Friday Night Videos

Billy Joel has released his first new song in more than a decade with "Turn the Lights Back On." I like it a lot. Now, as an unapologetic Billy Joel fan who's seen him live twice, I'm not particularly objective here. It's not the best thing he's ever recorded, but it's a thoughtful, well-crafted piece with an elegiac theme that is as self-aware as "Famous Last Words," which closed out the last album he released more than 30 years ago now. Musically (if not themeatically) the new song would feel right at home on his later albums, "Stormfront," "The Bridge" or "River of Dreams." It really does sound like classic late-period Joel, in more ways than one. I was particularly struck by how his voice hasn't audibly aged like some other singers I dearly love who are getting up there in years. That is remarkable. I just hope this leads to a new album, because it's been too long.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Kitty Wells.

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Friday Night Videos

The wet weather we've had this week has put me in the mood for Billy Joel's "Downeaster 'Alexa'" off the Stormfront album. I saw him perform it live in Houston during the River of Dreams tour a few years later, and it impressed me how he tied the plight of the New England fisheries to that of the Gulf Coast shrimpers, who were going through a rough patch at the time (not as rough as what followed the Deep Horizon oil spill, but still). I know it's not much, but it always impresses me when performers take the time to absorb some of the local issues when they visit, something a little more substantive than "Hello Houston! You rock!" In any event, enjoy the rain, and enjoy the 1970s-style narrative approach taken in the song.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Meredith Brooks.

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Friday Night Videos

I've seen Billy Joel perform live a couple of times, but never seen him play Root Beer Rag live. Which is a shame, because I've liked this goofy instrumental from the moment I first heard it. Billy's dismissed it in the past as filler and fluff, characterizing it as something one might hear as the soundtrack to a Keystone Cops film. Maybe so, but it's still a nifty piece of piano work, and if he's playing it more in his live shows, maybe I'll get a chance to hear it one of these days.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Jackson Browne.

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Friday Night Videos

These past couple of days, I've become thoroughly fascinated by A Year of Billy Joel, a blog started by a self-professed Billy Joel hater who decided to listen to Joel's entire catalog and critique the music he's so long despised. But an interesting thing happened--the fellow based most of his dislike on some broad assumptions that he soon discovered were unfounded. As he works through each album, his commentary is fresh and insightful (and funny--he's very, very funny). He doesn't like everything, but is quite enthusiastic when he comes across something that speaks to him. In the process, he's grudgingly become a Billy Joel fan. I, myself, am a huge Billy Joel fan--not obsessive or anything--but he's my second-favorite musical act behind only the Kinks. His blog has prompted me to revisit my Joel collection--bootlegs and all--and reexamine some of the deep album tracks and rarities. Alas, most of those intriguing songs don't have videos, so for today's Friday Night Video I'll go with the super-fun Sometimes A Fantasy. Love the creepy, sleazy alter-ego Billy in this one, plus the twist ending. Aerosmith cribbed the whole concept nearly a decade later when they cut a new video for "Sweet Emotion" to mark the release of Pandora's Box, and while that later video is more polished and sophisticated in technical terms, you have to credit Joel's video for pushing the envelope back when MTV was still in its infancy.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Dire Straits.

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Friday Night Videos

Last week's video clip from Moonlighting got me thinking about another song from that show. No, not Al Jarreau's theme song (although Al's got some pretty impressive chops. I'm a particular fan of his duet of "On the Roof" with Sheena Easton) but rather Billy Joel's "Big Man on Mulberry Street." This particular song came from Joel's The Bridge album, and while it was never released as a single, the folks at Moonlighting took it and built an entire episode around it, structuring a Broadway-style dance narrative to the music that predated Twyla Tharp's collaboration with Joel by more than a decade. I warmed to Moonlighting late, always viewing it (and rightly so) as a Remington Steele knockoff. But where Moonlighting really shined was in its willingness to push the envelope and turn formula on its head, so much so that Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist both complained publicly they wanted the Remington Steele writing staff to be more creative, like that of Moonlighting, rather than being slaves to formula and writing to the lowest common denominator. Alas, that never happened, and both shows were cancelled in short order. But "Big Man on Mulberry Street" is a great example of the chances Moonlighting was willing to take, even if the sequence does foreshadow the whole Dancing with the Stars trope of the male celebrity essentially standing still as the professional female dancer does all the work.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Bruce Willis.

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Spur of the moment impulse here: Billy Joel's Allentown decided it wanted to be featured today. So here we go. I have no understanding why music critics have always been so dismissive of Joel's work. Here we have a poignant chronicle of the decline of industrial America, a generation cast adrift in the Rust Belt, all wrapped up in a deceptively buoyant melody. Hardly subject matter worthy of Kary Perry or Lady Gaga. I don't get it.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Joe Walsh.

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