The Billy Joel song thought he should have thrown out: “I was tapped out on ideas”
Not everyone can be that prolific when it comes to songwriting. While most artists are just writing for themselves and don’t worry about the millions of fans who are waiting to hear from them, some people treat it like a job, constantly woodshedding in the studio until they come up with something they can be proud of. Billy Joel may have had that workman’s approach to his classics, but ‘When In Rome’ is the kind of track that he felt should have never seen the light of day.
Then again, the end of the 1980s was bound to be a weird time for any artist of Joel’s calibre. The advent of MTV had thrown everyone for a loop, but right around the time that the hair metal scene started to overstay its welcome, many soft rock artists were starting to get a bit too pretentious for their own good.
While Sting was still making immaculate records, hearing him work with classical musicians did nothing to endear him to rock fans, and Don Henley didn’t seem to be much better at making pillowy rock on ‘The End of the Innocence’. Joel was still making quality records, but nowhere does it fluctuate between classic and tragic than on Storm Front.
Because listening to tracks like ‘The Downeaster Alexa’ and ‘And So It Goes’, it sounded like this was shaping up to be one of the most personal collections of tunes that Joel had ever produced. And then ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ comes on and disrupts the entire vibe of the record.
That’s not to say that it’s not classic in its own way. Some of the rhymes are absolutely ridiculous and the melody needs a lot of work, but the time capsule nature of the tune is still a great novelty from the time. For Joel, though, ‘When In Rome’ was doomed from the moment it got started.
Despite having a cute tie-in to his relationship with Christie Brinkley, Joel didn’t think it excused the song from being poorly written, saying, “It’s a cliché: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ It’s one of my crappy songs. I wish I could take that one back. When I’m home, all it’s gotta be is me and you, when in Rome do as the Romans do. Wow, how profound. I think I was just tapped out ideas when I wrote that one.”
That being said, sometimes cliches work for a reason, and ‘When In Rome’ is still far from a bad song. It’s nowhere near the heights of ‘Scenes From an Italian Restaurant’, but in terms of his nervy songs, he does sell it well enough by breaking out his soulful pipes during the song’s chorus.
Then again, maybe him putting on a voice may have been his way to hide some of the deficiencies. There are many Joel classics to be found in his later career, but ‘When In Rome’ might be the clearest example of how far polishing a subpar song can get someone.
