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Billy Joel
The Stranger
[30th Anniversary Legacy Edition]
(Columbia/Legacy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, July 2008, Volume 15, #7
Written by John Metzger
Tue July 15, 2008, 06:30 AM CDT
It isn’t easy to take an album that once was wildly popular and provide a
fresh framework for appreciating it. This is especially true with a song cycle
such as Billy Joel’s The Stranger, which not only is well entrenched
within in the public’s consciousness but also is tied quite closely to a
specific era. There is no doubt that, over the course of the preceding years,
Joel had penned quite a few terrific tunes. Too often, though, the albums on
which they appeared were marred by poor production choices. On Cold Spring
Harbor, for example, his vocals were mastered at the wrong speed, while Streetlife Serenade and, to a lesser degree, Turnstiles felt rushed
to fruition. Piano Man had become a radio hit, even if it wasn’t a
big-selling endeavor, but until he completed The Stranger, he had failed
to capitalize on the growth and maturity he had shown as a songwriter.
Songs in the Attic, Joel’s perfectly timed concert set from 1981,
provided the antidote to the overwhelming commercial success that greeted him
after the release of The Stranger. In reworking a series of overlooked
gems from his back catalogue, it made the case that Joel was in his prime as a
songwriter long before anyone really recognized it. Yet, it also inadvertently
puffed up the significance of his early endeavors by making them feel better
constructed than they actually were.
In an unusual twist, especially for such a significant overhaul of what is
now a neglected artifact, The Stranger: Legacy Edition returns
perspective to what arguably is Joel’s most finely honed studio set. Better
still, it accomplishes its goal not by revising or overemphasizing the history
of the outing’s genesis, but rather by laying out the facts as they occurred.
The package includes a stellar slate of material that was culled from a concert
that Joel had performed at Carnegie Hall three months prior to the release of
The Stranger. It also features the entirety of his promotional appearance on
Britain’s Old Grey Whistle Test from the following year. Although there
is some redundancy between the two shows and Songs in the Attic, the
audio and video footage clearly illustrates that Joel was destined for bigger
things. He just needed the right person to assist him on his journey.
A diehard Beatles fan, Joel likely had a difficult time rejecting George
Martin’s offer to produce The Stranger, but his decision to work with
Phil Ramone may have been the smartest move he ever made. The reason for his
choice, which is told and retold in the liner notes and interviews that also
accompany the latest installment of the Legacy Edition series, was
because Martin wanted to employ session musicians on the set, while Ramone
planned to have Joel utilize his touring band. Joel had tried the former
approach on each of his previous endeavors, but not surprisingly, he never felt
as comfortable with the hired hands as he did with his regular collaborators.
In hindsight, it’s clear that Ramone understood Joel better than anyone ever
has. He knew how to guide Joel’s artistic vision as well as how to glean a
commercially successful album from him. From the Beatle-esque guitars that chime
through Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) to the Abbey Road-inspired
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, and from the blazing, Little
Richard-meets-Paul McCartney insistence of Only the Good Die Young to the
echoes of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band that infiltrate nearly all of
the interplay between Joel and his outfit, there’s little to The Stranger
that the Long Island-born songwriter hadn’t attempted at some point in his past.
At the same time, though, Ramone found ways of illuminating and amplifying
Joel’s range as well as the set’s thematic flow, while simultaneously remaining
sympathetic to the pianist’s persona as a performer.
The Stranger is, both musically and lyrically, an evocation of the time
frame in which it was created. At first, it seems as if the electric piano-laden
hit Just the Way You Are is meant to provide comfort in the wake of the
disorienting, R&B-inflected shimmer of the outing’s title track. The lyrics to
the former tune, however, tell a different tale. In effect, the love-struck
optimism of You’re My Home (from Piano Man) had mutated over the
course of the 1970s to become the disillusioned petitioning of someone who was
trying to hold a relationship together.
Time and again throughout The Stranger, Joel touches upon themes of
alienation and disconnection: Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) expresses a
need to escape; Scenes from an Italian Restaurant fondly recalls the
early stages of a relationship that since has collapsed; and She’s Always a
Woman hides pain beneath the knotty sentiments of anger and affection. Yet,
the outing also provides a glimmer of hope via the gentle prodding of Get It
Right the First Time and the Ray Charles-imbued, gospel-soul hymn
Everybody Has a Dream.
The Stranger is, then, a personal but universal reflection upon life,
love, and survival in an era where ego and excess collided with gas shortages,
unemployment, and rampant inflation. Exiting with the pensive, solitary echo of
the title track’s whistled refrain, The Stranger offers no answers, but
it does provide companionship to the disenchanted, heartbroken souls whose
relationships and livelihoods had come to a crashing conclusion. 
Other Legacy Edition Collections
Bobby Bare - Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies
Carole King - Tapestry
Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
The Stranger: 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition [Deluxe] is
available from Amazon. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
The Stranger: 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition [Standard] is
available from Amazon. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box
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