Turnstiles (1976)
A turn of events... and turnstiles. In this point in his career, Billy Joel had released three albums: Cold Spring Harbor, Piano Man, and Streetlife Serenade. His first album, Cold Spring Harbor, was released without Billy Joel's consent by the record label, Family Productions. Upon it's releasing, Joel realized that the record label sped up his recordings, so he dropped them. He moved on to produce his music with the Columbia record label for his next two albums. However, for Turnstiles, he solved previous problems with Family Productions, and went ahead to produce his new album with both record labels. The contributions from both record companies made the album a success, and Turnstiles reached number 122 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Aside from this, it also became a certified platinum. Because it was so successful, Billy Joel and his touring band made it the first studio album they had decided to play. It set the stage for albums to come, especially his next album, The Stranger, which became his biggest hit. Billy Joel could not have been the artist he became, however, if it wasn't for his influence from New York culture. New York life made Billy Joel better as an artist and enhanced his career as well as his sense of self. Like any city and like Billy Joel himself, New York City changes over time and it was not at all the same as it currently is today.
In this album, Billy Joel speaks about New York City based on his experiences with it through performing in it, living in it, and simply being caught up in the culture of it in 1976. Today, New York City is known for its size and ethnic diversity. In 1976, it was nowhere near the size it has become today, but it was significantly large. The culture of New York City in 1976 was, in a lot of ways, the same as it is today. New York City has always been known to be exciting, but busy. It is also universally known to be artistic and creative, but only within certain districts. New York City is a culture all it's own, but subcultures exist within its different districts. The most southern district on the island of Manhattan is the Financial District, where a subculture of busy and focused stock brokers gather every day on Wall Street. A bit more north is Soho, the fashion district, Chelsea, the "hipster" district, central park, and Harlem, just to name a few. Each district is its own subculture, but the subculture that spoke to Billy Joel and influenced his music the most was Harlem. Because 1976 was less than only fifty years after the end of the Harlem Renaissance, the fairly new genre of jazz was still developing and was still as popular as ever, so Billy Joel incorporated this New York City culture influence in his music. Jazz, and eventually Billy Joel himself contributed to the culture of New York City as a whole, as well as the artistic reputation of the city. New York City is very well known for being the Global art market, and creative people are drawn to New York because of the amount of opportunity and funding for art programs. At the beginning of his career, Billy Joel was drawn to New York City to find success through his own art form, music.
New York City culture influenced Billy Joel's music in a multitude of ways. Though the culture of New York City in 1976 had a lot in common with the present day, there were also major differences compared to today's city that. 1976 New York City had a bad reputation for being awful and not doing well socially, economically, or politically. Crime rates were high, the city was almost declared bankrupt, and politicians were doing nothing to solve any problems. People started calling it "Fear City" due to its reputation, and pamphlets advised people to stay away from it at all costs. Pamphlets encouraged numerous visitors to follow certain safety precautions, such as engraving their possessions, staying inside after 6pm, clutching their bags with both hands, and avoiding buildings that are not fireproof. Billy Joel was caught up in the midst of this in 1976, literally living among the filth and crime of the city. Upon his arrival in New York City, the city itself was not particularly thriving. However, he adapted to the culture and used his resources to become a better musician and to thrive himself, with New York City culture speaking through him.
Billy Joel was born in the Bronx in 1949, which is located just above Harlem... where he ultimately got his inspiration to speak about New York City through his music. His family then moved about 30 miles outside of New York City to a town called Hicksville on Long Island. However, he found himself back in New York City after a series of mishaps in the beginning of his career. After his first album wasn't as big of a success as he had hoped and he dropped his record label, he headed out to California to work in a piano bar. Once getting back on track with his career, he moved to a town in upstate New York about 50 miles north of New York City called Highland Falls. Highland Falls was a very rural atmosphere... not what Billy Joel was used to, but what he needed to find himself and to get back on track with writing his music. He finally found himself missing the hype and culture of New York City, and decided to move to New York City to develop himself as an artist and further develop his music. It was there that he began to work on Turnstiles, the album in which Billy Joel speaks about New York City, and New York City speaks through Billy Joel's music.
New York City had a significant impact on Billy Joel's music in 1976. The busyness, hype, and pressure of trying to make it in New York City contributed to Billy Joel's idea for the use of typewriter clicks for the beat of a song. It was on this foundation that he wrote "Angry Young Man", the sixth song on Turnstiles. The song features a classic piano riff that Billy Joel wrote himself along with the typewriter clicks, creating the illusion that a young workaholic is rushing to type and meet his deadlines. This is an example of Billy Joel telling a story about a subculture of New York City through instrumental effects, because the angry young man represents New York City's Wall Street subculture. The jazz culture of the Harlem subculture of New York City also contributed to his sound, so he decided to write songs that incorporated jazz instruments like a saxophone, a trumpet, and a clarinet. His most famous song on Turnstiles, "New York State of Mind", was completely based on a jazz aura, and an interesting part of 1976 New York City culture. In 1976, among everything happening at the time in New York City, The New York Times published a famous article called "101 Things To Love About New York City". This was ironic because New York was highly looked down upon during that time, and the article caused a lot of discussion about it. In his song "New York State of Mind", Billy Joel mentions The New York Times as an aspect of New York City culture during the time period. With a saxophone in the background and his hands prancing along his piano, he sings, "The New York Times... The daily news..." in a tone as if he is reminiscing about the culture that he loves despite its bad reputation. This is the way in which Billy Joel speaks about New York, and through this, New York speaks through Billy Joel. Billy Joel uses his music to share the influence of New York City culture and subcultures with his listeners, because he is so enchanted by it and wants to introduce his audience to it as well. This worked well for him in regard to his career, because he became the musical icon of New York City and the king of Madison Square Garden, where he still wows us today with his monthly concerts.
*New York Times Article (1976)*
The album cover of Turnstiles, like Billy Joel's other album covers, has a significant message to it. He chose to name his album Turnstiles and feature them on the front cover because they represent the urban life of New York City. The photo on the front cover of his album actually took place inside of a New York subway, and he positioned the people to not only show the diversity of New York City culture, but to each represent each of the songs on the album as well. The man in the background with the books is the "Angry Young Man", the wealthy couple represented "I've Loved These Days", and the girl with the headphones represented "All You Wanna Do Is Dance", just to point out a few references. New York City culture influenced Billy Joel to enhance his music as a growing musician, and he responded to the culture with his success of becoming one of New York's icons. The exchange of culture influences turned right around... just like a turnstile.
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