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I got addicted to this book. Which is kind of funny, I could never fathom Rachel Kushner before. I read her “Flamethrowers” and I’m not sure I even understood it. Oh, I got the big picture, but the little picture, the photographs inside the movie, it felt like reading “Ulysses,” albeit much shorter.

I’m looking for fulfillment, zing. Ordinary doesn’t interest me. And with so little sand left in the hourglass, I become paralyzed, by choice. I don’t want to waste time on mediocre, I don’t want to feel like I’m just passing time, I want to eat up life.

I’ve always wanted to eat up life, I’ve always had my sights aimed at the top. And I thought everybody was like me but this turned out to be untrue.

I didn’t have a desire to get married. I didn’t want to settle down. I wanted to do stuff, I didn’t want to watch my kids do stuff. I didn’t want to sacrifice. I didn’t get the kids thing until I was over forty, I actually proffered to my sometime to be ex that we have some, little did I know she was screwing somebody else, I’ve only realized as time has gone by that honesty was not her forte.

But then the window passes. At least it passed me by. I’ve still got the equipment, but I don’t wan to be like Tony Randall, have kids when I’m almost eighty.

But the deeper you go, the longer you stick around, the less meaning life has. You think it’s building to a crescendo, when in truth it’s going to fade out, peter out, and you can see the end coming and nobody else cares because it’s the way of life, everybody dies.

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. That’s what James Taylor sang. Back when we were all paying attention, when one album could reach everybody. Before life became a smorgasbord of offerings with no center. Do you find this confusing? I certainly do. There’s not enough time to dig deep and get the lay of the landscape, never mind the fact that they’re constantly releasing new product. All you can do is go on your own private hejira, and it better have meaning for you, because it has no meaning for anybody else.

So I felt like I was reading to kill time. Well, not exactly. Let me put it another way, I felt like when I was done reading a book I had killed time. And they’re not making any more of it.

So I decided to read the Top Ten lists, looking for stuff I’d missed that I wanted to read.

And when I got back to 2018, I found “The Mars Room.”

Boy did they make a big deal about it when it was released. They even had a special section of the “Times” where a portion was published. You don’t want to overhype these days. And the funny thing is it’s nonfiction that bursts out of the gate, fiction needs a while to percolate in the marketplace. Readers have to find it and trumpet it and then word of mouth happens. Or it does not. “The Mars Room” was not as successful commercially as it was predicted to be. It was backlash. Also, the looky-loos gave it a try and found out that Kushner was anything but highly readable, you had to focus, you couldn’t be interrupted, you had to commit to get the dividends, which is not how so many read books these days. They read the junk, which is more about turning pages, which they can finish quickly. Or they read the tomes, and take a whole summer to finish them.

So I had “The Mars Room” on my Kindle. My mother had purchased it for one of her book groups. I don’t think she ever read it. Oh, did I tell you my mother was dead? Kind of freeing if you want to know the truth. I check myself constantly. When I start seizing, freezing up, I realize that my mother is buried and that her judgment is irrelevant! It’s just me now.

That’s another thing. All the regrets I’ve had (and if you don’t have any you’re lying). We all misstep. But then you realize the person you offended, the person you mishandled, the person you’d want to make peace with even though you’re not going to make the effort, is DEAD! It just doesn’t matter anymore. And soon you’ll be dead too.

So I read on a Kindle. I’ve got the Oasis, the top of the line. Actually, now there’s a cheaper, newer one with more battery life, but it doesn’t have the page turning buttons, and the buttons enhance the reading experience.

And the thing about the Kindle is e-ink is not like a computer screen, it’s like a book. Whereas an iPad… That is like a computer screen, and it’s supposedly harder on the eyes, although you can turn on Night Shift after dark, which yellows the screen, supposedly so you can still fall asleep, but it’s a completely different reading experience, one that I pooh-pooh. But I found myself reading an OCD book on the iPad last year and it worked. And I was using both my iPhone and iPad to check out books, to research what to read, and then I told myself… Why don’t I try reading “The Mars Room” on my iPad. Maybe that will make the difference. Because I’ve started “The Mars Room” at least twice and didn’t get far past the first page.

