SONIC WAVES…..Billy Joel/Glass Houses

“Don’t throw stones at Glass Houses!” my drafting teacher in high school Mr Dowhos used to tell us daily along with other quirky one liners!  He was a great teacher and geez how does this tie in with this review. Well let me explain it to ya’s…

My Parents were members of Columbia House back in 1980 or so. You remember Columbia House right? Well for those that don’t well here’s how it worked back than. You would get sumthin like 15 albums or 8 Tracks back than for like a $1 and than you would have to order over the next 12 months and pay  full price for those next 12 releases  So once you paid back Columbia for the 12 records owed you could cancel and rejoin for a $1 and do it all again. In 1988 to build up my cd collection I did this but I’m getting ahead here so back to 1980,are ya with me still? So anyways my parents one month decided to let me look thru that months Columbia House catalogue and pick out any selection I wanted!

Umm ok no Kiss,no Cheap Trick,no ACDC,no Queen….shit now what?

Hey what’s this one with some dude about to throw a stone at a Glass House?

Ladies and Gents to this day this is the only Billy I own.( I bought my second copy of it on iTunes ) and its a classic to still own!!!

Billy hits the keys and unleashes on the world a gem…

YOU MAY BE RIGHT- smash,crash and glass and a drunken stupor of a guitar sound starts off some of the best after party fallout lyrics I have ever heard! Billy and the boys are pounding out in track 1 a classic and man it’s a rollicking good time! You may be right sez Billy,I may be crazy ….whoa, but I might just be the lunatic your looking for! Great song 34 years later and guess what we can all relate to it. That is a sign of a great track!

SOMETIMES A FANTASY- Hey!! Who sampled Tbone dialing on the  phone back in 1980? Track 2 and whoa Billy’s blowin my mind back in 1980. I mean the guy looks like he coulda smacked me around if he was in the mafia,like he’s  a real tuff looking dude. Look at the album cover of Glass Houses,you gonna stop him from throwing that rock? Yeah your a bullshitter,u ain’t stopping him and neither am I! So anyways this is a great rock track. Simple,snappy to the point and a pretty damn catchy chorus with ohh ooh oh ooh! Listen to the vid with your ears and crank this simple yet effective cool rocker!

DON’T ASK ME WHY- After Billy runs the first two tracks thru the rock blender,he than spits out  Don’t Ask Me Why! Billy throws down with his band a different vibe with some nice acoustic guitaring and Joel delivers a real good vocal on this and man did this ever get radio play back in the day! For me being a hard rocker Billy is opening my eyes to new frontiers and that’s ok sez I,cuz I don’t wanna get punched out by Billy!

IT’S STILL ROCK N ROLL TO ME- wowzers 4 tracks in and 4 singles! Another one of his mega singles with some cool sax thrown. Sounds to me Billy may have been going thru a mid life musical crisis back in 80 by the sound of the lyrics as he’s trying to fit in with trends. I think it’s safe to say after this album sold 5 million in the U.S. Billy said Fuck You to any kind of trend ! He’s doing it his way!

ALL FOR LEYNA- Billy ends side 1 with a real cool chill song about the girl he’s chasing named LEYNA! He’s doing it all for LEYNA and that’s Allright man as we know which side of the tracks Billy is on! Kinda funny I could go from listening to Shoot To Thrill by ACDC back than right into All For Leyna! Hahaha…no shit and hey thanks Billy for scoping once again my musical landscape!

Folks, if your reading this far, congrats and guess what? This ends side 1 of Glass Houses and for a little rock trivia 101, All 5 songs  up to this point that were on side 1(vinyl)  were released as singles!

Now onward and upwards…..

I DONT WANT TO BE ALONE- Billy rocks it up on this track and this one has some clean guitar action as well but it’s punchy and catchy. Great tune.

SLEEPING WITH THE TELEVSION ON- atta boy Billy, a classic album for me is always the sleeper tracks and this is one of em! I would say if You May Be Right was not a single I would vote  for that one but nope it was a single I gotta Disqualify it from contention! Billy probably got some inspiration as after he was partied up and everyone helped themselves to the Doritos and finished off the last of the beer, Billy was the last guy standing so off people went and Billy bunkered down say at 5 am awoke at 8 am….bam tv is on! Great tune Billy smacks the keys around on his piano and this one has some real cool backing harmonies! Great great track!

C ‘EATAIT TOI(YOU WERE THE ONE) -Billy becomes the first artist in my collection up to that time to name a song I had no friggin idea what It meant ! I mean I understood tunes like Given The Dog A Bone and Shake A Leg but ummm C ‘EATAIT TOI ?? Hahahaha,I guess it means You Were The One. Billy’s looking for comfort and well I’ll be damned there’s some accordion floating around in the sonics of this tune! Kinda surprised this was never a single but we’re at that point where Billy coulda released the whole damn album as singles!

CLOSE TO THE BORDERLINE-well Allright! Joel’s band rocks it up with a kick off with the drums starting the song and some heavy duty cool electric guitar on tap and we’re off with Billy to the borderline and if you  don’t believe me how about these for some of Billy’s lyrics…’blackout heatwave,44 caliber homicide,the bums drop dead and dogs go mad in packs to the West side’ or later on how about these lyrics ‘I got real close friends who will get me high,they don’t know how to talk and they ain’t gonna try’…see I told yous reading earlier in this review that Billy will smack ya around…..this is another solid track!

THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT- Billy slows things down after kicking ass by the borderline and its ok man I’m glad Bill though can show a sensitive side but I will be honest as a 13 year old I skipped this track but later in life I had random play on the on  the iPod and yeah man I can dig this track now! Nice acoustic tune with a total influence of the Beatles on this closing track ! Good ending to a Gem of a recording!

IN CONCLUSION-Dateline 1980…Kiss/Cheap Trick/ACDC/Queen/ Billy Joel….does anybody notice anything?…Bingo!! We got a winner Aaron ! Yep Billy is the solo guy not a band guy and he takes home the prize of being the first ever solo artist I had ever owned and Glass Houses I can still listen to it and man it’s a classic no doubt about it! The funny thing is I never owned or bought anything of Billy’s  after this and it’s kinda crazy I guess when I think about it,but yeah I respect the guy and shit but I dunno why that is but going back  Mr Dowhos I would listen too before launching that rock towards the house but I doubt Billy would have  listened to Mr Dowhos Circa 1980!