Billy Joel

Stav desky: NM
- jako nová, téměř nehraná

Pozn.: znaménko + nebo - upřesňuje stav desky, obalu

OBAL A DESKA PERFEKTNI STAV

A1  Travelin' Prayer  4:10
A2  Piano Man  5:37
A3  Ain't No Crime  3:20
A4  You're My Home  3:14
A5  The Ballad Of Billy The Kid
    Arranged By – Jimmie Haskell  5:35

B1  Worse Comes To Worst  3:28
B2  Stop In Nevada  3:40
B3  If I Only Had The Words (To Tell You)  3:35
B4  Somewhere Along The Line  3:17
B5  Captain Jack
    Drums – Rhys Clark 6:55
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    Arranged By, Accordion – Michael Omartian
    Banjo – Eric Weissberg, Fred Heilbrun
    Bass – Emory Gordy, Wilton Felder
    Design – Beverly Parker (2)
    Drums – Ron Tutt
    Engineer [Par Excellence] – Roy Malo
    Fiddle – Billy Armstrong
    Guitar – Dean Parks, Larry Carlton, Richard Bennet
    Illustration – Bill Imhoff
    Keyboards – Billy Joel
    Performer, Written-By – Billy Joel
    Producer – Michael Stewart
    Vocals – Creamers, The (3), Susan Steward & Co
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In my opinion, "Captain Jack" is the best song Billy has ever written: a cathartic, bluntly honest examination of a life that has petered out, and no longer seems to be worth living. Billy's singing style, somehow reminiscent of a little chimney sweep from the 1800s, errs just the right side of lugubrious; the meandering, passing-the-daylight hours melody of the verses swelling into the glorious, evenintime-Captain-Jack-session abandonment of the chorus. There's no overt humor in the lyrics, but each verse is so relentlessly hopeless that the song can be funny; when Billy sings "now you've got everything, ah, but nothing's cool," it's clear he's getting a little sarcastic towards the blatant privilege "enjoyed" by his subject, but overall the lyrics are too true-to-my-life to make this unsympathetic or purely satirical. Uplifting, like assessing all the facets of your existence as pessimistically as possible while lying in bed, just so you can stop worrying you might think some dreadful thought or other.
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I have yet to hear anyone justify their distaste(s) of Billy Joel beyond asserting that he is "too poppy" or "over-played." In my book, these are both invalid excuses for refusing to acknowledge true genius. Maybe people are just pissed off that he did it the easy way. He did nothing all that innovative, necessarily; his music was indeed straight pop-rock, following patterns engineered by his New York forefathers at the Brill Building, but his voice, lyrics, and certainly his piano-playing turned out to be the perfect recipe for superstardom. Now I'll gladly be the first to admit that many more-talented performers have never achieved a fraction of the fame and wealth that Billy Joel has. He has made millions and millions writing pop songs (yes, some more twee than others) while some folks who have pioneered entire genres and influenced legions have died in the gutters. And there's another perfect recipe--for bitterness (among music elitists, particularly).

I consider myself lucky to have come to love Billy Joel at a very young age. I feel that I would despise him as much as everybody else seems to had I not begun listening to him when I did, before maturity. Now, his works have the nostalgia factor working in their advantage. But there's still more to it than that. I used the word genius earlier, and I wasn't employing hyperbole. Billy Joel is a genius. I don't care what anybody says about the song or the performer; the line in "Piano Man" about the waitress and the businessman is one of the greatest lines in rock history. Springsteen would have killed for a line like that! "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" is one of the most impressive arrangements I have ever heard. It turns every cheesy western movie music cliche into a badass rock 'n' roll ballad. And come on, "Travelin' Prayer"? How does a kid from Jersey write something as country as that? Banjo? Fiddle? What is this? You may call it faux-country, but as far as I'm concerned, Dolly Parton covered it... it's country; even borders on bluegrass. And that piano solo in there is one of Billy's best. "Ain't No Crime" is the best early Elton John song Billy ever did! "You're My Home" is Billy's take on an Americana/romance tune. It employs the same chord progression as John Stewart's "July, You're a Woman," which I doubt Billy has even ever heard, but still, deserves mention. It's a little schmaltzy, but I have to admit I still dig it. The steel guitar is a nice touch. Same goes for "Stop in Nevada," the best song on the album that nobody's ever heard. The chorus is one of the best vocal progressions I've heard, and definitely among Billy's finest. I love the line, "With some money in her pocket, she's a rocket on the fourth of July." "If I Only Had the Words" is a ball of sap as you might've guessed by the title, but the respectable "Somewhere Along the Line" gives way to the home run track, "Captain Jack," closing the album rather nicely.