The iPad is bigger. Even though the Oasis has at least one more line than the rest of the Kindles. The iPad is essentially a page per page, i.e. one book page equals one book page in the Kindle app on the iPad, whereas this is not the case on the Kindle, and that’s frustrating, because you turn the “page” and yet you’re still on the same page.

And lo and behold I could suddenly get into it! The book, “The Mars Room,” I’m talking about.

And then I couldn’t stop.

Well, this was after I realized I had to put the iPad in Airplane Mode, otherwise I’d read something and it would stimulate me and I’d go on the web to research it and that would inspire me to research something else and…

I hate the weekends, I like the action of the weekdays. Funny how you can blow time on the weekend that you’d love to have back during the week.

So I’m reading and when I stop “The Mars Room” is calling to me, it’s giving me something to live for. And we all need something to live for. And it’s even better if it’s private, just for us.

That’s the magic of “The Mars Room.” It’s off the grid. As in it doesn’t fit into everyday society, the modern world. It’s ultimately a prison story. Very detailed. But prisoners exist in a parallel universe, akin to the one you want to visit when you read. You want to be taken away, you want to marinate in a space that only you and the book inhabit, YOU WANT TO OWN IT!

Yes, that’s what we’re looking for in all our entertainment, something we can own.

Let me give you a few examples.

Like “You Can Count On Me,” I love that movie. Or “Something Wild.”

And it doesn’t matter that everybody knows it, Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” you can own too, because of her honesty, her directness, she’s only playing to herself, you’ve got a window into her world, it feels personal.

Now when you work outside the system, try to create a personal experience, a transcendent experience, the suits at the entertainment companies are not interested. Because there are none of the obvious hooks, nothing to pre-sell the project on, get people interested.

Back before entertainment truly became big business that was not an issue. But now all anybody wants are grand slams, even a single is not good enough, never mind a bunt. But one bunt can change the whole game. It’s unexpected, it’s nearly sotto voce, unlike a home run it pulls everybody in, quickly, while the runners hustle around the bases.

But most players bunt poorly. It’s an easy out. But when you do it right…

So you’ve got Romy, who is serving two life sentences. I don’t think I’m giving anything away here. How do you cope knowing there’s no way out.

And the crooked cop.

And the cast of characters behind bars.

Kushner does an excellent job of portraying the other universe of incarceration. How much food you can eat, the attitude of the guards, the inmate society. There’s no way you can stand alone, above the fray. You’re dragged in. And you’re gonna break the code, everybody does. And the population helps you. You see what they’ve got and you want some too.

And it’s kind of like football. The dear departed John Madden said you play one game in the NFL and your body will never be the same. Go to jail for a while, not the holding tank, not county, and you’re never going to recover, even if you get out and never go back.

You see now, more than ever, people like to believe we’re not animals at heart, that there are morals, rules, that it’s not every person for themselves. But that’s the way it really is. If it’s between them and you they’re going to choose themselves, they may not even hip you to the contest, they want every advantage they can get.

And love/sex/relationships. That’s what makes the world go ’round. You regularly hear about guards falling in love with prisoners and helping them escape. The truth is if you live in a closed environment…people are just people and you’re gonna be infatuated, fall in love with them. You think you’re holding out for the movie star, the rich and famous person, but it really comes down to who you’re around. Which is one reason why you should hang around with the kind of people you want to be married to, or do business with. The fact that marriage in the U.S. is based on bumping into people in bars is ridiculous. As for the apps… Hell, play enough and you might find someone, but many people are delusional, they think they can create a checklist of what they want, not knowing the problem is THEM!

So I’m not recommending “The Mars Room.” I just don’t think most people will like it. Hell, most people are doing their best to stay connected to society, they don’t want to step aside and get out of the fray.

But that’s where the rewards lie.

Only when you get outside of life can you really see it.

So “The Mars Room” proved to me that some books are better than others, some records are better than others, ditto movies and TV. Sure, we all have access to the same creative tools, but some people are just more skilled, they can do it better than the rest.

And those at the top are not competing. Because in truth, in art, you’re only competing against yourself. You’re doing your best to get what’s in your head, your emotions, your feelings, down. That’s the key to excellence, plot is secondary.

So you wonder why it’s a blockbuster culture. Because there’s a limited amount of great stuff!

