For the longest time, I mistook Piano Man as being Billy Joel's third album instead of his second. When compared with Streetlife Serenade , it just seems so much more realized and complete. Each song lived-in and thought-through. While not a perfect album, it seems like a logical lead-in to his run of classic records that started with Turnstiles . I don't know if my confusion speaks more to the unevenness of Streetlife Serenade or to the quality of Piano Man , but for the purposes of this review, let's say it's the latter. As a whole, Piano Man feels like a collection of lost songs from Broadway productions. I say "productions" plural becasue this is not a concept album. The songs are all over the place thematically and musically, but what they share in common is a theatricality of presentation and a focus on storytelling. To my mind the album is anchored by three epics that come at the beginning, middle, and end. First is the semiautobigraphical "Piano...
To be read at maximum volume.