The Stranger

I'm going to switch gears here a little bit and talk about an individual album. One album I've been particularly into lately is by Billy Joel, an artist who is not only a great singer, but is also a fabulous piano player and songwriter, and that is part of his appeal - for me anyways. Like many stars, he went through periods of depression and alcohol abuse, but the songs he wrote were nonetheless great, whether they were simple catchy pop tunes, or whether they meant something more.

The album that I consider to be the masterpiece of his career was written back in 1977 and was called "The Stranger". What I find interesting about this title is that despite it being a pop album, it still touches upon some of the same themes that the novel "The Stranger", by Albert Camus, does. The novel is an existentialist view of the idea of the self vs the other. In other words, it shows the divide between the inidividual and society, or the inidividual and the other side of themselves. While it is certainly less obvious in Billy Joel's album, the theme very clearly exists.

The most obvious reference is the title track, which presents the idea that "we all have a face that we hide away forever", representing the other side of each person's personality, or "the stranger". This theme carries through most of the rest of the album, although in a very subtle way. Many songs in the album are stories about different people. Everyone from Anthony in "Movin' Out" to Brenda and Eddie in "Scenes from An Italian Retaurant" and even the treacherous woman referenced in "She's Always A Woman". Although this might be a stretch, I think that each person's story represents one of the many faces that we hide away forever. Each song is a different version of how our life could end up if we let a certain part of ourselves take over. This might not have been what Joel intended, but I feel like I can read into it that far.

"Just The Way You Are" is my favorite song on the album, and while it does not fit into that theme, it could be seen as a reference to the fact that who we are is better than who the stranger inside of us is.

The last song "Everybody Has A Dream", while it is about no specific person, clearly references all of the people in the songs throughout the album. They all had dreams, whether those dreams came to anything or not. And finally, to close off the album, the piano theme from the beginning of the title track returns, to bring back the theme of the stranger.

Ok, maybe I'm reading waaaaay too much into this, but if you listen to the album in that way you might notice a few interesting things. Anyways, musically speaking the album is fabulous, and I would recommend you listen to the entire album, but my favorites are definitely "Just The Way You Are", "Scenes from An Italian Restaurant", and "She's Always A Woman".

Well I got a little more philosophical than I intended to there, but whether you appreciate the philosophy or not, listen to this album. It's quite a work of art.

Let me clarify...

Ok so in the last post about Elliott Smith, I realized I didn't cover all of his great music. I only really looked at the two albums from the middle of his career and ignored everything else, which really isn't fair to the catalogue from the rest of his career. With so many of these artists there is just so much to cover so I can't cover it all, but I think I'll make an exception with Elliott Smith, just to wrap it up. To briefly sum up what I think of his earlier and later works: I found his first two albums, "Roman Candle" and the eponymous "Elliott Smith" to be very acoustic and really showed his potential. There are no stand-outs from those albums but as entire albums they are quite good and are cohesive.

As for his later stuff, I have not yet heard the posthumous album "From A Basement On The Hill", so all I can comment on is "Figure 8". I liked Figure 8 quite a bit, but it was much more instrumentalized and less acoustic than his previous albums. In some ways that is a good thing though, because he was able to create more complex soundscapes to put his voice over. Some standouts from that album include "Happiness", "Easy Way Out", and "In The Lost And Found (Honky Bach)". The latter is particularly remarkable for his use of a honky-tonk piano to add a certain amount of surrealism to the song.

Well that about sums up Elliott Smith. A depressed man, but a brilliant artist.

Elliott Smith

I know it would make the most sense if I were to start a music-related blog with the Beatles, but what'd be the fun in that? Instead I'm going to start with an artist who I consider to be one of the most brilliant musical minds of the last 20 years. Perhaps he holds some specific significance to me because he was based in Portland OR, my hometown. But quite simply put his acoustic arrangements, which he wrote and played almost exclusively by himself, were brilliant. Despite that he probably would've remained totally obscure if it weren't for a chance encounter with fame when he got nominated for an oscar.

The fact remains that while he was brilliant throughout, the best of his music came in the middle of his career. Shortly before he penned Miss Misery for the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting, he created the album Either/Or, which has his distinct acoustic songwriting and contains many brilliant songs including "Say Yes", still his most popular song to date http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcnHjjLdNXQ. The other songs on the album are fabulous for their simplicity. You need look no farther than “Between the Bars” or “Angeles” to find songs that are very dreamlike and yet have a dark and subversive meaning that is hard to see at first.

The other one of his albums that should definitely be looked at is XO, which he wrote after he became relatively famous, and his evolving sound is clear in his incorporating more instrumentation. Both of the waltzes on the album are combinations of great instrumentation and poetic lyrics. Perhaps the best song on the album though is “I Didn’t Understand”, which not only has a beautiful tune, but also happens to be entirely composed of Elliott’s voice layered over itself in an a capella-like way that sounds amazing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt499rX2smk&feature=fvst. Like I said, brilliant.

Elliott’s death (supposedly a suicide) was a huge tragedy and his memory and music will be remembered for a long time. To anyone who happens to be reading this: check out his music. You might just find a song or two that means something to you.

What's the point?

In my opinion, there is no real point in making a blog. So why have I gone to the trouble of creating a blog now? Two reasons: the first is that I'm bored. Oh so bored. The second and more significant reason is that I really don't want this blog to be about me. Instead, I'm going to make it be about my opinions on music. Ok so maybe that still makes it self-centered. But I just made this to feel like I'm putting my ideas out there in the world, even if no one cares or reads this. Which I don't really find likely anyways.

So anyways, every once in a while I'll just publish a post thingy where I put my opinions (mostly musical, although I might mix in some philisophical musings, who knows?). Each post will just be about a specific musical idea and have my honest opinions on it. I'll cover songs, albums, artists, composers, the whole she-bang. At some point I'll probably get around to the Beatles and talk about them for example.

So, think what you want, read it or don't read it, just live your life and try to find enjoyment in music if and when you can.

Cheers!