Is “The Mars Room” perfect? No. A bogus leave-you-hanging ending, like in too much vaunted fiction. If you’re looking for ultimate resolution, this is not the place, go for the lowbrow stuff. And the ending makes sense, but really, I’d like a whole ‘nother book, kind of like Franzen, with his new “Crossroads” trilogy.

“Crossroads” is excellent. Too bad Franzen himself is so self-satisfied he turns people off. I highly recommend it. It’s highly readable.

“The Mars Room” is something different. Maybe because it’s written by a woman. Deborah Tannen says women don’t compete. Of course there are exceptions, but reading “The Mars Room” you don’t get the feeling that Kushner is trying to create something that will reach everybody, that will be crowned as the latest and greatest. Well, I don’t know Rachel, but the book doesn’t read that way. It reads like someone got an idea, pursued it, and then laid it down, finished it. It’s a project. And most projects go nowhere, because the people behind them are just not good enough.

This is what artist wannabes don’t realize. We’re not looking for entertainment, we’re looking for life itself, our lives reflected back upon us, insight. And it’s very hard to do this. And if you ever met some of the people who can achieve this, your jaw would drop, so many are maladjusted. But they can do this one thing.

I guess my only hope here is you read the above and get an impression of the experience I had reading “The Mars Room.” Which I just finished. In three days. Well, forty eight hours. Screw the plot, it’s irrelevant. A book can be about anything. But does it transport you, make you feel like a human being, that life is worth living. Does it set your mind free to wander, put together links you didn’t see previously. Ultimately does it make you feel less alone?

That’s how I felt reading “The Mars Room.”

Your mileage may differ. I’d proffer most people’s mileage will differ.

But who cares about most people? 

He’s a DINO. As in “Democrat In Name Only.”

This doesn’t happen in the Republican party. Go against the tribe and not only are you ostracized, YOU’RE PRIMARIED!

The Democrats have to put the fear of God into Joe Manchin. Because this guy is holding up the entire Democratic agenda, which is putting the Democratic party in jeopardy in toto. Yes, “supposed Democrat” Joe Manchin is single-handedly disillusioning the youth and turning the country towards Republicans. Meanwhile, he sits self-satisfied on his boat believing he’s the grand pooh-bah, everybody kowtowing to him.

Screw that.

So he’s going to turn Republican. That’s the threat? No problem! Go that way Joe. Append yourself to the party of Trump. And we’ll run a Democrat against you in West Virginia and you’ll be forced to defend your biased positions. Pro old energy when you’re invested in it. How’s that gonna look when someone runs to the left of it and hammers it all day long on television and online, where the young voters live. The young voters are not getting rich off oil and coal, it’s the oldsters. Running a candidate to the left of Manchin will motivate them to vote. And if enough of them do, there’s no way Manchin can win, NO WAY!

Joe needs to be scared. Made to quake in his boots.

Enough with Schumer talking nice. What you do with a guy like this is freeze him out. Remove all access. Treat him as a pariah. It’s like nobody in government has ever won in business, never mind in sports. When someone believes they’re bigger than the game, when they’re holding up the works, you make that person PAY!

Instead, “supposed Democrat” Manchin is a hero to the right. While being paid fealty by the left.

Sure, the guy is in the middle of his term. But he’s got to be told he’s being primaried, period. The Democrats hew to conventional wisdom, about a theoretical center, akin to the “silent majority” of Nixon’s era. That’s B.S. Wanna know how you win? Run further to the left, energize people! Stop telling me about the non-vocal centrists who you’re so convinced exist and are the majority voting pool.

This isn’t the strategy the Republicans employed to dominance. They took the whole party to the right. And if you go against them… Hell, they primaried Liz Cheney, who despite her participation in the January 6th committee was as loyal a Republican soldier as existed. Let’s see, to get her to change lanes, stand up for the truth, was Donald Trump trying to overthrow the government. What is making Manchin go against the Democratic party, there is no equivalent reasoning.

Live in the past at your peril. Haven’t we seen this demonstrated for the last twenty five years, with tech?

And then there’s electric cars. Now all automobile companies, ALL have said they’re going totally electric. Meanwhile, Tesla, with first mover advantage, not only dominates the sphere, but is far ahead technologically and is more valuable than the next eight car companies combined.

