Billy Joel: Streetlife Serenade (1974)

By 1974, Billy Joel had written, performed and recorded two albums worth of material: "Cold Spring Harbor" released in 1971 on the Family Productions label which had been a disaster for Billy, and "Piano Man", his emergence on Columbia Records with the hit song of the same name, and crowd favourites like "Captain Jack" and "The Ballad of Billy the Kid". There had also been the two albums with his group the Hassles and one with the duo Attila. Now it was time to yield another LP, another offering from the musical master.

The question for me, if I'd been around at the time and had been listening to this guy's music keenly: what would Billy come up with next to follow on from say "You're My Home"? The result is moments like "Streetlife Serenader", which is one of my favourite Billy Joel songs pre-"Stranger", "Los Angelenos", the stunning piano instrumental "Root Beer Rag", "The Entertainer", and more.

The album "Streetlife Serenade" was released on Columbia on 11 October 1974. Uncle Wiki tells me what I suspected: between this album and the next one, this was the last album Billy made until "River of Dreams" in 1993 to use mostly studio musicians. "Streetlife" peaked at No. 35 on the US Billboard 200, 16 on the Canadian Albums charts and over here in the land down under a somewhat less impressive 85 on the Australian Albums chart. In Australia, his previous album "Piano Man" had charted as high as 16. Not too bad though, when all is considered, and clearly the label were happy enough to give Billy more chances with "Turnstiles" and what would ultimately turn out to be the success of "The Stranger".

In addition to that, the album went platinum and there was one single with "The Entertainer", a cynical follow-up of sorts to "Piano Man" showing the other side of this musician's life now that he's gotten into the business of making music. Several more of these songs were re-discovered through the 1981 live album "Songs in the Attic" which I cannot recommend strongly enough.

Content wise, according to Uncle Wiki again and from stories I remember reading over the years, Billy has said he didn't have very much time to come up with material for this album, since he had been touring a lot, but personally I don't think that shows. Then again, I'm probably so impressed by moments like "Streetlife Serenader" that it colours the rest of the LP.

Let's have a look though.

"Streetlife Serenader" --- it's probably clear enough already what I make of this one. The first time I really heard it, it had so much power to it, and it feels like something that could come from a movie or a stage show. Actually this is one of those songs that make me wonder what a Billy Joel musical would be like, and I don’t mean "Movin' Out" either, I mean an original score, e.g. Elton John composing "Billy Elliot".

"Los Angelenos" --- this has a real driving beat. I have an ambiguous relationship with this song though, but at the end of the day I'm a fan. Fortunately for this fan, both this and "Streetlife" are the songs included on "Songs in the Attic".

"The Great Suburban Showdown" --- a nice relaxing song. Billy says his albums have themes, and I think this is an example here of what the theme for this album is supposed to be, life in this suburban town somewhere in the United States.

"Root Beer Rag" --- one of two instrumentals on this album, and this one absolutely blows my mind. He would play it even faster live. I mention Billy writing a score for a musical. This makes me think he could have written a score for "Super Mario Brothers".

"Roberta" --- this is another relaxing song, this time a love song, which takes us nicely out of the A side. This would have made a nice B side on a single.

"The Entertainer" --- "I am the entertainer, I've come to do my show/You've heard my latest record, it's been on the radio/It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life/It was a beautiful song but it ran too long/If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit/So they cut it down to 3:05". One of the bits that sticks in my mind! He's referring to the single edit from "Piano Man", I believe. There's also another bit about a "can of beans". This is like the other side of "Piano Man". When you look at these lyrics, it's pretty amusing that this was chosen to be a single.

"Last of the Big Time Spenders" --- another relaxing song, a la "Great Suburban Showdown" and "Roberta", and between this and those songs I'm definitely getting a sense of that suburban theme.

"Weekend Song" --- probably the weakest song here for me, but that's nothing against the song itself, it's just surrounded by other more powerful moments for me.

"Souvenir" --- another high point of this album, just a brief moment but a golden one, and I can see it fitting on other albums too, like "The Stranger" or "Storm Front".

"The Mexican Connection" --- I love albums that do this, finish things on an instrumental note. "The Mexican Connection" feels like the end credits for a TV show. Now Billy could write TV music.

So that brings me to the end of "Streetlife Serenade". I also had to mention the moody cover art, sort of like a movie poster from that era, or the Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks". Then you have Billy on the flip side looking a bit under the weather apparently, which I never even noticed by the way until a few years ago, and that was because he'd just had his wisdom teeth pulled two days earlier.

Thank you for reading,

Ryan.