On January 18th I started to play all of Billy Joel's albums in chronological order. Here's my thoughts on the first two.
January 18, 2013:
I started a Billy Joel marathon today. I'm going to listen to all his stuff in chronological order. Today I listened to Cold Spring Harbor, his 1971 debut album. The standout track for me is Everybody Loves You Now. I'll keep you posted after each album...
January 19, 2013:
Second album by Billy Joel was the career changing Piano Man, released in November 1973. I finished it yesterday and you might think the title track would be stuck in my mind but it's not. Instead I keep going back to "Worse Comes To Worst", mostly because of the great (okay slightly cheesy but still great) guitar opening from Larry Carlton. Yes, the one and only Larry Carlton was the guitarist on the whole album. Awesome musician.
Anyway, there's a lot of great material on this album, including "Billy The Kid" which features excellent work by the french horns and string section, the beautiful "You're My Home" which ranks up there as one of Billy's best ballads, and the surprisingly enjoyable "Travelin' Prayer". I say surprising because it features more banjo than I normally like in a song but it's a fun song which builds nicely, adding parts gradually.
All in all, it's an album I should listen to more often. Next up is Streetlife Serenade, released a year after Piano Man. Update later or tomorrow.
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