But old Joe is defending the fossil fuel industry in his state. Resisting green energy initiatives. This guy needs to be dragged around behind a smoke spewing automobile in a parade. This guy needs to be exposed to his choices. Yes, pollution kills. How come all the kids know this and this ancient creep does not? Oh, he knows it, he’s just voting with his pocket book, and trying to keep his job. Which is what old folks do, put themselves first. And this dude is so compromised he’s not even compromising!

Let’s look at the cost of Manchin’s obstinance.

Health care? Kablooey. National health care is so popular that the Republicans can’t bring it down, now that the public has it, it loves it. But as far as expanding it, Joe’s got his finger in the dike, protecting…exactly who?

Climate… There’s a mustard shortage in France, because the seeds from Canada died because of heat in Alberta, and unfavorable growing conditions in the home country. Evidence of global warming right there. (https://nyti.ms/3yCrn9y)

Taxes? This prick is against raising them for the wealthiest and the corporations. This is something EVERYBODY in America wants other than the rich themselves. This is incredibly popular amongst not only Gen-Z, but the Millennials, now in their thirties, who’ve seen their futures hobbled by these riggers of the financial system. Talk about something popular, that will get you votes. But NO! Joe is siding with the rich!

But where is a Democratic voter in West Virginia supposed to go? It’s either Joe or a Republican. But if someone ran to the left of Joe…

Oh, the seat could be lost!

Boohoo. How could that be worse than what we’ve got now? If you’re not willing to risk, you cannot win.

Incremental change my ass. If we don’t give the rank and file hope, they’re going to disengage from the system, many of them already have. I’m running on fumes, things have been going the wrong way for years. I’d like to sit down with Biden and Schumer, the first thing I’d tell them is GROW A PAIR!

What do you do with bullies? Which is essentially what Manchin is? YOU STAND UP TO THEM! You don’t appease them, try to reason with them, it never works, as they ask for more and more and deliver less and less.

I’d like to look at the news and see a victory for a change, instead of endless losses and wimpy Democrats saying their hands are tied.

Let’s see… Inflation and gas prices. Irrelevant of the truth, Biden owns them, it’s his fault, the Republicans have hammered this and most people are too uneducated to know, never mind understand, the truth.

Guns? How come the Republicans win this endlessly. Hell, propose a Constitutional amendment, who cares if it passes or not, it will demonstrate to the public, which overwhelmingly supports gun control, that they are heard, that something is being tried.

Income inequality? Come on, I feel it. No matter how hard I work, I cannot make the kind of money these Wall Street titans have. Or even the execs following in the footsteps of Jack Welch, overpaid to ruin corporations. Where’s my incentive?

As for those of you licking the boots of the rich, eating the crumbs, believe me, as soon as the winds start blowing in a different direction, as soon as the “benefactors”‘s needs change, you’ll be starving, the crumbs will no longer fall. You’re a slave, you just won’t admit it. Yes, you flew on the private jet, but you couldn’t pick your seat, you had to kiss the ass of the owner… Or you were on their yacht. You’re a patsy. Speak English to these people, see how they react. Behind every great fortune there is a crime. And I’m sure Joe Manchin has committed a few too. How about we look into his finances, his history, to the point where he has to resign. Who’s going to stand up for this mealy-mouthed jerk. He’ll complain, it’s unfair! Too bad! This goes two ways, you mess with us, we mess with you.

How come I know all this and nobody in D.C. does.

This is what happens when you strive for consensus. These proposals date back to the beginning of Biden’s presidency. He should have rammed them through. All this hogwash about Obama spending political capital getting the Affordable Care Act passed at the expense of other initiatives is just that. The Affordable Care Act is his signature piece of legislation, and it helped get him elected to a second term. Biden, if you plan to try to get re-elected, what are you gonna run on? That you’re better than the person on the right? DON’T COUNT ON IT!

And if you follow polls, Trump is fading in the hearts of Republicans every damn day. So I don’t want to hear we must believe in Biden because he beats Trump. Hell, everyone expected Jeb Bush to be the nominee in 2016, but it was Trump. And the January 6th committee may not reach diehard election results deniers, but it’s making inroads every damn day.

I’m not gonna beg Manchin to see the light. I’m gonna offer him a deal he can’t refuse. Either you toe the party line or it’s war. It’s all of us against the single you. Everybody’s got baggage, and everybody can be nailed by it. You’re gonna look bad Joe Manchin. And you’re gonna be squealing like Lindsey Graham once we start putting the pressure on you. Do you want all that? Do you want to sacrifice the entire country to appease your donor base, a limited number of rich people? 

