Billy Joel - Glass Houses

I suppose there's a "Piano Man" pun somewhere to be had here - and I'm trying my best to type one but I'm using the wrong kind of keyboard.

Yeah, sorry.

Back in the summer of 1980 Glass Houses had firmly become part of my musical landscape. Oddly enough I didn't have my own copy at the time - everyone I knew had one, so I figured I was in the clear. I remember people talking about how Billy Joel had gone new wave and there are some tunes where he's playing things pretty close to the flavour of the day - then again a song like "Don't Ask Me Why" would have been right at home on his 1977 release The Stranger. 

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight you can hear Billy Joel as he slowly moved with the times. Glass Houses was truly the logical successor to 52nd Street where songs like "Big Shot" and "My Life" to a lesser degree were setting the stage for what was to come. This was a guy who could basically do what he wanted musically and get away with it - to a point. There's no forgiving An Innocent Man - that's an album that should have remained a vanity album and something he sent to his friends as a Christmas present and kept from the general public.

Anyway, back to Glass Houses - I know I'm throwing stones, but frankly they're not very big, more like a few pebbles, and I'm not throwing very hard.

Now I've had the CD for a long time, but I've not had a sit and concentrated listen for a long time. Like years and years long time. So I know I try not to pick up albums I already have, as that was a part of my deal with the wife, but sometimes you just find something that's too good to pass up - and finding a copy in the dollar bin that had the liner notes and all was too much to pass on. Now, whoever had this before me was not a gentle soul. There are a couple of decent scratches, but light enough to to pop too badly, and nothing skips.

Glass Houses was produced by Billy's long time producer Phil Ramone, and backed by his core band of Richie Cannata – saxophones, flute, organ. David Brown –guitars (lead). Russell Javors – guitars (rhythm). Doug Stegmeyer – bass and Liberty DeVitto – drums. These guys were great players and were part of the total package.

When listening to the album now, the majority of the up tempo songs (the really good ones) are on side one - it's full of songs that have become classics; frankly I don't know why "All for Leyna" wasn't a hit, then the whole first side would be like a mini greatest hits album. Side two takes a more Billy Joel (I know that's a cop out, but really the guy is his own genre to a point, and when he's just being himself, he sounds like - well, Billy Joel) approach to the songs. Who else could pull off a song like "C'était Toi (You Were the One)", Billy Joel that's who. Of course as soon as I make a generalization saying side two is the mellow stuff there's "Close to the Borderline" while not one of my favourite songs, is a rock song, but not as good as the rest of side one, so side two it was. The only song that I scratch my head at a little is the album's closer "Through the Long Night", which while a very pretty song, feels like a Paul McCartney cast off.

Regardless, here I am over forty years later listening to the piano man. It was like he knew I was in the mood for a melody, and he got me feeling alright. 

La, la-la, di-di-da
La-la di-di-da da-dum