Billy Joel’s extensive discography features a lot of both real and fictional places. With another world tour coming up, we decided to look back and explore some of the places Joel has already visited in his music.
52nd Street
“Well, we could generate a lot of heat / On 52nd Street”
The album and song, 52nd Street, feature a heavy jazz influence and is named accordingly. 52nd Street in New York is famous for having an abundance of jazz clubs and a vibrant street life, which is likely where Billy Joel drew a lot of his inspiration for this album from.
The Great Wall of China
“We could have gone all the way to the Great Wall of China”
‘The Great Wall of China’ is a song about Joel’s lawsuit against his former manager and ex-brother-in-law, Frank Weber. Weber was accused of spending millions of Joel’s money. The Great Wall of China is a motif symbolic of how Joel and Weber could have conquered the world together, which is especially poignant considering Weber helped to organise Joel’s performance in the hard-to-reach Soviet Union.
Cold Spring Harbor
‘Ah, but you ain’t got the time to go to Cold Spring Harbor / No more’
Billy Joel’s first album, Cold Spring Harbor, takes its name from an area near to where the singer grew up in Long Island, New York. The song ‘Everybody Loves You Now’ tells the story of a spoiled woman who thinks she is too good for her hometown, Cold Spring Harbor, when she returns. Joel’s songwriting here alongside frequent references and returns to his hometown in his music suggest that Joel refused to let fame shape him like it did the song’s protagonist.
Vienna
“When will you realize Vienna waits for you?”
The inspiration behind the song ‘Vienna’ comes after Joel travelled to Vienna to visit his estranged father. In an interview, he explained that he had been surprised by the different, slower attitude to life in Austria compared to that in the USA. Vienna became a metaphor for slowing down and enjoying your life beyond just your twenties and thirties.
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
“Who needs a house out in Hackensack / Is that all you get for your money?”
‘Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)’ tells the story of the New Yorkers that Joel grew up with. The singer expresses his frustration at the culture in Long Island where he grew up, as well as in much of the USA, that it’s normal to spend your whole life working to climb the social class ladder. Joel rejects this notion of the ‘American Dream’ and argues that there’s more to life than working yourself to the bone for a ‘house out in Hackensack’, a suburban district in New Jersey that is commutable to New York City.
Leningrad
“We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad”
‘Leningrad’ tells the story of Joel’s famed 1987 six-show tour in the Soviet Union. It talks about the people that the singer and his family met in Russia, including a clown called Viktor, and follows the lives of these ordinary people during the Cold War. It was a significant move to change the narrative surrounding Russia and draw parallels between the people there and back home in the USA.
Joel has an impressive talent for painting vivid images in his music which allows his audience to explore his world through song. So, next time you play a Billy Joel song, take a moment to pause and think about where in the world he might be describing.
Words by Ella Gilbert
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