A Conversation about' The Stranger'

Billy Joel- 'The Stranger' 1977


I decided to do something different with this blog post/album review. Instead of giving the history of Billy Joel and the play by play of the tracks I took a different approach. I put on the record ‘The Stranger’ in my room and while all my roommates sat around and listened to it, I cleverly recorded their conversation and will now write it down as it happened the other night. Be aware these are twenty something year old males, and I could not censor them. Like good journalism, I just took it all in. I could only get through the first seven songs, before they all got completely off track. I  only wrote down what pertained to the topic at hand.The key players are Josh, Zac and Coulson. I will set the scene for you now.

It’s 10 pm on a Wednesday evening. Everyone is sitting around enjoying a glass of gin (we were feeling classy) and then Billy Joel’s ‘The Stranger’ side A begins to play.

First song ‘Moving Out’ begins.

J-  “Laughs. I love when the motorcycle revs in this song”
Z- “It revs my engine. Laughs”
J- “Wait. I think it may be a car.’
(They get off topic about something that doesn’t matter)..

The Song ‘The Stranger’ Begins

J-”This song reminds me of when I was little, driving with my mom to Cederdale. And it’s weird because the song is called ‘The Stranger’ but I think it’s about himself?”
(They continue to get off topic once again)
Me (Interjecting)- “Did you guys know Billy Joel drank a lot and I’m pretty sure he married a 19 year old when he was like fifty something?”
Z- “That’s wicked sick.”
J- “Yeah, we obviously know about that. It’s like common knowledge.”

‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ Begins
J- “I never could tell if this song is going to annoy me or not, but it doesn’t.”
Z- “Yeah, no.”
Z- “I don’t really know but this always sounds like two songs, because everyone forgets what it’s going to end up being at the end of the song.”
Me- “Yeah, like ‘Band on the Run’ it’s so crazy. It has like three different parts and if I just heard one part I would have a hard time figuring out what it was.”

Switches to Side B.
‘Vienna’ Begins.
J-”I always wonder if he thinks about Vienna fingers when he plays this song.Laughs”
No one laughs.
Silence.
Z-”This song is beautiful. I want to dance to it at my wedding. Laughs.”

‘Only the Good Die Young’ Begins.

J- “This song is like immediately uplifting.”
Coulson Enters.
C-”You guys remember that kid Pat St. Pierre has the name of this song tattooed on his arm because his little brother died?”

Everyone is silent. The mood immediately becomes gloomy.
Everyone starts to wonder why Coulson even came in the room, in the first place.

Z- “Holy Shit Coulson.”
C- “What?”
Z- “That really killed it for everyone.”
J- (keeping the faith alive) “This song has a similar theme to Uptown Girls.”

Track Listing *= personal favorties

1. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)- 3:30
2. The Stranger- 5:10
3. Just the Way you Are- 4:52 (ours skipped)
4. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant- 7:37*
5. Vienna- 3:34
6. Only the Good Die Young- 3:55*
7. She’s Always a Woman- 3:21
8. Get it Right the First Time- 3:57
9.Everybody Has A Dream/The Stranger- 6:38