10. Billy Joel--An Innocent Man
#10: Billy Joel--An Innocent Man (1983)
Top-Notch Tracks: "Tell Her About It," [HJ200 # ], "The Longest Time," "Christie Lee," "An Innocent Man," "Keeping the Faith," "Leave a Tender Moment Alone," "Uptown Girl," "Easy Money," "This Night"
Album Depth: "Careless Talk"
Weak Link: No videos featuring Elle Macpherson.
Stand-Out Lyrics: "Listen, boy, it's good information from a man who's made mistake. Just a word or two that she gets from you could be the difference that it makes."--"Tell Her About It"
"If you said goodbye to me tonight, there would still be music left to write."--"The Longest Time"
"The man's name I don't remember. He was always Joe to me. But, I can't forget the woman. She was always Christie Lee."--"Christie Lee"
"Some people stay far away from a door if there's a chance of it opening up. They hear a voice in the hall outside and hope that it just passes by."--"An Innocent Man"
"I learned stickball as a formal education. Lost a lot of fights, but it taught me how to lose okay. Oh, I heard about sex, but not enough. Found you could dance and still look tough anyway. (Oh, yes, I did.)"--"Keeping the Faith"
"Even though I'm in love, sometimes I get so afraid. I'll say something so wrong, just to have something to say."--"Leave a Tender Moment Alone"
"And when she's walking she's looking so fine. And when she's talking she'll say that she's mine."--"Uptown Girl"
"I don't need an invitation if you've got a game of chance."--"Easy Money"
"And so we danced, though it was only a slow dance. I started breaking my promises right there and then."--"This Night"
"Listen, boy, it's not automatically a certain guarantee. To insure yourself you've got to provide communication constantly."--"Tell Her About It"
"I don't care what consequence it brings. I have been a fool for lesser things."--"The Longest Time"
"All she wanted was the sax."--"Christie Lee"
"Some people run from a possible fight. Some people figure they can never win. And although this is a fight I can lose, the accused is an innocent man."--"An Innocent Man"
"I'm gonna listen to my 45s. Ain't it wonderful to be alive when the rock and roll plays?"--"Keeping the Faith"
"But it's not only me breaking down when the tension gets high. Just when I'm in a serious mood, she is suddenly quiet and shy."--"Leave a Tender Moment Alone"
"Talk me into losing just as long as I can win."--"Easy Money"
"Tell her all your crazy dreams. Let her know you need her. Let her know how much she means."--"Tell Her About It"
"The good ol' days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."--"Keeping the Faith"
Comments: Released in August of 1983, the "An Innocent Man" album was the de facto soundtrack for my senior year of high school. For some people, that would be the greatest compliment in the world, because for some people their senior year of high school was the greatest time of their life. Not so much for me, though. Oh, it wasn't terrible, but it certainly had its ups and downs.
There was the period of me pining for a girl but being too damn shy to do much to woo her, other than ask her out then only say ten words to her on the date. There was the period where I learned to get over pining for the girl, because I could see that it wasn't going to happen. Then there was the brief period where I was forced to relive my first date with the girl, which rekindled the pining and also filled me with even more crippling fear. So, no, it wasn't the greatest year of my life.
But, it ended on a high note. There was the extended bus vacation with my best friends, filled with fun and wonderful memories. And then, on April 23, 1984, there was the trip to the big city to see my musical hero in person. It seemed like we were in Billy Joel's back pocket as he blasted onto the stage playing "Prelude/Angry Young Man." I'll always remember the thrill of that moment.
Of course, it was the "Innocent Man" tour, so he played several songs from this album. Billy was in top form at this concert, and I knew every song by heart.
"The Longest Time" will always remind me of that concert, and also of being on the back seat of the bus on band tour with a stupid tape player. We weren't as funny as we thought we were at the time, but we were probably funnier than I think we were looking back. (High school kids: they think they're so smart.)
When I first heard the album, I wasn't sure what to think of the "concept." Doo-wop? Really? But it didn't take long for all of the songs to resonate with me. The music videos certainly helped, with Rodney Dangerfield, Ed Sullivan, high school reunions, and, of course, Christie Brinkley being featured. (Yes, there was always Christie Lee!)
The lyrics to "Tell Her About It" made so much sense, even if I was too petrified to tell the girl I like anything besides "hello." And, "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" had some really good sounding relationship advice, or so thought someone who had never been in a serious relationship and wouldn't for another twenty years.
I must admit, I initially thought Billy borrowed the tune for the chorus of "This Night" from Louise Tucker before learning that both he and Louise borrowed it from Beethoven. (Looking at the video for "Midnight Blue," Louise seems like a cross between Enya and Bonnie Tyler.)
Yes, this is definitely one of my favorite albums from the "good old days." And that's not always as bad as it seems.
Up next: That is one hot werewolf!
In regards to your memories of being forced to relive your first date with a girl that you pined after for so long, I too was on that second date being forced to relive the first date with a girl that I still kind of pined after, even though I knew there was no hope at all of ever finding a way into her heart. We were both pretty miserable during that second date. And we got even more miserable after it. What I remember about the number of words you spoke on both the first and second date was this--even if you only spoke ten words, you still talked twice as much as your date did. I think I blathered on and on and on just to try to avoid uncomfortable silences. And I do remember later on wishing that I hadn't said so much during those two dates, and I got to the point that I even wished that I hadn't gone on either one of them. But now I look back on those two dates as moments in time when I learned a very important life lesson that is in exact opposition to the advice of my beloved Billy Joel. And that life lesson is...don't tell her about it. That's right. Keep your damn mouth shut and don't say a thing. Talking only makes things worse.
ReplyDeleteAnd so, you were, in fact, wise beyond your years during those two dates by keeping your comments to a minimum. If I had done that, then maybe things would have worked out better for the both of us.
But I will say that we were pretty funny with all the careless talk on that band tour bus. Not as funny as we thought we were, but still pretty damn funny considering that our comedy heroes at the time were Bob and Doug McKenzie and Paul Hogan. In fact, the kids today would say that what we were doing by recording ourselves in the back of the bus is "podcasting." So we were podcasting a full two decades before it even became a thing. See, today, there are people making a good living online doing what we did back on the tour bus. If only we'd known how popular podcasts would become, we would have recorded ourselves doing a lot more of them, and then we could release them now and make some righteous bucks off of our teenage foolishness.
I will end my comment by saying just one criticism of An Innocent Man. Rodney Dangerfield appeared in one of Billy's videos for the album, and in return, Billy wrote "Easy Money" as the opening theme song to Dangerfield's movie by the same name. That song is the only weak link on this album. Oh, I'll still listen to it and sing along with they lyrics, but I have always thought the song didn't fit with the rest of the songs on the album, and the lyrics were a little forced and not on par with the lyrics in the other songs. The first time I heard the line "I got a hot slot machine of a system ready to go" I thought to myself that it was possibly the most ridiculous line I'd ever heard Billy sing. And I still think that's the case today. But the rest of the songs on the album more than make up for that little lyrical snafu. And it's a good thing that they do, because if the rest of the songs on the album were as bad as "Easy Money," the album would have spent its short life sitting on the 1983 discount rack like another can of beans.
Nardo