recordings, but also has a lot of album tracks which seem to be randomly placed throughout. It's a strange compilation but it's worth it for the demos and unreleased stuff.

07 So Long, Reverend Ike
This is from the iTunes version of My Lives and cannot be purchased without buying the whole box via iTunes. That's ridiculous so I'm sharing it with you. Also, this song, or at least this recording, is unfinished, so don't worry, I'm not short changing you, this is all we've got. Good tune with some rather poetic, biting lyrics.

08 Angry Young Man (Live)
This used to open Billy's shows, and it's got a heluva roar to it. This version is taken from a DVD called Downtown Toys of Billy at Wembley in 1984.

09 Streetlife Serenader (Live)
This version is from Songs In The Attic while the original version is from Streetlife Serenade. Like everything on Songs In The Attic, this blows the original studio version out of the water!

10 Tell Her About It (Remix)
From the 12" for Tell Her About It, this remix was created by John "Jellybean" Benitez. Quite the unexpected bit of name dropping!

11 Captain Jack (Live)
The original version is from Piano Man, but this is, again, from Songs In The Attic. Beautiful, roaring performance!

12 And So It Goes (Demo)
This was written around 1983 about the end of Billy's relationship with the then nineteen year old Elle Macpherson. DAMN! How about them apples? Anyway, he knew the relationship would never last and wrote this beautiful song about it. It was eventually released as the final song on Storm Front and has since been covered a number of times. Beautiful song.

13 2008 Rock Hall Induction Speech For John Mellencamp
In case you've never heard Billy tell a story, this is for you. Billy is wonderfully eloquent and entertaining, and this is a nice example of his flow. Pardon the occasional drop-outs, they're from Billy being censored by VH1.


By the way, if we're discussing Billy's coolness or, in some people's eyes, lack thereof, remember how hot Christie Brinkley was in the eighties. How cool is that?