Glass Houses, at the time, was a real kick in the ass for Billy Joel fans. The jazz touches and piano balladry of his earlier work was pushed aside for straight-up rock-n-roll. If there’s any piano on this album at all, it’s buried under layers of electric guitar, synths and heavy drums.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t Led Zeppelin. By any measure, Glass Houses is pretty mild… but from the man known for ‘Piano Man’ and ‘Just the Way You Are,’ ‘Sometimes a Fantasy’ was downright dangerous.
Billy Joel followed up The Stranger with an album just as strong if not as iconic, 52nd Street. This jazzy collection boasts such hits as ‘Big Shot,’ ‘Honesty’ and ‘My Life’ but it’s the other, lesser-known tracks that make it one of Joel’s finest efforts. ‘Zanzibar,’ ‘Stiletto,’ ‘Rosalinda’s Eyes,’ ‘Half a Mile Away,’ ‘Until the Night’ and the title track, which (in order) finish off the album after the first three hit tracks, are among the best songs Joel has ever written.
My personal favorite is today’s track, ‘Stiletto,’ and for one primary reason: the piano-bass interlude that starts at 2:08 and launches into that unreal horn part at 2:27 before easing back into the staccato piano and drum bit that precedes the next verse. That’s just quality stuff.
Seeing the old Diana Ross makes me regret the caricature she became, but she’s got nothing on her pal Michael Jackson in that regard. Jackson has lived as a circus freak for so long now that it’s hard to remember the days when he was the biggest star in the world. And it’s even harder to see an early Jackson 5 clip like this one without feeling sad about what would happen to this adorable, mega-talented little boy.
[Note: The Billy Joel theme will resume on Monday]
I love watching these old clips, the music videos of their time. They usually feature a very polite, seated audience watching the expertly choreographed performance of three or four splendidly dressed artists who smile big innocent smiles while lip-syncing their hit songs.
In the words of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, “This is it. This is the one they’ll remember me for.” Of course he was talking about a porn film, but I imagine Billy Joel feels the same way about his 1977 classic The Stranger.
The album contains only nine songs but just about every one is a classic. The first seven are undeniably so: ‘Movin’ Out,’ ‘The Stranger,’ ‘Just the Way You Are,’ ‘Scenes From and Italian Restaurant,’ Vienna,’ ‘Only the Good Die Young’ and ‘She’s Always a Woman.’ But the less ubiquitous final two tracks — ‘Get it Right the First Time’ and ‘Everybody Has a Dream’ — are just as strong.
