The Bridge is known in the Billy Joel catalog as "the one he was forced to make." Having conquered the world with 1983's An Innocent Man (featuring his second number one hit, "Tell Her About It") and his 1985 Greatest Hits album, Billy married Christie Brinkley and they promptly had a daughter, Alexa Ray.
Understandably, he didn't want to leave his new wife and baby to spend time in the recording studio, especially when he barely had enough songs for an album.
He was also at odds with his long-term collaborators, producer Phil Ramone and the Billy Joel Band (Doug Stegmeyer, Russell Javors, and Liberty DiVito), all of whom he'd worked with for ten years of his greatest successes. In fact, The Bridge would be the last album of their legendary run, but musically it fits much more with the two albums that succeeded it than the ones that came before. That is to say, it's the beginning of Billy's late stage shift to adult contemporary.
Even so, The Bridge is about three-fourths of a good record.
The first five songs (Side A on the LP) are a solid run. The weakest is opener "Running on Ice," a Police-soundalike that arrived about three years too late to get any bandwagon benefits. But even that's not a bad song. And from there it's four straight Billy classics, all of which charted on the Billboard 100: "This is the Time," "A Matter of Trust," "Modern Woman," and "Baby Grand." The first three form a trilogy about mature commitment, and what a relationship looks like after the first rush of elation wears off. "Baby Grand," is also a love song, though directed toward a piano. It's a fun duet with one of Billy's heroes - and fellow "We Are the World" participants - Ray Charles.
Side B is more of a chore. "Big Man on Mulberry Street" has its fans, but I'm not one of them. I think it's overlong, with a vocal that seems strained in places. Anyway, Billy took on the theme more effectively on "I Go To Extremes." That's followed by, "Temptation," a ballad that on the surface could be mistaken for an ode to an alluring romantic partner, but is actually about not wanting to leave baby Alexa Ray to go to work. It shows the weight of expectation that his success had placed on Billy, that he wasn't able to even prioritize spending time with his newborn daughter. For "Code of Silence" Billy teamed up with another "We Are the World" veteran, Cyndi Lauper. Lauper got a rare co-writing credit on a tune that's about the benefits and dangers of not properly dealing with past traumas. And saving the worst for last is "Getting Closer" a bitterly sour tirade about his troubles with money and management. Not only does the song waste its guest appearance from Steve Winwood, it also fails to do what Billy's best songs do, take something very personal and make it feel universal.
And that's it. Nine songs: Four of them great, three okay, and two pretty bad. Again, not terrible for an album the artist didn't even want to make, but one can't help but wonder what we'd have gotten if the record company have given Billy just a bit more time.
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