Favorite song: She’s Always a Woman to Me
Least favorite: Everybody Had a Dream
★★★★☆
In an effort to expand my musical palette, I devised a game. I will spin a color wheel and whatever color it lands on is the color of the record that I will buy from the discount bin at Spina Records on Easton Ave. Why records? Why not just listen to it on my phone? My answer: my record player doesn’t have a skip button. I hope you’ll come with me on this musical journey. This week’s color was gray and Billy Joel’s fifth studio album “The Strangers” fell onto my lap. Ironically, Joel is currently on tour and will be performing at Madison Square Garden next weekend, April 22nd, 2023.
I’ll confess, although I was previously familiar with the classics like “Vienna” and “Only the Good Die Young,” most of “The Stranger” was, to me, just that. Songs like “Everybody Has a Dream” and “Get it Right the First Time” were ones I’d never heard before and I was excited to give it a try.
Joel and his range of jazz and ballads on this album, tell stories of love, loss, and what it means to grow up. Although the album is almost completely unskippable, there were a few like “Everybody Had a Dream,” the gospel edition to the album, that wasn’t my personal favorite. I believe, though, that someone who enjoys that style may enjoy the song.
With this album’s release, listeners receive some of the most iconic and truly authentic love songs–for example, “She’s Always a Woman to Me,” an unconditional love story about falling for your partner’s quirks as hard as you fall for them, and “Just the Way You Are,” which is an ode to just that. Of the two, “She’s Always a Woman to Me” was my personal favorite with some of the most imagine-rich lines like “And the most she will do is throw shadows at you / But she’s always a woman to me.” Be honest, can’t you imagine her strut down the sidewalk at just the utterance of those words? But as much as I love that one, the love song that stuck out to me the most was “A Scene from an Italian Restaurant.”
This 7-minute song is broken into 5 parts, a collection of styles combined to tell a story. The opening, a piano ballad at 70 bpm, sets the stage of the romantic ambiance of this “Italian restaurant.” You can practically see the couple, sitting beneath a lone light, leaned over the white cloth table as they order their wine. Then the song transitions to a quicker jazzy tempo at 95 bpm. This section feels like small talk, upbeat and cheerful, as the listener gets to pull up a chair, to overhear the conversation of the couple. However, as the song progresses, you learn more about the couple’s relationship. “Things are okay with me these days / Got a good job, got a good office / Got a new wife, got a new life / And the family’s fine / We lost touch long ago / You lost weight I did not know / You could ever look so nice after.” By their exchange, it’s clear they knew each other previously and are coming back together after time apart. After another New Orleans-esque jazz piano break, the song changes to a narrative about young lovers, Brenda and Eddie. The listener follows them through their high school years up to their divorce after dealing with money problems. It wasn’t until I looked closely at the lyrics that I realized that the pair at the table were perhaps Brenda and Eddie. When we enter their scene, they appear to have taken some time apart and progressed well beyond their former selves, a theme (growing up) commonly found in Joel’s works. However, there is a bit of longing between the pair as the song comes to a close as Brenda and Eddie finish their wine and agree to meet again, “Anytime you want / at our Italian restaurant.”
Two other songs on the album that follow this same theme of growing up are “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” and “Vienna.” In the case of Vienna, although Joel’s original intent with the song was a “growing up” metaphor, like all forms of art, it can be interpreted in many ways. To me, that song is an ode to “stopping to smell the roses.” A ballad dedicated to the little things and those who beat themselves up over “losing a day or too.” Yet, Joel reminds us that even if we want to “take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while,” “Vienna” will still be waiting for us when we are ready to come back. To me, “Vienna” is peace. Peace with and within yourself—it’s a deep breath—a deep inhale and long exhale. With this notion in mind, think about what yours is. What’s the “Vienna” that waits for you?
Joel truly impressed me with this album and I hope you’ll give it a try! There were a few songs I didn’t mention—but hopefully the ones that were mentioned pull you in the direction of the album. I hope you’ll continue with me on this musical adventure and will come back next week for the next review. The color will be blue!