I don’t think so.

This is much easier than it looks.

It’s just that Schumer and Biden have never been in a street fight, they’ve never watched “The Godfather,” they’ve got no idea what is truly going on out there. They can’t handle the truth.

Be afraid Joe Manchin, be very afraid. You’re going to be toppled from your perch. By time we’re done with you you’re going to be crying “uncle,” begging us to keep your job.

It’s all here Democrats. GO FOR IT!

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3O70Erp

1

“Songs In the Attic” is my favorite Billy Joel album.

I got on the Billy Joel train with “Glass Houses,” his “new wave” album. By this time Billy was an established quantity, a man with tracks on AM and FM, but that was not the case previously, especially nationally.

You see “Piano Man” was a hit single, when you only listened to AM in the car and FM and albums ruled at home. Billy was never perceived as cool. You couldn’t avoid the hit single, but unless you bought it you probably never heard the album.

And then came two more that were stiff out of the box. You see Billy had no built-in fanbase, to keep his music and career alive. Not at a prodigious level. It wasn’t until “The Stranger” that Billy Joel became a ubiquitous superstar. Never underestimate the influence of Phil Ramone, he gave the album a sheen, he levitated Billy’s sound to a whole new level, and it was embraced by many.

But not all, because “Just the Way You Are” was perceived to be too sappy, especially the change at the end. Oh, it was a gigantic hit, but it seemed to be an exercise as opposed to a reach. And those days were different, the cognoscenti, the FM crowd, only respected you if you tested limits, if you pushed the envelope, if you shot for the stars. Today if you have a hit single you’re considered a god, a success, that’s the goal, but it wasn’t back then.

Then came “52nd Street.” With “My Life.”

“My Life” was bigger than any track of the last ten years, maybe twenty. “My Life” was everywhere. Maybe it was a bit too poppy, but the message resonated with boomers in the seventies, after the youthquake of the sixties had passed and they were forced to take the working world seriously. Their parents told them to do one thing, was that the path they should take? And in truth, most did what their parents wanted, they played it safe, they lived through musicians taking a risk.

But the opening track “Big Shot” had balls.

I could never get over the fact that Billy was pictured on the cover with a horn he didn’t play, but “Big Shot” exploded out of the speakers, I had to drop the needle on it whenever I went to Tony’s house, he owned it, I wasn’t ready to take the risk.

“Because you had to be a big shot, didn’t you

You had to open up your mouth

You had to be a big shot, didn’t you

All your friends were so knocked out

You had to have the last word, last night

You know what everything’s about

You had to have a white hot spotlight

You had to be a big shot last night”

Rock stars were anti-establishment, they didn’t want in, they wanted to stay out, which was part of their great appeal. That’s what being a rock star is all about, doing it your way, not caring what everybody else thinks or says.

You didn’t want to hang with the glitterati, the rich and famous, YOU were rich and famous, they needed to come to you, not vice versa. This is the opposite of today’s paradigm where the goal is to become a brand and become a TMZ insider, partying and hanging with the empty drivers of culture, who live to be seen as opposed to create, those who constantly need to tell you where they’ve been, what they’ve done. A true rock star doesn’t have to do this. If you see a banker posting pictures on Instagram on his yacht, laugh hysterically, because they don’t get it, they’re not a rock star, they’re just on the greased totem pole of finance, where there’s always someone richer and money is the only thing that counts. The truly great don’t have to tell anybody, IT’S SELF-EVIDENT!

Then came “Glass Houses.”

Far from one of my favorites today, I don’t know why I jumped in at that point. And I went to see Billy at the Forum. I was worried about being judged, Billy still had little rock credibility, but he gave it all on stage, as much as anybody, no wonder he needed artificial hips.

But then came “Songs In the Attic.”

2

Just drop the needle. That’s what I did, and boy did I get a surprise.

I’d read the hype, I knew the story, this was a re-recording of all of Billy’s songs from the early era that most people didn’t know, he wanted them re-exposed with more dynamics, more oomph.

I didn’t know “Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway).” It wasn’t a hit, wasn’t played on the radio, it was part of “Turnstiles,” the second step in the wrong commercial direction, but in that case the song ended the album, on “Songs In the Attic” it opened it.”

