Strange Houses

At the end of 2014, I was hit with an urge to listen to some Billy Joel. When I was around 8 or 9 years old, he was kind of a big deal. I downloaded 52nd Street, and expected that I'd probably give it a quick spin and be done with it. That didn't happen. The album stuck with me, and I ended up listening to it multiple times, and then as we moved into 2015 I downloaded more of Billy Joel's albums, and surprisingly I was loving them...so much so that I went to see him three consecutive years in a row play at Fenway Park in Boston.

Back in 2015, I ended up picking up a handful of Billy Joel records at a used vinyl shop in downtown Portland. The Stranger is one of my favorites from him, but unfortunately, the store didn't have that one available during my shopping spree.

I'm not a big believer in fate, but when I inherited Steve's record collection after he passed away, and I added his copy of The Stranger to my collection, it just felt "right".

My wife and I had tickets to see Billy Joel at Fenway in 2016 with my mom and Steve. He passed away three months before the show. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, from The Stranger, was one of his favorite Billy Joel songs, and it brings back memories whenever I hear it.

The other Billy Joel record that Steve had in his collection was the Glass Houses album from 1980. I don't know...this may be my second favorite from Billy Joel. Both You May Be Right and It's Still Rock And Roll To Me were huge to me as a 10 year old, as I started expanding my tastes further and further into heavier music.

Fun fact: I had a huge crush on a girl at 10 years old...I think she was the daughter of one of my mom's friends...and we were over their house one evening, and I noticed that she had this Glass Houses record in her "collection". I didn't own any music at the time, and probably only had blank cassettes that I was recording Men At Work and Police songs from Casey Kasem's Top 40 weekly radio show, so there was nothing hotter than a girl that owned her own records. I tried to play it cool, and asked her if we could listen to the album while we were in her room, but it still didn't even get me a kiss.

Record Store Day 2015 - Part 3: Piano Man

My apologies if we end the Record Store Day posting trilogy with a bit of a whimper instead of bang...consider it the Return of the Jedi after Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back [nerd alert]. After the big RSD record haul, and then the major strike on the Want List with Kill 'Em All, I really wasn't expecting to buy anything as we entered the last used record store of the day. The Metal section was a bust, so I started flipping through some other vinyl, and stumbled upon the Billy Joel section. The prices were cheap, and since I'd recently started getting into his stuff, I started making a pile of stuff I wanted. Five Billy Joel records later, I figured it was time for me to check out.

I grew up in the 70's and I remember those Billy Joel songs being played around the house as I was a kid. I've gotten a bit nostalgic lately, and have been drawn back to those hit songs from my childhood. I first started with the Piano Man LP last summer, but as a whole, it didn't really do much for me, and gave up on it quickly. Earlier this year, I was looking to give him another chance with 52nd Street, and that was when it clicked. Suddenly I couldn't get enough...I was listening to Billy Joel albums daily, and went and dropped a few hundred on a couple of tickets so that my wife and I can see him live at Fenway Park this summer.

Turnstiles from 1976 is a great album...worth it for the song Angry Young Man alone. This song reminds me of myself back during those emo/Ebullition years of the mid-90's.

As I mentioned, 52nd Street, from 1978, was where Billy Joel really hooked me. I remember jamming Big Shot and My Life as a kid...an introduction to music that has a bit of an edge and has something to say.

"And when you wake up in the morning with your head on fire, and your eyes too bloody to see, go on and cry in your coffee but don't come bitchin' to me".

Knowing how much I loved these two songs as a kid, it should be no surprise that I ended up falling in love with punk and hardcore. Yes, I'm saying that Billy Joel is a gateway drug into hardcore music.

I'd never heard 1981's Songs In The Attic when I saw the vinyl in the used bin, but seeing that it was still sealed and had a $6 price tag, I figured that I'd give it a shot. Come on...it was a live album that featured only songs from his pre-'77 records. There was some stuff on here that I wasn't familiar with, so this was a good introduction to some early songs.

Billy Joel's Kohuept album was a gamble for me, as I generally have stayed away from anything past his late 70's period...Uptown Girl still makes me cringe a little bit. However, this double live platter from 1987 paid off. None of the songs from Songs In The Attic were repeated here, and this whole thing was a great surprise. Man, I'd completely forgotten about the song Goodnight Saigon...what a powerful song. Amazing.

While out for some long runs last year, I had loaded some Creedence Clearwater Revival to my playlist...something to just chill me out as I put up some big miles. Whenever a song from their Green River LP started playing, I would absolutely love it. I still remember running some quiet country roads, early in the morning with the sun just starting to break over the trees, and having Sinister Purpose started playing through my earbuds...damn...I felt like I could run forever. Since I don't own the vinyl, decided that it was worth the $5 price tag when I saw it.

So...yeah...overall, I had a pretty solid outing for Record Store Day.