After spending last week chronicling The New York Times‘ selections of the ’30 Greatest Living American Songwriters,’ this week I’m turning to my own list.
Unlike The Times, I have no obligation to represent multiple genres or recognize major historic figures. My list is entirely based on my tastes and habits, which are relatively narrow given the scope of American popular music over the past 50 years or so. And, yes, I know this list is extremely white. So am I. What can you do?
Just when I was dissing the Random iTunes Fairy for offering up a dreadful song yesterday, she bounces back with a sterling selection today.
‘Say Goodbye to Hollywood’ is the opening track of Billy Joel’s 1976 Turnstiles, his fourth album and the one released a year before he reached mega-stardom with The Stranger. This is one of my favorite Joel albums, even if several of its best songs sound even better on the 1981 live release Songs in the Attic.
My next candidate for the Billy Joel anthology series comes from his 1976 album Turnstiles, and — like ‘Roberta’ yesterday — it’s another lesser-known track with a title that’s somebody’s first name.
The James in this song is reportedly based on a friend of Joel’s named James Bosse, who played with him in a band when they were teenagers. In some interviews, Joel has denied that the song is about a specific person and suggested the name just sounded right with the melody.
Turnstiles is Billy Joel’s first truly great album. Featuring such classics as ‘New York State of Mind,’ ‘I’ve Loved These Days,’ ‘Summer, Highland Falls,’ ‘Say Goodbye to Hollywood’ and ‘Miami 2017’ (which I featured as a Song of the Day back in November), it’s practically a greatest hits collection.
This is Joel’s first New York album, to a degree that I never really appreciated until reading about it for this blog entry. All of the songs I mentioned above are either about New York or about leaving California behind.
Meet Me In Montauk 