by Kevin Burton
I’m inclined to give Billy Joel a pass, aren’t you?
Hasn’t he proven his brilliance? Hasn’t his place in music history been settled, certified for decades now?
Any music-related hall of fame that he is not in, he should be in. Hey, if Dolly Parton is in the Rock Hall, put Billy Joel in the Country Hall too.
In trying to sum up my reaction to “Turn The Lights Back On,” the new single released by Joel Feb. 1, his first in 17 years, I had a can’t-step-into-the-same-river-twice kind of thought. I’ll come back to that.
First, is it perhaps irrational for me to compare the new song to “Piano Man,” or “An Innocent Man” or “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and draw conclusions?
Or let me ask it this way. If Peyton Manning is playing pickup football in somebody’s back yard and throws a bad pass, am I supposed to harken back to his NFL days and lament that he isn’t what he once was?
OK, for what it’s worth, here’s what I think of the song.
It sounds like the 8th or 9th best song on the usual Billy Joel album of 10 to 12 songs. Not terrible, not compelling. I might skip over it on my way to the better songs. But of course this was a single, not part of an album.
I do like it better than “And So It Goes” from his “Storm Front” album. Faint praise that.
If this song didn’t have Billy Joel’s name on it, would give it a second spin? Would anybody put it on the radio?
If I’m your music teacher and you turn this song in to me as a sort of term paper, I am giving you a good grade on it for sure. But from Billy Joel, this sounds like a warmup exercise.
Since there is no particular passion in the vocal, I’m not feeling the singer’s remorse. If somebody asked me for forgiveness in those words on those terms, that would leave me cold.
Also, Joel had three collaborators on this song. But it is so ordinary, exactly what part of it – lyrics, music, arrangement – could the great Billy Joel not handle by himself?
But I don’t see the point of comparing it to the rest of his work. And if anybody is, I might be the least qualified to do it.
Why? Because as I have written previously, I think Joel put the perfect period on his lyrical conversation in “Famous Last Words” from the “River of Dreams” album when he sang “frankly my dear I don’t give a damn anymore.”
That ended the conversation for me. What part of “last words” do we not understand?
And here’s my last point, the stepping in the river thought:
If Billy Joel somehow at age 74 defied all human nature and summoned the angry young man he used to be for one last musical effort, I wouldn’t be able to drink it in the way I used to.
I’m sitting on a school bus; the radio is on and I’m singing “My Life” with Scott Weaver. We sing the words “my life,” forcefully with a nod of the head.
Or think of “Do It Again” by Steely Dan. That tune, just those words, “back, jack, do it again” unleashed whatever rebel we had in us.
I can’t hear things the same way I used to.
Donald Fagen has changed, Billy Joel has changed, I have changed. I am not necessarily in the market for, or able to appreciate the same kinds of edginess that I once was.
Make no mistake though, If Joel comes out with more music tomorrow or next month or next year, I will be beyond eager to hear it, take that to the bank. But I will accept it for whatever it is, without talking about “Zanzibar.”
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