Everyone goes south every now and then

The “new” Billy Joel is out, at least in ITunes. Being the crusty old fogey that I am, I really should have waited and bought the CD, but being the impatient, unreasonable person that I also am, I just downloaded it.

It is the “30th Anniversary Edition” of “The Stranger”, which, IIRC, is by far Billy’s best selling record. In fact, for a while it was the second best seller in the history of Columbia Records, right behind, I believe, “Thriller”. I could be wrong. It has, of course, a remastered version of the album, plus a live “Stranger” era concert recording, recorded, IIRC, somewhere in New York City. I could look, but I don’t have Internet access at the moment.

I can’t really tell about the remastering. Perhaps my music expert wife can tell the difference, but I really can’t. I listened to it once, all the way through, and all I can really say, to be far, is that maybe the mix is a little cleaner. That’s all. It’s fine-don’t get me wrong. I’m a fanboy, so I have no objections towards buying the same album for the 3rd time, and in some cases the same song for the 8th or 9th time.

But, similar to the Led Zeppelin box set that I bought in the early nineties, my ear is not keen enough to hear the difference between the “original” CD and the remaster. I drew the line, though, at the new new remaster of Zeppelin that they put out in preparation for the concert they played in London. Not going to pay for that again again.

There’s a new verse to the live version of “The Entertainer” that I’ve never heard before. That’s interesting. The “Brenda and Eddie” section of the live “Scenes” is a little stripped down, which is different. The horns are much brassier-obviously live horns, instead of the synthesized ones that became more common later.

It’s nice to have another 1970s era Joel live recording to listen to. They are hard to find, and the whole thing from that era is just more energized. As Henry Rollins would put it, he’s out there defending his music against a public and a world of critics that didn’t yet anoint him as a genius. The band seems to work harder, Billy seems to play faster, the whole thing is just a little more rock and roll than a live album like “12 Gardens Live”. To my untrained ears, “Angry Young Man” is quite a bit faster.

Then again, I have to cut the man some slack. I’m comparing him from his twenties and thirties to his fifties and sixties. I can’t think of anyone except Tina Turner who doesn’t suffer with that comparison.












From the “Are you HIGH?” department, the SEC is considering loosening accounting rules. LOOSENING. Yeah, because it was all those tight rules that got us into this mess in the first place. What a fiasco.