An Innocent Man (1983)
When taking a first glance at this album, one might think "Aww, thats sweet. The good guy finally gets the girl and falls in love". However, those with context will know that, especially considering his past albums, Billy Joel is anything but innocent. So why is he now claiming that he is? Before I further analyze this question, I must specify... Billy Joel is generally a good person. He has given to charities, made an honest career, and became an idol for so many people. However, Billy Joel was not innocent when considering purity and genuine love. Before this album, he had written songs about prostitution such as Zanzibar, and he had a bad history with not being able to commit to a relationship. So what made him the newfound innocent man he claimed he was when this album was written? The question itself could make one be perplexed, but when having context, the answer is obvious. Love. Billy Joel fell in love, and this time is was the real and undeniable love that he had never experienced before. He was innocent to the concept of such a deep emotional connection, and once one had emerged, he was so put upon. He was introduced to the philosophy of Romanticism, and wrote practically a whole album surrounding the idea. That in itself proves just how powerful a given philosophy or ideology could be- it made a grown man feel as innocent as a child.
The philosophy of Romanticism originated in 18th century England, which became known as the Romantic Period. People created movements to express their love and other emotions such as further developing their imagination. Romanticism was an escape from classical music, and was classified as rebellion against the social conventions at the time. Not long thereafter, Romanticism spread to America. Because of it's influence, American music started to express emotion and imagination. Composers and artists at the time reflected their love of nature through their music of romance. Four main principles of Romanticism are Reflection, Nature, and Madness, and Dandyism. Reflection leaves art, such as songs, up to interpretation of the listener. The artist has his own interpretation when writing the song, but the ultimate opinion is that of the listener's. Nature elaborates on the idea that it is human nature to fall in love. Romance originates back to the beginning of time, and has been a prominent ideology of life since then, because one cannot resist nature. Madness is often associated with love because of it's strong impact on what drive's a person's conscience and decision making. Love, for years, has been referred to as a type of madness because it is such a strong and impactful emotion. And finally, Dandyism- When people are in love and have romance on their mind, that's all they can focus on and they get in a constant euphoric mood because of it. Their outlook on life becomes dandy, and because of this, the concept of dandyism was developed.
Before Billy Joel was introduced to Romanticism, he tended to stay away from deep, emotional songs. If he did write a song about how he felt, he would tend to put the attention on someone else in order to stray away from opening up. He also wrote a lot of songs about other people in general, which makes Romanticism in An Innocent Man even more prominent because it is the first album where Billy Joel makes an effort to fully express himself and his emotions.
In 1982, Billy Joel met model Christie Brinkley on a cruise and the two hit it off right away. He described the encounter with her as "feeling like a teenager all over again". He was innocent to being in love, which is why he ultimately decided to name the album An Innocent Man. Billy Joel started to fall for her, and once they got back to New York he asked her to star in his music video for his newly written song, Uptown Girl. Joel had written Uptown Girl about Christie Brinkley, and after the music video was created the two became even closer. Because this newfound romance had just emerged in 1982, Billy Joel was writing An Innocent Man during that time. After clicking with Christie Brinkley he not only found romance, but he found inspiration. When the album was released in 1983, it was still early in his relationship with Christie Brinkley, and he was excited that he got to tell the world how happy he was.
The songs on Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man provide a clear message about his experience falling for Christie Brinkley. The first song on the album, Easy Money, depicts how Billy Joel was interested in wanting a good life, a well paying job, and a girl to share it with. He chooses to start his album with this song because it was written before he and Christie Brinkley were together. Once they were, however, Billy Joel made an effort to stop himself from falling in love because he was so new to this idea of Romanticism that he had second thoughts because he did not know how to handle his feelings. At first, he had hesitation about the possibility of falling in love, because he was afraid of the oblivion. He wrote Leave A Tender Moment Alone to reflect on how he originally acted around Christie Brinkley. Any time there was a moment that was getting romantically serious, Joel would say something to stop the moment and distract himself. In the song, he sings "I guess I'm just frightened out of my mind", but he uses the song to help motivate himself to leave the moment alone. On the other side of the relationship, Christie Brinkley was also having her doubts about commitment because she had a bad past with relationships. In the past, she had trusted too easily and was now reluctant to trust Billy Joel. To show that she can trust him and to reassure her, he wrote the song An Innocent Man for her. For the song, he wrote the lyrics "I know you're only protecting yourself. I know you're thinking of somebody else- someone who hurt you". In the chorus of the song, he practically screams "I aaaaaam and innocent mannnn!!!" as if he had just been let out of prison, because in a way, he was let out of the prison of his own doubts. With this song, he made it abundantly clear to Christie Brinkley that he is as innocent and vulnerable as ever and ready to fall in love.
Once they both let their guards down, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley were madly in love. One of Billy Joel's most famous songs on and off of An Innocent Man was The Longest Time. The song features a barber shop quartet style of sound, and other than that the song was completely a cappella. One line of lyrics from the song that describes the song as a whole is, "I'll take my chances, I forgot how nice romance is". Billy Joel finally let himself fall in love, and it payed off, literally and metaphorically. The Romanticism of An Innocent Man is what made it such a hit, and Billy Joel expressed all aspects of it through the album.
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