My next candidate for an episode of the upcoming Billy Joel anthology series is ‘Roberta,’ a track from Joel’s 1974 album Streetlife Serenade.
I like this one because it’s one of Joel’s lesser-known songs but still a great one. I suspect that many casual Billy Joel fans have never dived too deeply into his earlier catalog and a series like this should give them that opportunity.
Joel’s third album, Streetlife Serenade, is for me his least memorable. The only two songs I really know from it — ‘Los Angelenos’ and ‘Streetlife Serenader’ — were featured on the excellent live album Songs in the Attic and those versions top the ones found on this LP.
The rest of the album is forgettable. And I mean that literally… scanning the titles — ‘The Great Suburban Showdown,’ ‘Last of the Big Time Spenders,’ Weekend Song’ — I have absolutely no idea what they sound like. Perhaps they are lost gems, but I tend to believe this album is an early valley in a career of many peaks.
Meet Me In Montauk 