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Post by Billy C on Jan 1, 2019 20:05:18 GMT
Going to start this off myself.... I'm 40 years old, and have always enjoyed Billy's music. That said, I've only really known the "hits"...until Sirius started its periodic limited-time channel. My daughter (11 years old) kept telling me I needed to check it out. Well, I did, and now I'm pretty much obsessed with his music.
How about you all?
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Post by downtowngirl on Jan 2, 2019 4:48:26 GMT
It's harder for me to determine exactly what made me a Billy Joel fan, then say, a Beatles or Beach Boys fan. I vaguely remember that I heard him on an AOR station in the early 70s and liked what I heard. This was pre Piano Man. I think the first album I bought of his was Streetlife Serenade. Will give a listen to his first album again, Cold Spring Harbor, to see which particular song turned me on to him back then. Like you, Billy, after a certain time I knew him mainly from his many hits, so finally hearing his later deep cuts was quite enjoyable.
- Elizabeth
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Post by Billy C on Jan 3, 2019 7:02:34 GMT
I wish I could have heard him back then. I have vague memories as a kid of my mom playing Turnstiles. I do know in elementary school in PE we used to have these rhythm exercises and most often the music used was Uptown Girl!
It just dawned on me that Cold Spring Harbor is the only album that I’ve only one song off of (She’s got a way). I need to fix that.
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Post by HeyJude on Jan 4, 2019 17:14:02 GMT
I had a bunch of Billy Joel albums in the 80s and 90s, but it wasn't until the early-mid 2000s that I went back and delved deeper into his whole catalog.
I still think the 1971-1982 run is the key stuff, the best stuff. After that, it drops off in quality and my interest starts to wane. There's still good stuff on those albums, especially "An Innocent Man" and "Storm Front." I have a tougher time with "The Bridge" and "River of Dreams"; I'm not a fan of the stuff where Billy decides he wants to be Ray Charles. But I have amassed all of his albums, including the live stuff and the scattered archival stuff.
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Post by HeyJude on Jan 4, 2019 17:17:34 GMT
I wish I could have heard him back then. I have vague memories as a kid of my mom playing Turnstiles. I do know in elementary school in PE we used to have these rhythm exercises and most often the music used was Uptown Girl! It just dawned on me that Cold Spring Harbor is the only album that I’ve only one song off of (She’s got a way). I need to fix that. "Cold Spring Harbor" is a (relatively) hidden gem. Even Billy seems to hate it; he seems to have a bunch of BS attached to it because of the weird mastering issue the original copies had. But most of the album is a great, McCartney-esque, Emitt Rhodes-esque pop gem. It's worth also tracking down the "original" mix, as the versions available now are all the 1983 remix of the album, where some stuff was slowed down *too much*, a bunch of stuff was mixed out, and they even added new overdubs. Compare the two versions of "Tomorrow Is Today." Both great, but while the in-print '83 remix is just Billy's voice and piano, the original mix is a huge, lush arrangement with bass, drums, and a full orchestral score. It's kind of overbearing (especially if you're used to the remix), but very interesting.
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