The Streets Are Safe

Rip It Up, Issue 18, 1 December 1978, Page 12

The Streets Are Safe

Peter Thomson

Billy Joel 52nd Street CBS From the outset, with Captain Jack'' in 72. Billy Joel showed himself to be one of rock s more perceptive wordsmiths The autobiographical first hit. Piano Man.'' ably demonstrated Joel s skill as an acerbic portraitist. It also established his dual person as entertainer and cocksure cynic who both censures and celebrates the bar-rooms and streetlife of his background

On this, his fifth album, he's still hanging out in the Bronx, and many of the characterizations can be seen as developments from his last album The Stranger: Anthony did claim to be Moving Out of the city but seems to have got only "Half a Mile Away Escape has become escapism, sitting on the sidewalk with cheap wine and a transistor

The ambitious juvenile of "Vienna" refused to take that advice to cool it off before you burn it out so the narrator rails at her excesses in Big Shot

There are more "Scenes from an Italian Re staurant" in "Zanzibar "

In writing about women Joel occasionally lapses into the sexist dichotomy of either worshipping them as man s salvation or else envisaging masochistic destruction at the hands of sexual witch Rosalinda's Eyes' pays homage to the saintly ideal, while the siren (who nonetheless remained Always a Woman" on the last album) has become even deadlier, wielding a Stiletto" Often the music enhances these scenes: Big Shot s" thudding hangover is evoked by the pounding piano, and "Stiletto s" introduction of

snapping fingers announces the ; sophisticated bitch.

Both tunes and arrangements continue The Stranger's tendency towards honing the numbers into readily identifiable and commercial musical styles "Until the Night" may be a tribute to Phil Spector and the Righteous Brothers but its also a sitter for the Humperdinck;Rowles audience Big Shot" is uneasily close to Elton John Nearly all the numbers are strong and the album's overall standard is comparable to its platinum predecessor However the peaks are not quite as high Rosalinda's Eyes", the closest in style to "Just the Way You Are . is hauntingly beautiful but somehow lacks the earlier song s instant-classic quality (and Phil Woods alto ) The single. "My Life", is catchy but doesn't accost you as forcefully as The Stranger" did

And there are a few failures The vocal and instrumental sections of Zanzibar" don't cohere Honesty" is just too calculatedly schmaltzy Joel hasn't the subtlety that Rhymin' Simon used to make this theme work a few years ago. But as Joel sings. ‘Melodrama's so much fun. especially if it helps take the album to Number One. as has already happened in the States It seems the entertainer's cynicism is more smug than bitter these days (see "My Life" for example.) If his music seems to be increasingly crafted to take over the market once dominated by the likes of Elton John and Neil Diamond, at least Billy Joel's lyric writing continues to work similar turf to Bruce Springsteen City street pop for suburban living rooms