Anyone that knows me knows that I have a never-ending love affair with New York City. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island--I love 'em all, the Five Boroughs, even if I've been to two of them less than a handful of times. As the summer sets in Los Angeles and I reflect on the first year out of the last 7 that I have not been back to my past-life native New York, I suddenly find myself in a head and heart swell of emotion about the Big Apple. The best thing I can do to remedy the situation, at least right now, is wrap myself in music that for me, is evocative of a time in New York that people either love or hate: the 1970s. This Gem Of A Jam entry I give you Billy Joel's "Turnstiles."
In 1976 New York was in a dire state--a depression of sorts, if you will. Actually, the country was, in a way--you would be too if you were turning 200 years old, ringing in your bicentennial. Times Square was filled with sex shops, porn theaters, hustlers, hookers, and hobos. Heroin addicts hung around the infamous Needle Park. "A Chorus Line" was the new hit on Broadway, "The Wiz" still "easin' on down the road" and "Chicago" was "rouging its knees" with two Broadway legends, Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon. What I'm trying to say is amidst the slum, some of the best art was still being created in this Metropolis.
Born in The Bronx in 1949 to a classical pianist father, Billy decided to pursue a career in music after seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. He had been reluctantly taking piano lessons since he was a child. After a few band stints, he signed with Columbia Records in 1972 and had success with his first 3 albums, most notably with "Piano Man." But it wasn't until he returned to NYC after being away for 3 years in Los Angeles that his musical renaissance truly began. "Turnstiles" would begin a series of albums from 1976 forward that would be milestones in the American Pop Music lexicon for years to come. Billy Joel has served as the pop with pathos piano man along with Sir Elton John, for many current artists including Sara Bareilles, Jamie Cullum, John Mayer (melodically/lyrically speaking) and Ben Folds.
The album cover has a bit of a story behind it. Photographed in what Joel says was an abandoned subway station but what music historians have stated as the Astor Place stop on the Lexington Avenue Line, each person on the cover represents a song on the album. Try and guess which person goes with which song!
Opening with the aptly thematic "Say Goodbye To Hollywood," this throwback to The Ronettes has Billy kissing off what he would later consider 3 wasted years in L.A. "Movin' on is a chance you have to take anytime you try to stay together; Say a word out of line and you find that friends you had are gone forever." True songwriting never sounded so good. Bette Midler would later cover this song in a similar version on her 1977 album "Broken Blossoms."
My personal favorite, and one of the greatest songs ever to capture a feeling is "New York State Of Mind." It has since become a standard, being covered by the likes of Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett. As I stated in the intro, I've caught the I-Miss-New-York-Blues and this song is salve to my sorrow. "Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood; Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood. But I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line; I'm in a New York State of mind." Please pass the tissues...and a bag of money because I can't afford to live there.
"I've Loved These Days" has Billy getting real with the state of New York City. A theatrical lament to the excess that sent New York into a downward slide, Mr. Joel gets it just right: "We drown our doubts in dry champagne and soothe our souls with fine cocaine; I don't know why I even care, we'll get so high and get nowhere; We'll have to change our jaded ways, but I've loved these days." The excess wouldn't end until Giuliani came in to overhaul the urban decay to a degree so extreme, New York is now a corporate playground.
Closing the album is "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" a rather prophetic song about the state that New York was headed in. And wouldn't you know it, in many ways this song is the Orwellian 1984 of New York in sonic form. "You know those lights were bright on Broadway; That was so many years ago, before we all lived here in Florida, before the Mafia took over Mexico. There are not many who remember; They say a handful still survive to tell the world about the way the lights went out, and keep the memory alive." #Truth.
Though this 8-song set seems brief, start to finish it is a wonderful love letter to my favorite American city and one of the most resilient cities in the world--New York City. I <3 NY. This album was released just before what is considered Joel's breakthrough album "The Stranger," but that album is for another day and another entry. For now, enjoy this Gem Of A Jam, "Turnstiles." If I can't get to New York this year, at least I can live in "New York State Of Mind."