Hatas gonna hate, as they say these days. As for me, I'll take this over a lot of the pretentious bullshit on rym's top 100 any day.
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"Well you're 21 and you're mom still makes your bed"

Every time I think music is losing its novelty, something like this pulls me back in.  The pure vulnerability of this album combined with such high quality 70s production is truly a blessed aesthetic experience.  Every track tells a story, brings you into Joel's center of gravity and not a second of space is not contemplated nor is a single melody not living up to its full potential.  Joel has this way of communicating such solemn themes in a light-hearted, free and fun manner that enraptures the listener.  You are sitting there, hanging on his every word.  His voice is an encouraging friend peer pressuring you into gliding along with every choral high, and yet, his grounded personality holds your hand on the come down -- the verses.  You want to listen and you want to hear more.

I used to think that Classic Rock -- it's as if I was out of mind thinking that I could really relate to it.  What's so great about my life that warrants such a massive backdrop?  Then I realized, that there's no way that this music is meant solely for those who have a lifestyle that affords such grandiose orchestration.  This is meant for those solitary walks of purposeless, for those times when you are in a relationship that isn't anything particularly mind-blowing -- but it's your own and that's where your life is.

Do not feel like these songs cannot personify every action you take just because they are so well-crafted.  In comparison, your life may feel inadequate -- break down that node of thought.  Joel is trying to elevate you from this place and take you into a world where you and the music are not just on an equal level.  It's a world where you both see eye-to-eye and your ability to listen is just as important as the stories and the songs being sung.  Through risking coming across as awkward, Billy Joel's "Piano Man" levels with the audience.  The cover art is the proof.  That man, those tired, longing eyes are where these songs came from.  We are all that man, getting tired from the once profound novelties of day-to-day life and these songs are our soundtrack, our backdrop, aging with our lives and allowing us to understand both the music and ourselves with greater and greater complexity. 

I am thankful to live in the era I do when there is no reason not to listen to any style of music, because my biases may have prevented me from this very moving listen had I grown up in another era.  Perhaps in another time, I may have allowed the trends of the present to overshadow the substance of past culture.  Thankfully, that has not happened.
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One of Billy Joel's best and underrated albums...Everyone knows Piano Man (quality song, even if it is a limerick written over a waltz) and anyone who is at all a Billy Joel fan knows the story of Captain Jack and how that song got him onto Columbia Records...However there are a lot of other gems on the album that people unfortunately do not know...

Traveling Prayer is one of Billy's best songs...while the lyrics are not the greatest, slightly cliched like a lot of his lyrics may be the piano on that track is electric....especially during the minute and a half instrumental section.

Somewhere Along the Line actually has some very good lyrics and the Piano/drum interplay at the end of the song is excellent.

Ballad of Billy The Kid while being completely inaccurate historically is another example of what makes Billy Joel who he is...He is a master songwriter when it comes to melody and this song is a perfect example of that...This is one of the songs, along with Captain Jack, that makes me wonder what Rock and Roll critics are listening to when they give Billy Joel bad reviews....To me it takes a really cynical person to listen to Captain Jack and Billy the Kid and not get lost in the music itself...
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An unfortunate case of death by radio play. This album was a real stunner when it was first released. Used to listen to it on FM radio but couldn't buy it because of drug references
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This is an extremely well crafted album,
amazing Billy was only twenty four at the
time. It includes Billy's breakthrough song
_Captain Jack_ and his signature tune Piano
Man. This is a must for every Billy Joel
fan.