The one singer Billy Joel called one of the best writers in America
Billy Joel is nothing if not a child of the composers who came before him.
While his music can be dangerously close to music nerd territory for many people, it’s impossible for anyone not to get a smile on their face whenever they listen to him work his way through every section of ‘Scenes From an Italian Restaurant’ or sing along with him throughout every second of ‘Uptown Girl’. Because, like it or not, that music is already going to be familiar to people thanks to all those years of him practising among the greatest of all time.
Then again, ‘The Piano Man’s definition of the greats looks a lot different from what the other giants of the industry were used to. It should come as no surprise that he was turned on by The Beatles just like every other rock and roll musician that came before him, but he had already done some deeper digging. He was interested in what the likes of Bach and Beethoven were doing, so it was only natural for him to follow his ear rather than the trends half the time.
And by some miracle, it even works. No one would have guessed that one of the biggest albums of the 1980s would have an entire piece that lifts its melody from Beethoven, but ‘This Night’ still sounds spectacular without the classic bells and whistles. But if Joel was looking to make people think outside the box a little bit more, he wasn’t the only singer-songwriter looking to expand his horizons.
The entire community he grew up in was already used to taking chances. Bruce Springsteen had been telling vivid tales of everyday Americans, but whereas Joel could do very little with a whole piano behind him, he could definitely tell when he was looking at a true original when looking at the Eagles. The California rockers were already one of the biggest names in music, but something about the way that Don Henley was a lot more intriguing for him.
‘Golden Throat’ clearly wasn’t looking to sing love songs for the rest of his life, and Joel was stunned that he had done his homework in terms of lyrics. ‘A Month of Sundays’ was among the greatest tone poems that he had ever heard from that time, and despite having a sound all his own, Joel figured that Henley was one of the single greatest writers that we still had left.
They were two completely different artists from opposing sides of the US, but that didn’t mean Joel couldn’t give Henley his flowers, saying, “Don is one of the top songwriters in American music. He’s written so many great songs with Eagles and on his own. Singing drummers were always kinda strange to me. How do you sing and play drums at the same time? He’s written these really musical songs. He’s a great friend and a very literate man.”
But that admiration is a bit of a two-way street as well. Despite Joel swearing up and down that he was retired from playing music unless Henley wrote the lyrics for him, the Eagle was adamant that the world needed a lot more Joel songs out in the world, even if Joel thinks that he has dried up in many respects.
Even if Joel doesn’t manage to write another song past his latest single ‘Turn the Lights Back On’, though, Henley is proof that it’s possible for him to start maturing his songwriting over time. Most people don’t know what to say after the fans stop screaming, but if Henley can make something as evocative as Cass County, perhaps there’s room for Joel to make a musical answer to records like ‘New York State of Mind’.
