Customer Reviews

Piano Man

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On this, his first album with Columbia Records, Billy Joel first showed the promise and talent that would make him one of the most recognizable and beloved songwriters of the past quarter century.

Aside from the classic title track, which has also become synonymous with the artist himself, there are several wonderful songs on this album such as "Travelin' Prayer", melancholy songs like the "Ballad of Billy the Kid" and "Captain Jack", and even some softer songs like "Stop in Nevada" and "You're My Home".

This is definitely not Billy Joel's strongest album front to back, but in many ways it's his most lovable. In retrospect it's easy to see how this set the stage for the rest of his brilliant career, and fans of the Piano Man will definitely have to have this in their collection.

Billy Joel's second album CD debut called "Piano Man". In which I have it on cassette the songs that are my favorites is "Worst Comes To Worse", "Travelling Player" and "Piano Man". Are the highlights collection of classics by yours truly and his own words to these lyrics Joel sings!

Billy Joel's second album CD debut called "Piano Man". In which I have it on cassette the songs that are my favorites is "Worst Comes To Worse", "Travelling Player" and "Piano Man". Are the highlights collection of classics by yours truly and his own words to these lyrics Joel sings!

One of Billy Joel's best CDs, Piano Man is filled with one great song after another. While the two songs Piano Man and Captain Jack are the album's two best known songs, the album includes great samples of Joels not as famous works. These tracks would include the Ballad of Billy the Kid, You're my Home, and Stop in Nevada. This CD belongs in every classic music collection.

Billy Joel's Piano Man is probably the one song everyone knows him for. The album didn't produce any other hits but is full of good pieces. "Travelin' Prayer" gives us an upbeat, dancing tune of protection for Billy's love, whomever or whatever "she" may be. "Piano Man", of course, is the anthem everyone knows which talks about Billy's humble beginnings as well as the sorrow of a bar's regulars. "Ain't No Crime" sums up a workday and gives us something to laugh about. "You're My Home" is admittedly a bit cheesy, Billy says so himself in the album cover of "Songs in the Attic where YMH is re-recorded, but sentimental enough for anyone. "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" rocks the house as does "Worse Comes to Worst." "Stop in Nevada" describes a woman who is unsatisfied with her home life and decides to leave her husband. "She tried for years to be a good wife. . ." "If I Only Had the Words" is to Piano Man as "Just the Way You Are" is to The Stranger. "Somewhere Along the Line" is a great anthem and very true to any relationship, addiction, or life story. "But you'll pay for your satisfaction somewhere along the line." Finally "Captain Jack" can get you high tonight, if you so choose to let him, but the content of the song may be disturbing.

Piano Man is Billy's second album, Cold Spring Harbor being first in 1971, but is the one most people begin their collection with. It's worth getting to know.

Many people peg "Glass Houses" as the first real album where Billy Joel rocks out without constraints. Wrong! "Piano Man" is a true rocker. It is also a very dark album: every societal deprivation is presented here: loneliness, ostracization, drinking binges, stress of the workplace, lost love, divorce, masturbation, sexual deviancy, and hard drug abuse. Serious stuff.

The first two tracks betray this gloomy album. "Travellin' Prayer" is an upbeat song, about protecting one's love against her travelling adventures. "Piano Man" is the title track that established Joel as a major songwriter, constantly overplayed on classic-rock radio, recollecting the experience and even some of the characters he remembered from his six months as a lounge lizard pianist in a Los Angeles dive. They seemed to have fueled the fire for the rest of the album.

Joel takes another mellow break with the lovely and hopeful ballad "You're My Home," the other well-known song besides "Piano Man" itself. But then Joel launches into one frustrated tirade after another: "Ain't No Crime," "Worse Comes to Worst," "Stop in Nevada," "Somewhere Along the Line," and the unforgettable "Captain Jack," the musical equivalent of arson, deliberately burning every human emotion in its path. This is a low as Billy gets. It's a powerful song that was humorously -- and stupidly -- played at a Hillary Clinton for Senate fundraiser. By the end of the album, if it's not evident that Billy Joel is suffering from a nervous breakdown, you soon will.

This is why I can't understand those who would classify this album in the soft-rock category, "Piano Man" and "You're My Home" notwithstanding.

Don't be misled, Billy rocks out on this album in total [ticked]-off fashion and leaves us with frazzled nerves. But it's a classic and needs to be in your collection. This album contains some truly brilliant songwriting with some real rock riffs and tasty country-style steel guitar riffs along with Joel's trademark piano chords. Just listen to it in when an upbeat mood. Listening to it when you're depressed should be illegal.