“You know those lights were bright on Broadway

That was so many years ago

Before we all lived here in Florida

Before the Mafia took over Mexico”

This was when Times Square was still dangerous, Ford had told the city to “Drop Dead.” It was still the greatest city in the world, but it seemed to be in peril. But you can leave New York physically, but you can’t emotionally. You’re always a New Yorker. You still believe, even if you live in Florida.

“Miami 2017” EXPLODES out of the speakers. It’s almost like a rocket liftoff at Cape Canaveral. And when Billy starts to tickle the ivories you’re ALL IN!

But as great as “Miami 2017” is, it’s the following cut that’s my favorite, “Summer, Highland Falls,” also originally on “Turnstiles.”

“They say that these are not the best of times

But they’re the only times I’ve ever known”

You may think you were born at the wrong time, but you’ve got to own your experience, which only you know, don’t let others define you, do the best to create your own reality in the era you walk the earth.

“It’s either sadness or euphoria”

Life is up and down. It’s even worse for musicians. Many are prone to depression. They have the highs, and then…

As for the feel of the song… Have you ever been to upstate New York? Outside of New York City? Highland Falls is not that far, but it’s a totally different mind-set. New York is a big state, it’s got the most ski areas of any state on the east coast. There’s a mentality, a feeling upstate, you’re in the hinterlands but you’re still on the east coast, unlike in the west, where you may be ten hours from the next city.

And some might say the killer is “Captain Jack,” but the tour-de-force on the second side is “The Ballad of Billy the Kid.”

“From a town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island

Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand”

You were a suburban outlaw. Feeling like a big shot at the shopping center. Talk about dynamics… The track starts slowly, a horse clopping down the path, and then it’s shot out of a cannon. You’re listening alone, but you’re caught up in the mania as if you were at a live concert.

But in the middle of the first side of “Songs In the Attic” were two songs I knew from radio play, but never loved. “Los Angelenos” and…

“Los Angelenos” has it right. Billy nails it. But the feel is wrong. L.A. at the time was most definitely a rock town, and the original was too soft. The live version had more energy. But it was the song before “Los Angelenos” on the album that resonated, “Streetlife Serenader.”

3

“Streetlife serenader

Never sang on stages”

Frank Zappa knew about doo-wop. But that whole turn of the decade New York sound, the street corner singing, where Dion made his bones, was already in the rearview mirror by time the Beatles hit. Most boomers had no familiarity with it. Billy sang about it, kinda, but mostly we didn’t get it. And the version on “Songs In the Attic” is definitive.

“Midnight masqueraders

Workin’ hard for wages

Need no vast arrangements

To do their harmonizing”

Now before the CD era, in the eighties, the record labels started discounting catalog, which is when I filled out my Billy Joel collection. And in truth, “Turnstiles” is the one I play most, actually the Billy Joel album I play most today, usually when hiking in the mountains, it’s otherworldly, as in it puts you in an alternative reality, in a bubble, you can see the rest of the world if you choose, but you no longer have to pay attention, it’s a release from the real world.

And like I said, “Turnstiles” contains “Miami 2017” and “Summer, Highland Falls,” and it also contains the originals of “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “I’ve Loved These Days,” which were contained on “Songs In the Attic.”

But “Turnstiles” also contains Billy Joel’s piece-de-resistance.

“New York State of Mind.”

“Some folks like to get away

Take a holiday from the neighborhood

Hop a flight to Miami Beach

Or to Hollywood

But I’m taking a Greyhound

On the Hudson River Line

I’m in a New York state of mind”

Billy wasn’t looking for America, he’d already found it. And Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck were still in the city, he was with the rest of the silent strivers looking at the beautiful countryside.

If you grew up on the east coast, listening to “New York State of Mind” makes you want to go back there, immediately. In Los Angeles it’s about your body, in New York it’s about your mind. And that’s very different.

But “New York State of Mind, one of Billy Joel’s most famous songs today, was nowhere yesterday. One can argue strongly that it didn’t ascend into the pantheon until after the Twin Towers fell and it became an anthem of belief. Sure, Frank Sinatra sings about New York, New York, but there just isn’t the gravitas, the underlying feeling contained in “New York State of Mind,” which is now a standard.

