47. Billy Joel--The Bridge
#47: Billy Joel--The Bridge (1986)
Top-Notch Tracks: "Big Man On Mulberry Street," "Running On Ice," "This Is the Time," "A Matter of Trust," "Modern Woman"
Album Depth: "Temptation," "Baby Grand," "Code of Silence"
Weak Link: "Getting Closer"
Stand-Out Lyrics: "I cruise from Houston to Canal Street, a misfit and a rebel. I see the winos talking to themselves and I can understand. Why is it every time I go out I always seem to get in trouble? I guess I made an impression on somebody north of Hester and south of Grand."--"Big Man On Mulberry Street"
"I'm a cosmopolitan sophisticate of culture and intelligence; the culmination of technology and civilized experience."--"Running On Ice"
"Sometimes it's so easy to let a day slip on by without even seeing each other at all. But this is the time you'll turn back to and so will I, and those will be days you can never recall."--"This Is the Time"
"You can't go the distance with too much resistance. I know you have doubts, but for God's sake don't shut me out."--"A Matter of Trust"
"It's a bad waste, a sad case, a rat race. It's breaking me."--Running On Ice"
"What if she figures out you're not very smart? Or maybe she's the quiet type who's into heavy metal? Boy, you got to get it settled 'cause she's breaking your heart."--"Modern Woman"
"I'm warm from the memory of days to come."--"This Is the Time"
"I got too many commitments that are too hard to keep. And I try to be rational, and I try to be wise, but it all gets blown to pieces when I look in her eyes."--"Temptation"
"I'm a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates."--"Running On Ice"
"I'm so romantic. I'm such a passionate man. Sometimes I panic--what if nobody finds out who I am?"--"Big Man On Mulberry Street"
Album Cover: 3 out of 10. What the hell is that thing? It doesn't really look like a bridge, it looks more like some kind of futuristic hallway from the set of an episode of Star Trek. And, it took me almost 35 years to notice that there is a little person on top of the bridge.
Comments: From July 18, 1985 to August 7, 1987 I was living the life of pernicious asceticism, serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As such, I was not supposed to listen to rock and roll music. Of course, that's nice in theory, but as a person travels through the world, on the streets and in the shopping plazas, music is played. A person can't simply turn off their ears and not listen. Also, a person cannot control the situation when a roommate breaks the rules and purchases new music and plays it in the room next door.
A lot of great music came out between July 1985 and August 1987, some of which I heard at the time, like the hits from Huey Lewis and the News album Fore!, and the entire Third Stage album by Boston. (That's the aforementioned album my roommate bought and played.) And since I was banned from purchasing albums during this time, of course my two favorite recording artists came out with albums in 1986. Luckily for me (or unluckily, depending on your point of view) none of the songs from ELO's Balance of Power or Billy Joel's The Bridge were so ubiquitous that I couldn't avoid them. I managed to make it through to August of 1987 without hearing anything from either album.
So, when I got home from my mission, I went on a music spending spree, buying a bunch of the essential music that came out during that void, including the two albums I just mentioned. But, I was not overly impressed with either album. Sure, they had some good songs on them, but neither lived up to the buildup I had made for them in my mind. (This is one reason why, to this day, I have still not seen Top Gun.) I think part of it is they couldn't meet my expectations, and part that I was cramming so much new music down my ear gullets at once that I wasn't able to ease my way into a new album like I normally would do.
Of course, I've now had plenty of time to consume those albums. My opinion of Balance of Power hasn't really changed. It's easily one of the two weakest ELO albums, sounding like a contractual fulfillment album that Jeff Lynne's heart just wasn't in to. But, I've come around to some extent on The Bridge.
One problem with The Bridge is that it is definitely not in the top tier of Billy Joel albums. And, when listing off their favorite Billy Joel songs, rarely would anything from The Bridge make anyone's Top Ten. (It doesn't help that the two best songs (in my opinion) from the album were not released as singles.) ("Running On Ice" and "Big Man On Mulberry Street.")
Having said that, as I was gathering up lyrics for the "Stand-Out Lyrics" section above, I was amazed at the depth and quality of this album's lyrics. There's some damn good stuff here! (From now on I think I'll refer to myself as either a "cosmopolitan sophisticate of culture and intelligence" or "the culmination of technology and civilized experience.")
It's a really good album. (Of course it is--it's Billy Joel!)
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I agree that there is something wrong going on with The Bridge, and I think i know what it is.
ReplyDeleteIt's 1986.
I googled "historical events in 1985," and I saw a number of positive things that occurred that year. Gorbachev became the Soviet leader, there was the worldwide Live Aid concert, and the beginning of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.
I then googled "historical events in 1987," and I saw more positive events, including Reagan visiting Berlin and challenge Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," Aretha Franklin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and The Simpsons premiered on television.
But when I googled "historical events in 1986, I was shocked to see three of the greatest tragedies of our lifetimes--the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and the beginning of the Oprah Winfrey Show.
And in the midst of all of this, you've got Billy Joel releasing an album in which he's trying to define the times in a way that just doesn't fit with the vibe of that year. Something is wrong with the times, and he senses it. He even points that out in the lyrics to Modern Woman when he says "But times have changed, things are not the same" and "it's a strange situation for an old-fashioned guy." And he also says how music has changed, "Rock and roll used to be for kicks, and now it's just for politics, and after 1986 what else could be new?"
With the 1983 Innocent Man album, Billy was focused on the past--a place where he always is most comfortable, I think. He likes studying history, and he's good at working historical references into his songs. (Yes, he did go way overboard with it in "We Didn't Start the Fire.") He's less able to find powerful lyrics in reflecting on the present. And that's what he was trying to do with The Bridge. And it just didn't play to his strengths. It's still a good album worthy of a spot on this Top 60 list, but it is more disjointed than some of his other albums in which the songs just seem to mesh together in a very satisfying way--like Innocent Man, River of Dreams, and The Stranger. He found his footing again in 1989 with Storm Front, which is a much better reflection of how things were going at the end of the decade. But for Billy, I think 1986 was just a lost year, which is another reason why I think the album might resonate with the two of us, because we kind of lost that year ourselves, having sequestered ourselves away into a world of pernicious asceticism.
So to sum up, I blame Oprah.
Nardo