The year is 1977 and Billy Joel is ready to start a new album! Up until this point, he had released several albums, but none were hits. He wasn't aiming for The Stranger to be a hit... he was just getting his band together to finish the songs they started to write, but never finished. That's what The Stranger was all about- reformatting the broken pieces of songs-in-the-making and turning them into masterpieces. Unexpectedly, Joel's new album turned out to be his biggest hit, showing that unfinished songs that are dug up from the past can sometimes be the greatest achievements. Assuming that this is because an artist looked at the song twice with a different perspective each time, it makes sense why these songs are so versatile and reach so many listeners on a personal level. Overall, The Stranger is about Billy Joel's "maturing" and "adulting". When the album came out, he was starting to get middle aged and settle down, so most of the songs on The Stranger align with that concept. Whether it's taking a glimpse into his past and reminiscing about old times, or appreciating his new middle aged life for what it is, this album is about growing up and accepting the reality of adulthood.
To perfectly coincide with the beginning of his maturity, Billy Joel starts his album The Stranger with a song called "Movin' Out". What better way to start a new phase of your life than to move out of where you used to live? Especially if that phase is from immaturity to maturity. Billy Joel chooses to incorporate this song as his first of the ten songs on the album to set himself up for his new life of maturity, growing up, and settling down. He goes on to continue the album by expanding the knowledge of himself through self discovery, love, reflection, and aspiration. This whirlwind of life is all a part of Billy Joel's growing desire for a calmer and more together life, and it provides the characteristics he needs for personal growth. If I had to describe The Stranger in one word, it would be Growth. Billy Joel finds everything he needs through growth, and as a person listens to the album, they can feel him growing in each song through different emotions and musicality.
The album starts relaxed, and then continues to tell a story in itself about Billy Joel's personal growth. After the first few calm songs that show Billy Joel's adjustment to settling down, the middle of the album brings a whole new excitement to it. Listeners responded extremely well to the middle, making songs like 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant' and 'Vienna' some of the most famous songs on the album. Both of these songs have a common theme: Reminiscing. 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant' goes into detail about his high school days with his friends Brenda and Eddie, and 'Vienna' is about going to Vienna, Austria to meet up with his father for the first time in fifteen years. When this album was being written, Billy Joel was at the time in his life where he wanted to put the past behind him, and make his life better from that moment on. The instrumentals and the sounds of these songs are also very similar, because they have a slow and reflective feel to them. In both songs, the prime instrument is the piano played by Billy Joel himself. It's no wonder that these songs not only became some of his biggest hits, but were placed right in the center of the album The Stranger.
The album as a whole presents the idea that Billy Joel is maturing and settling down because, although some songs are classic fun Billy Joel, a lot of them are serious and sincere as well. He wrote the most sincere songs on the album, 'Just The Way You Are' and 'She's Always A Woman', for his wife at the time, Christie Brinkley. In addition to other aspects of maturity such as moving on from the past, Billy Joel adds this sincerity and wears his heart out on his sleeve with these pieces. The album starts out sounding rock-and-roll, is filled with sweet-sounding ballads in the middle, and it sounds reflective toward the end of the album. His last song, 'Everybody Has A Dream', is a beautiful harmony with a mix of being reflective of the past and having aspirations for the future. This is the perfect song to end The Stranger with because the song itself sums up the album's message. Everybody's dreams are different, but everyone has a common dream: Happiness. Everybody has a dream, and to make that dream come true, one must let go of the past and put his or her energy toward aspirations for the future. Billy Joel did it... now it's everyone else's turn.
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