BILLY JOEL'S THE STRANGER TURNS 30
Most record company reissues are unnecessary cash-grabs, designed to appeal to super-fans that will buy anything with their favorite artist's name on the cover -- even if they already own every song that the label has ham-fistedly "restored," "remastered," or "rejiggered" for re-release.
The new thirtieth anniversary double-CD/double-DVD of Billy Joel's landmark LP The Stranger -- due out July 8 on Columbia Records -- may be no different in the money-grubbing department, but it is not unnecessary.
To put it charitably, Joel has had a spotty career post-The Stranger. I mean, the guy made "We Didn't Start The Fire," and no one besides your parents liked it when it came out. Even "Uptown Girls" was a warning sign of shaky things to come.
But The Stranger was pre-eighties, pre-Christie Brinkley, waaaaaaay pre-drunk driving, youngster-dating, post-2000 Joel.
It was recorded seven years into a long and difficult climb up the music industry ladder. Joel lived (and died) with his music in those lean years, determined to be successful, and so serious about his art that he once attempted suicide by drinking furniture polish. Why? Because an early record of his had been mastered at the wrong speed.
I know. Total Van Gogh territory. Like I said, this was pre-Uptown Girls.
But Joel would score big -- critically, commercially, artistically -- with The Stranger. It would collect Grammys for record of the year AND song of the year ("Just The Way You Are"). And the title track remains perhaps Joel's most enduring work, if less famous than some of his other mega-hits.
Which brings us back to the thirtieth anniversary reissue of The Stranger. Many people who think they hate Billy Joel (this blogger included) were weaned on his vapid eighties output, and forget the undeniable singing-songwriting mastery of his 1978 high-water mark. Thus, this reissue is a fantastic idea and will complicate Joel for many dismissive music fans who just don't get him. Rediscovering poofy-haired, late-seventies, quasi-funky Joel may feel to some like making a new friend in a stranger.
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Holworks says
So there it is the Stranger mapped out thirty years after and still some of the songs remain viable and undated. I believe I have achieved that as well except it may not ever be heard except in a poor version on Music Nation. Just When I Thought, . . .http://musicnation.com/music/holworks/just-when-i-thought
The Altruistic Messiah ~ Ben Vandagriff ~ The CEO of Rock & Roll ! says
If I ever see a woman younger than me crying along to 'Piano Man' in the local piano bar ~ I'm drinking the furniture polish ~ chilled & up !Of all my worst nightmares ~ I know this day is coming !!!!!