Billy Joel: Cold Spring Harbor (1971)

I remember the first time I came across this album. I'd never heard of it before but I was a fan of Billy Joel. I wasn't sure that this was even him, even though it said his name on the front cover. It didn't look like him. When I played it, I don't think I knew what I was going to get, but one day I would look back at this album and say: "This is truly one of his most under-rated classics". It's probably his most.

The story goes—if you've never heard this before—that Billy wanted to be a songwriter, and to have his songs recorded by other people (it must have been a proud moment when someone like Barbra Streisand put out "New York State of Mind" in the 70s), but how was he going to achieve that? The advice he'd been given in the industry was to record an album himself. It was the early 1970s and singer-songwriter acts were all the rage. Carole King was about to release "Tapestry" which stands as one of the finest classic albums of the twentieth century.

From what I understand, Billy then got an appointment with a record company but he got off on the wrong floor, the result of which he ended up signing with Artie Ripp on his Family Productions label instead. That was when he went to record the songs which comprised this album "Cold Spring Harbor", among them the future classic "She's Got a Way" which would not become a well-known song for another ten years.

The album was completed. Everything was done. The cover was ready to go. All they had to do now was master the thing and then get it out. Then Billy would go on tour and try to promote it. Hopefully it would get heard by someone. Hopefully he would have a hit.

Something however went awfully wrong when this album was being mastered. Yeah, Billy Joel fans out there, I know you probably know this story well, but it bears repeating because of what a nightmare it was and how he ended up coming out the other side of it with the career that he's had. After everything that had been put into the album, all of Billy's efforts and aspirations, it seemed that once the mastering had been botched (so Billy came out sounding like "Alvin and the Chipmunks") there was nothing anyone could do, or were willing to do. This is the product that got released. This is what the world heard: Billy Joel and the Chipmunks.

The story goes (I'm taking some of these from Billy's brilliant interviews and Question & Answer videos, many of which you should still be able to watch on YouTube) that Billy went to play the album for his friends and had no idea what was going to happen. He was so horrified he threw the record away.

It wasn't just humiliating. It could have been a career-breaker. After that, and the lack of success that the record had, Billy kind of went AWOL, packing everything up and getting a job as a bar pianist under the name Bill Martin. It was while he was gigging there, getting a feel for the crowd and the people he met there, that he wrote a little song of his that you may have heard of, which was somewhat less obscure than this album. The rest of Billy's career was beckoning.

Fast forward to about the year 1981, when Billy decided to go back and record (live versions) of songs he'd written before "The Stranger", and "She's Got a Way" from "Cold Spring Harbor" wound up on the Number #4 spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart. It is recognized today as one of his most enduring classics. The song was vindicated, becoming the hit it was always destined to be.

Two years later, a remix version of this album was put out by Columbia Records, but Billy hadn't been involved with it personally. That means there has never been a version of this album that Billy felt was complete, and because of what had happened the first time it left him with bad memories, colouring his experience of what was actually a pretty fine collection of songs. I hear fans sometimes say they would like to hear another album. I almost wonder if he would be willing to go back and re-record this one instead, or at least put together a remix that he'd be happy with, maybe for some kind of anniversary set. 2021 is the 50 year anniversary of "Cold Spring Harbor" after all.

Let's have a look at these songs then, bearing in mind that I've been lucky enough to hear both versions through the original vinyl and the 1980s re-release.

"She's Got a Way"---absolutely, this deserved to be everything that it wound up being. It feels like it was a hit in 1971, but it wasn’t.

"You Can Make me Free"---the 1983 version is edited down from the seven minute original. This is only like three minutes long. If you like this song and you haven't heard the original it's pretty cool discovering that version for the first time. The song itself is decent enough.

"Everybody Loves You Now"---this is the other song that got "rescued" for "Songs in the Attic" and I just love it. It's a great little piece. I'm relieved that people know this one. It shouldn't have been tucked away on here.

"Why Judy Why"---this song and really the vast majority of this album does feel like it's peeking into some kind of diary that someone is writing. There's a haunting intimacy about the whole thing, but it's not inconsistent with the albums that Billy wrote later. If I listen to say "All about Soul" for example, it feels like it exists in the same universe.

"Falling of the Rain"---the piano line is just marvellous and the lyrics are already a good example of what a great lyricist I've always thought he's been.

"Turn Around"---usually every Billy album will have some song that doesn’t really register with me as much as the other ones, and with "Glass Houses" it's almost the entire B side, and this is probably that song here. Oh it's good, but it doesn't stick out in my memory as much as the others.

"You Look So Good to Me"---again, see the previous song, but at the same time I feel like this song would have gotten radio play if things had turned out differently.

"Tomorrow Is Today"---the 1971 version has drum parts and full orchestration, whereas the later mix is just piano and vocal. I'm going to say I prefer the second one, although I have no idea what Billy thought of that, because again the intimacy of the songs that he's putting forward here. If you didn't know, this is actually based on a suicide letter that he wrote, and most of the lyrics come from that letter. It's my favourite song on the album. I feel like it's a classic, even though non-fans wouldn't really know it. It's great to hear this in counterpoint with Billy’s later song as well, "You're Only Human (Second Wind)".

"Nocturne"---similar to the instrumentals on 1974's "Streetlife Serenade", "Nocturne" gives us an atmospheric moving piece played on the piano. This originally had lyrics, which I remember hearing once as a demo on YouTube, so if you can find that please check it out because it's fascinating to hear what he had in mind once. I always wondered if it could have had a lyric. It probably works best as an instrumental. It's another great moment.

"Got to Begin Again"---the album ends with a hopeful message, also shining the way for what Billy has in store for us next. It almost feels like a prelude in that sense, not to the angry young man, but to the Piano Man.

This brings me to the end of my post. I just wanted to reiterate here that I would love if he did something with this album again, but I won't hold my breath and I understand, probably all too well.

Thank you for reading,

Ryan.