Billy Joel isn’t my favorite artist, but I certainly enjoy his
\nwork. He’s fun, has a brilliant touch with songwriting, and knows
\nhow to add just the right touch of irony to his lyrics. He is, in
\nmy opinion, one of the most brilliant composers of the rock era.
\nThat said, he is occasionally erratic in his quality. Some albums
\nare better than others. Some albums, more importantly, are more
\nconsistent than others, which brings us to
\nThe Nylon Curtain<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Written and released during the opening years of Ronald Reagan’s
\npresidency in the US,
\nThe Nylon Curtain<\/i> is the closest that Joel has come to a
\npolitical statement. It opens with the hollow chimes of
\n“Allentown,” a stark criticism of dying industry and promises
\nbroken — but where another artist might have been angry and
\nvicious, Joel is merely resigned, the voice of a man already
\ndefeated. When he sings “Down in Bethlehem they’re killing time,”
\nyou can really feel the death of time, of people’s hopes crushed by
\nthe failure of Big Business. “Allentown” is one of the greatest
\nsongs Joel has ever recorded.<\/p>\n
Move forward. Pass “Laura,” an interesting but mostly
\nunremarkable song about co-dependency, and run smack dab into
\nanother masterpiece, “Pressure.” From the moment the dry, crisp
\nsnare-and-cymbal intro hits (played by Joel regular Liberty
\nDiVitto, a severely underappreciated drummer) and the bass begins a
\nsoft, insistent pounding like a heartbeat, you know that this is a
\nsong that will not let up. Joel’s lyrics about tension and pressure
\nin the fast-paced society of early-eighties America creates its own
\ntension through an unresolved, fierce melody. “Pressure” is about
\npressure, plain and simple, and it may be the most coherent musical
\ntrigger for emotion ever written.<\/p>\n
“Pressure” fades out, and Joel still doesn’t let up. A few
\nseconds’ silence, and then the helicopters signal the beginning of
\n“Goodnight Saigon,” Joel’s cold, clinical examination of the
\nVietnam War and its effect on those who went, those who fought, and
\nthose who survived. With a backing of acoustic guitar, it’s a
\ncampfire song for the damned, harrowing in its gentleness. (One of
\nthe greatest concert moments I have ever been privileged enough to
\nwitness was Joel singing this live in Indianapolis in 1986, backed
\nby a choir of ‘Nam veterans. Words can’t do it justice.)<\/p>\n
Then you have the rest of the CD. And therein lies the problem.
\nThe Nylon Curtain<\/i> is an interesting example of a CD that
\ndoesn’t completely work because of the
\norder<\/i> of the songs. During the vinyl and cassette area, the
\nbreak between sides (which I
\nthink<\/i>, trying to remember back to my high school vinyl copy,
\nwas after “Goodnight Saigon”) would have helped. On CD,
\nThe Nylon Curtain<\/i> suffers from its own excellence.<\/p>\n
There are a few good songs remaining — “Surprises” and
\n“Scandinavian Skies” most notably — and a couple of throwaway
\ntracks in “She’s Right On Time” and “Where’s The Orchestra?”. But
\nthere is nothing to match the impact of the three singles.<\/p>\n
Is it still a good CD? By all means. If nothing else, it
\ncontains three of Joel’s greatest songs ever. Could it have been
\nbetter? Probably. But it remains a testament to a dark, bleak time
\nin America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5760],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36709","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-billy-joel","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36709"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36709"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}