Billy Joel - The Stranger (1977)

Billy Joel saw himself as a rock and roller throughout much of his 22-year career as a recording artist, much to the amusement of listeners who couldn't find even a trace of Little Richard in the polished piano ballads he wrote and sang.   Joel would even go out of his way to prove himself as a rocker, most notably on albums like Glass Houses (1980) and on singles like 1986's "A Matter of Trust" (in which he inexplicably sang the count-in) - records that contained tougher vocals and a greater emphasis on guitar riffs.  These exploits only caused more amusement.

The irony is that Billy Joel was more convincing as a rock and roller when he wasn't consciously trying to produce a rock record.  And no moment was more convincing to me than when Joel led his band into an instrumental break on "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," a conversation between two high school classmates that takes the form of a miniature pop opera, from his 1977 album The Stranger.  After having brought the tempo and energy up incrementally to a rock beat, Joel yells out, "Let's rock and roll!"  It sounds natural, particularly in light of the spirited saxophone solo that follows it.  Joel found a way to rock out without having to sound like a poseur and still managed to sound like himself.

Much of this album is like that.  The Stranger is a once-in-a-lifetime album for Joel, and not just because it was the album that solidified his place in pop and rock history by going platinum ten times over.  It's probably the only album on which Joel feels comfortable in his own skin and doesn't try to imitate the Stones or Springsteen to be heard as a rock and roll artist.  Joel has never been good as a straight rocker, despite his fondness for rock music, but his satirical lyricism and his bright melodies, together with what John Rockwell called the "nervously electrified energies" of New York jazz rock, distinguish him in the personal and self-aware milieu of the singer-songwriter genre.

Those disparate influences make The Stranger a musically engaging album, with songs that look at romance seriously or make observations with a biting wit that would later devolve into smarminess but here matches up with Randy Newman's most clever tunes.  "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" laughs at white ethnics  trying to buy their way into a higher class to the sound of a mocking soprano sax, with a sharp guitar riff as the closing kiss-off, while a confident Joel takes on the whole darn Catholic Church in "Only The Good Die Young," encouraging his Catholic girlfriend to sleep with him and dissecting Catholic hypocrisy to a sprightly brass and piano shuffle.  (Speaking of Randy Newman, Joel and Newman performed this song together at the inaugural Farm Aid concert - it makes sense to me!)  The title song similarly takes on the false fronts people assume in relationships, and Joel is challenging his listeners to admit as much with a guitar riff that is probably the most menacing music he and producer Phil Ramone ever created together.  "You May Be Right" (from 1980's Glass Houses) sounds like bubblegum by comparison.

If phoniness seems to be a recurring theme on The Stranger, that may be because Joel prefers authenticity, and ballads like "Just The Way You Are" (written for his first wife), or "She's Always a Woman," which accepts a woman for her unsavory qualities and seems to admonish the unnamed second party for refusing to do so, make that point directly.  Joel's only source of comfort on The Stranger, "Vienna" (written about visiting his father, who made his home in the Austrian capital), imagines the city as a refuge from modernity to look forward to in later years. 

Joel would later trivialize his songwriting talent with pastiche and lack of direction, which makes The Stranger  all the more a high point in his career.  The LP is about growing up, and not accepting everything at face value, and it put Joel on par with other singer-songwriters such as Newman and Paul Simon.  No, you can't pump your fist or play air guitar to even the meatiest numbers on this record.  But when Joel and his band let loose here and played with energy and conviction, it was still rock and roll to me.