People Who Live in Glass Houses

The year 1980 started well: In February Billy Joel picked up another two Grammys, one for Album of the Year (“52nd Street”) and one for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male. A new album was released not long afterwards: “Glass Houses” with its suggestive cover photo of a man in a black leather jacket who is about to throw a rock at a glass house-front. Billy Joel is the man, and the house is his own. The photo was not an advertisement for glass insurance, but a pointer to his image problem. Billy’s commercial breakthrough was thanks in particular to his ballads, and he was regarded by some as being just a good pop singer and a bit of a featherweight. However, he saw himself as a rock musician and, in order to finally do away with the balladeer image of the ‘Piano Man’, he went for a harder, tougher studio sound: “So I figured, ‘What the hell, I’m just gonna throw a rock through my window, at myself – meaning the whole narrow image people have of me.’ And, that is my house, by the way. People think I’ve got this multimillion-dollar mansion. I paid 300,000 dollars for it, and it wasn’t even money up front; I’ve got a mortgage. I’m not a multimillionaire. Frankly I’m not sure what I’m worth…I honestly don’t know and don’t ask.”82

And the plan worked: For the first time, Billy Joel made number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his single “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”. The song contains a dig at the media: “It doesn’t matter what they say in the papers, ’cause it’s always been the same old scene. There’s a new band in town, but you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine aimed at your average teen.” This was aimed at Rolling Stone magazine – which got its own back by voting the song worst song about rock and roll ever, in a survey of rock critics.

As had often been the case, the opinions of American music critics were divided when it came to “Glass Houses”. Although some praised the new-found toughness and honesty, most considered it a failure. Paul Nelson’s slating in Rolling Stone became well-known: “Billy Joel writes smooth and cunning melodies, and what many of his defenders say is true: his material’s catchy. But then, so’s the flu.”83

The reputable music critic Robert Palmer of The New York Times didn’t disguise his dislike when reviewing Billy’s concert in Madison Square Garden: “[Joel] has won a huge following by making emptiness seem substantial and Holiday Inn lounge schlock sound special. […] Yes, he’s an energetic, flamboyant performer. But no, this listener can’t stand him. […] He’s the sort of popular artist who makes elitism seem not just defensible but necessary.”84

Despite all his commercial success, Billy Joel still longed for artistic recognition, and he started to believe the press were hounding him, suspecting they had declared war on him. In retrospect he says: “I saw it as a press war, even though logically I knew things were not that controlled. I was feeding my own frustration and enlarging the problem. […] The truth was that during the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was a very pissed-off guy. I had a lot of hurt from mistakes I’d made in the past. And I had no personal life whatsoever, because I was working so much and becoming emotionally drained, psychically spent.”85

Whatever the case, the singer’s relationship with the press was so strained that his record company called in a PR strategist to defuse the situation, as it seemed both sides were somehow bogged down in enmity. Experienced music attorney Howard Bloom did finally manage to make several important music journalists acquainted with Billy, and to convince them that he was more than just an angry young man. The result of this PR campaign was a much more favorable cover story in Rolling Stone magazine.

Although Billy didn’t want to admit it, the continuing stress started to have an effect on his married life. Elizabeth had made a major contribution to her husband’s success, but the work began to be too much for her and she hoped to slowly but surely get out of the music business. It was the beginning of the end of their marriage.

Within the space of a few years, Elizabeth had gradually and cleverly built up a small empire with various affiliated companies attached: “Home Run Systems” was responsible for artist management, “Impulsive Music” took care of publishing rights, “Billy Joel Tours” looked after tour production, “Home Run Agency” did the booking and “Roots Rags Ltd.” handled merchandising products such as t-shirts, posters and baseball caps.

Elizabeth proposed her brother Frank Weber, who had marketing experience, as her successor – with disastrous consequences. But he was part of the family, which had to be an asset, and even Billy – who’d had his fair share of problems with bad managers – saw it that way.

After an initial trial period, Frank Weber officially took over from his sister at the Home Run System Corporation in 1980. In the meantime, Billy and Elizabeth agreed that should their marriage end in divorce, they would split their joint assets 50-50.

It was about this time that Beatles fans throughout the world were devastated by tragic news: John Lennon, idol of a whole generation, was shot dead in front of the Dakota building in New York. He’d been murdered by a mentally ill fan, Mark David Chapman. Billy Joel, who had never personally met his musical idol, was particularly affected by Lennon’s death, not least because he himself had unsuccessfully tried to get an apartment in the Dakota just a few months beforehand. However, the owners had turned down his request on the grounds that there were already too many celebrities living in the building, often leading to too much disturbance for the residents. They were worried that having a rock star like Billy Joel in the house would automatically bring groupies and drugs into the genteel Dakota.

The first thing Billy did upon hearing of John Lennon’s death was to jump on his motorcycle and ride around aimlessly for hours on end. Somewhere along the way he stopped at a club, sat down at the piano and played one Beatles song after the other, to console himself and any guests who happened to be there – a musical grieving.