#11 The Stranger: Billy Joel. Ask yourself this: what is the album/CD that you have listened to the most in your life? It's interesting to think about. It probably has to be something that you listened to when you were a teen - a time when if you liked something you played it over and over and over again. It has to be something that you have enjoyed through your whole life. It probably helps if you have some kind of emotional or cultural attachment to it. Extra bonus if your kids like it, so it is one of the few things you can enjoy together. And a super extra bonus if one of your children is named after a song on it.
For me, The Stranger satisfies all of the above. I grew up in the town next to the one where BJ grew up, in fact the guitarist on his early albums went to high school with my sister. Everyone on Long Island grows up a Billy Joel fan - it is ingrained. Billy Joel has very distinct eras - his early stuff is pensive piano-driven music, then he hit his stride with Streetlife Serenade and The Stranger - really great stuff, filled with vivid characters, melodic piano, a jivin' sax and just good rock and roll. Then came popularity and more popularity and some solid CDs followed by the theme park of An Innocent Man and then his downhill slide into oblivion. Billy gets credit however, for curtailing his CD making when he realized he had nothing relevant to say anymore.
The Stranger is the best of the whole bunch, with pensive piano tunes (the title track), rockin' character driven tunes (Scenes From an Italian Restaurant), our favorite air-sax bar mitzvah song (Only the Good Die Young), and of course the all time classic, Vienna.
By the way, Billy has not aged gracefully. If you hear recent interviews with him, he is an angry, bitter man. Check out Chuck Klosterman's interview/article in his book IV. It's pretty sad.
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