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(More customer reviews)In March of 1990, when I was 27, my long time friend Betsy Matteis told me she had several tickets to Billy Joel's then-current Storm Front concert tour. She had watched (with some bemusement, I think) me become a Joel fan over the years, and three months before she had stood in line at a local Ticketmaster outlet for hours so we could go see the Piano Man perform live at the Miami Arena. At the last minute she could not go, but she arranged it so that two friends of hers would accompany me to Overtown and attend the concert.
Of course, Billy's live performances were never really replicated in the albums they promoted. Rather, they tended to be a mix of the new material being presented and a selection of older songs that audiences can sing along to. (The Billy Joel: Live from Yankee Stadium DVD is very close to the content of the Miami shows, down to the sing-along of "Piano Man.")
Storm Front was one of Joel's last pop music albums -- his last offering of original songs, River of Dreams, would come out in 1993 -- and it is one of his best. Six of the 10 songs in Storm Front were included in his Greatest Hits Volume III album, including "Shameless," "And So It Goes," "Leningrad," "The Downeaster Alexa," and "We Didn't Start The Fire."
"We Didn't Start The Fire" is a guitar based song (a rare such one for keyboardist/pianist Joel) that sums up major events in Billy's first 40 years. It's pretty catchy (but difficult to sing along to without the booklet of lyrics) and has had the unexpected but welcome effect of getting kids to remember historical events. Joel, in the DVD of Greatest Hits III, says that teachers would say to their students to listen to "We Didn't Start The Fire" and write the words down.
"Shameless" is a down-and-dirty tribute to the late Jimi Hendrix, who had insouciance to the max and would even chew gum as he sang. Well, here Joel also sings and chews gum at the same time, to the accompaniment of the guitarists in his band. The lyrics are very Hendrix-like, and "Shameless" is an ode to the power women have over their lovers: "I'm shameless, baby I don't have a prayer...."
"Downeaster Alexa," (the name being inspired by Joel's daughter Alexa Ray) is Billy's earnest attempt at writing a true folk song. With a driving backbeat (provided by drummer Liberty DeVito) reminiscent of Celtic music, it deals with the struggles of the Long Island fishermen. "I was a bayman like my father was before," Joel has his narrator inform us, "Can't make a living as a bayman anymore." The song mixes both defiance and wistfulness for a way of life that is passing.
"Leningrad" is an ode to the end of the Cold War. Its opening piano intro sounds very Russian, and the song itself tells the parallel lives of Viktor, a Soviet "child of war" who lost his father during World War II, and Joel, who was "a Cold War kid born in McCarthy times." It is both a requiem to the many victims of the Cold War and a hymn of hope for reconciliation ("we never knew what friend we had/Until we came to Leningrad") which resonates even 14 years after the song was written.
"I Go To Extremes," a song written especially for drummer DeVito, is really an ode to manic depression. In his remarks about the song on the Volume III DVD, Joel explains that most creative people tend to be manic depressive. Whether this is true or not I can't say, but this song is definitely a rock song. With the pounding drums, the restless keyboard, and the pulsing guitars, "I Go To Extremes" talks about the extreme highs and lows most of us face in life.
"And So It Goes" is perhaps the most melancholic song on this album. Dealing with the theme of star-crossed love ("So I would choose to be with you/That's if the choice were mine to make; But you can make decisions too/And you can have this heart to break"), it talks about the feelings lovers have when they know they are in a relationship they know can't last. It's sweet yet sad, and its stark simplicity simply adds to its power to elicit tears.
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