3

Now if you pull up the Legacy Edition of “Piano Man” on your streaming service of choice, you’ll hear a phenomenal concert broadcast on Philadelphia’s WMMR back in April 1972, fifty years ago, which broke Billy in the city. “Captain Jack” was a local hit, it sustained his career until he ultimately broke through nationally.

But that’s not what I wanted to hear today.

I had to hear “Songs In the Attic.” You see it’s in Hi-Res Lossless on Apple Music. Not that every Billy Joel album is, “Piano Man” is not. The logic here? I cannot tell you.

So I decided to go through Billy’s albums and see which ones were in Hi-Res. I went back in time, usually the old albums are not, but not only was “Turnstiles” in Hi-Res, so was Billy’s second Columbia album, probably his least successful commercial endeavor, 1974’s “Streetlife Serenade.”

Unlike “Turnstiles,” “Streetlife Serenade” is not laden with songs that ultimately became classics. The most famous song on the LP is “The Entertainer,” which supposedly is a reaction to Columbia’s handling of Billy’s career, but to this radio listener it seemed to be cut in the same mold as “Piano Man.” And it had this ersatz non-FM rock feel. I mean this was not the way to win your way into the hearts of fans who lived for music.

And they played “Entertainer” on the radio. But even more “Los Angelenos” in L.A. They played “Streetlife Serenade” rarely.

“Streetlife serenader

Never sang on stages”

Today’s musical acts play to the last row. Their songs are not intimate. But this album-opening cut played to you only, it tugged on your heartstrings, it made you think. You were a bit nostalgic, and pondered your choices, your future.

“Child of Eisenhower”

Now that’s someone who’s been forgotten. People still reference JFK and those who came after, but the fifties, despite rampant racism, were perceived to be quiet, with an undercurrent of rebellion that most people could neither see nor feel.

“Midnight masquerader

Shopping center heroes”

There’s that localism. Bringing it right back to the suburbs, where everybody wanted to live back then, to escape the grit of the city, the rebellion against these lands of split-levels and lawns came later.

And the definitive version of “Streetlife Serenader’ is on “Songs In the Attic,” but after listening to a bit of “Los Angelenos,” I pulled up the original on Apple Music.

This is decades ago. You think about all the technological improvements since. You’d think the old records would sound quaint, as if the seventies were a backwater. They were not.

But the studio “Streetlife Serenade” lacked something from the live version. But then it slid into the second verse.

Don’t let anybody say you can’t hear the difference between Hi-Res and regular lossless, regular HD, CD quality. If you’ve got the equipment to play it back the differences are self-evident, it’s the difference between being out of focus and crystal clear.

And the goal of yore used to be to get a stereo system that reproduced all the music. That got as close to the original as possible.

But in this headphone world, we’re used to compromised sound, THAT’S THE STANDARD!

So when the second verse started to play, underneath the crystal clear piano and Billy’s vocal was this overpowering bass and drums. It’s like someone lifted the curtain and the band kicked into gear. And kick is the appropriate term, I could feel it in my gut.

I never heard it like this before.

But I’d never heard it in Hi-Res before. Where the bottom was not only present, but defined, not a mass of distortion. The music is there, I just needed a system to reproduce it. The subwoofer was proving its worth. THIS is what music sounds like, THIS is rock and roll, despite being at times quiet. Because rock and roll is about dynamics, soft to loud, emphasis, it’s played with all your heart, as well as all your energy. You lay it all on the line. This is not the Philharmonic, on salary, going through the motions. These are people with no safety net, who either get it right or go back to their hometown, oftentimes to a dead end job. Billy and the band are playing like they need it. They’re not showing off, they’re just doing what they do, and that’s enough.

It’s not like we lament not having been able to shoot selfies at the show way back when. It was a personal experience. There were usually seats. The music was respected. It was just you and the sound. That was more than enough, it was EVERYTHING!

“New York Times” reporter David Gelles is the author of the best-selling book about Jack Welch entitled “The Man Who Broke Capitalism.” In addition to going deep into the Chairman and CEO of General Electric, we discuss Boeing and the climate, Gelles’s beats too.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-gelles/id1316200737?i=1000569882042

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/89ad8316-7eb5-4eae-a8f7-ab980f66deda/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-david-gelles

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/david-gelles-204873625