• AllMyVinyl #45
• Band: Billy Joel
• Album Title: Cold Spring Harbor
• Release Date: 1 Nov 1971
• Date purchased: 25 Dec 2021
• Location purchased: Gift
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Back to Billy Joel again.  This time it’s his first ever album called “Cold Spring Harbor”.  It was released originally in November 1971, and had problems.  The original version had Billy’s vocals at the wrong speed, and never got a wide release way back when.  So much so, people thought Piano Man was his first album, when it was really his second.  This album didn’t get a wider release until 1983, when it was fixed.  In fact, I remember when Joel put out the live album “Songs in the Attic” in 1981, it included a couple of tracks from this album, and I recall being super excited as they were basically new songs, even though they were almost a decade old.  I certainly didn’t know them.

It would have been around the time of that release where I bought the album, but I never owned it on vinyl – I would have bought a cassette tape, as I wasn’t buying CD’s yet.  I have no idea what happened to that tape 40 years later, so it wasn’t until Christmas 2021 when I got the vinyl box set vol 1 as a present where I got this album on vinyl finally.

I never did get to hear that wrong speed version.  In this day and age, I have to imagine it’s out there somewhere, I never really looked for it either.  I also read today about a remix of the album that Joel had no involvement in (is that the 1983 version? I’m a bit confused).  That’s detailed on the Wikipedia page.  This album has a bit of a fiasco of a history – kind of reminds me of the first Genesis album – which has a tortured history with ownerships, releases, etc.  Makes me wonder which version is on the vinyl box I have here. It’s a bit confusing to keep track of, to be honest.

The bulk of this album is just Billy and a piano.  Nothing wrong there.  There’s some great songs on this album.   About them…

She’s Got a Way – Probably the song most people know from this album. Reminds me of an earlier version of “Just The Way You Are”. It’s just Billy and a piano, and it works really really well. But then it’s Billy Joel – of course it does. Love this song. A lot. It’s not unknown, but I feel like it’s an unknown gem as a ton of Joel fans don’t know about it.

You Can Make Me Free – Love Billy’s vocal delivery in here. There’s a little pick up in the middle here with a guitar – something that I had forgotten was on this album, actually. Nice change of pace – even though it’s just song 2 on the album.  I do like the little “yeah yeah” in the chorus too.  I wonder if this is the remix stuff?

Everybody Loves You Now – I remember hearing this on Songs in the Attic, and thought it was some forbidden relic. I remember thinking “Why isn’t this song more well known? It’s really good”. You can hear some of Billy’s later things happen here – references to New York “things” in the lyrics. Ends up not being a slow song at all – has some power at the end.

Why Judy Why – Now this one really is a slow song. About someone named Judy who did something to someone? :) Not a bad song at all, I just can’t find any real deep words to write about it.

Falling of the Rain – I love Joel’s piano work here. I do think he tries to sing just a TAD outside his range – he goes for some super high notes that I don’t think work perfectly. But overall the piano work is excellent, and I like the song.

Turnaround – Sounds like something I’d remember from AM radio back in the 70’s. Not bad at all, but it’s just kind of “there”. In fact, most of Side 2 isn’t as exciting to me.

You Look So Good to Me – The sound that starts off this song reminds me of something I heard on Sesame Street back in the day. It’s probably my last favorite track on the album. An odd musical choice to me.

Tomorrow is Today – Now this one I like – mostly just Billy and the piano, which I think works VERY well on this album. This song reminds me of something we’d hear in a movie soundtrack on some emotional scene. There’s a bit in the middle where Billy changes his vocal delivery to something that sounds more blues-y than his usual singing – a nice change of pace there. A “vocal time change” if you will.

Nocturne – A piano instrumental. It’s a slow meandering song, and I can just HEAR lyrics for it even though there aren’t any to be had. I really love this song.

Got to Begin Again – Lyrically it talks about being at the “end of the road” which I always liked lyrically for the last song of an album. Musically it’s not my favorite, but I like the lyrics here.

It’s a slower, mostly quiet album.  If you’ve been reading all these things of mine to date, that’s not something that always works – but it does here.  It’s got some great Joel tracks, but most people don’t know or listen to it.  Hardcores know it for sure, but folks who know nothing more than The Stranger & Glass Houses probably don’t.

I would have loved to have seen Joel back at this point in time.  Must have been something to behold.  I did see him a few times in the 80’s, but not in the 70’s.