Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Rarely, if ever, do we get the chance to be in someone’s life for the entirety of their existence, the best we can often realise is that we are there for the moments that matter, the good, the bad, and possibly the indifferent when summer days are listless and unmoving.
Even in art we have to make a conscious effort to appreciate the works of the illustrator of emotional ties, the musicians, the poets, the novelists, the sculptures, in one go; and then that is revealed as a near impossibility, lethargy starts to set in, the overwhelming burden of responsibility to assess your relationship with the art can become questioned, and the amount of time that it takes can be seen as daunting.
Daunting, maybe it would be more accurate if we understood how important the word phenomenal can be when used in relation to intimidating; after all we should never be disheartened to immerse ourselves into the world of the artist, to see how their lives and loves, their influences change and alter over a couple of years, or indeed in the case of Billy Joel and the first boxset volume of his early vinyl work, from Cold Spring Harbour to 52nd Street, via the live recordings of Songs In The Attic and Live At The Great American Music Hall (1975) made him one of the finest musicians and composers to have come out of America in the 20th Century.
There is nothing to fear in the feeling of being intimidated by a selection of work that you cannot help but spend an entire day listening to, if anything maybe just once in life, regardless of whether it is a series of consecutive album releases, a run of novels, or even just spending time gazing at the succession of designs from an engineer, we should understand that by enveloping ourselves into this creative process we are human, and we are spurred on by the genius surrounding us.
In Billy Joel’s early work the listener unearths the future by listening the past as it happened; it might not be the complete representation of a life, for the bits in between, the turmoil of artistic struggle, the joy of the initial release and the mountainous scale of touring which justifies a growing fanbase, are not to be found, but instead it is like watching a life in linear progression, the result of each thought and imagination stirred which brings the Vinyl Collection Volume 1 neatly, effectively and elegantly, to life.
There are few ways to be involved in someone’s life from start to finish, but this boxset is sincere in its belief that the listener will be overwhelmed and enamoured by the sheer scale of work that Billy Joel produced in less than one decade.
An outstanding piece of music history, Billy Joel captured in one incredible vinyl boxset.
Ian D. Hall