He is an Entertainer

I've been listening to Billy Joel's music for a long time.  I remember my parents playing the Glass Houses album.  There were times when I was 6 or 7 where I learned the lyrics to "Only the Good Die Young" and "Keeping the Faith" (not the most age appropriate songs for me at the time.  By 10, I was familiar with his River of Dreams album and the song he performed for Disney's Oliver & Company.  I've had the privilege of seeing one of his shows at the Carrier Dome, and have gotten some of his albums myself.  There was even this awesome night on the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship last June, where a lounge singer named David dedicated the night's show to covering Billy Joel and Elton John.  Something about the music that David was playing brought the whole room together singing along with a list of songs.  Generations were bridged by our fandom that night.  Some family members in the room above could hear us singing along with "You may be Right." I think that's indicative of David's talent.

He invited us to place requests, and for many of the songs, he could bring up the sheet music on his tablet.  If you've been following this blog, you'll know that the music I go for may not always be the more well known songs.  When I requested "the Entertainer" from 1974's Streetlife Serenade.  I could see that David liked the song too, but didn't have the material on him.

Now, when people often hear of "the Entertainer" as a musical piece, they often think of the old 1902 piano rag by Scott Joplin.  I've seen a video of Milton Berle putting lyrics to that piece on an episode of the Muppet Show.  While Berle's lyrics were about the quintessential vaudevillian star, Billy Joel wrote a fresh new piece about his experiences in the music industry.  It has a perspective that I'd compare to when Jackson Browne plays the "the Load-Out" and "Stay."

Joel writes about the struggle to stay contemporary so that he's not forgotten about.  He writes about what he must do to get into the business and survive, the glamorous side of his life, and what it's like touring through a list of venues.  He starts singing about an upcoming album, and how he had to cut the length of a track to make it more sellable to radio stations.  Looking forward to the release, he's still nervous, because it could be placed on the record store's discount rack, and the fight to stay relevant would be all the more difficult.

For many reasons, this song is different from most of his catalogue.  It's not talking about love, or family, he's talking about his career.  This song was from his third album, but the song is about the period of his life between first setting out as a musician, and the release of album #2, the Piano Man. I'm not too sure if he has any other songs that do away with refrains so that 7 verses can fit in one track.  He does have a lot to say, and does so with a quick tempo.  Songs of such length aren't that common for any musicians.  The closest I can think of right now is Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" which can take 7 minutes for the singer to get through the 48 lines.

Billy Joel's Entertainer is indeed entertaining.  The same can be said for the man himself.