Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time, representing a varied cross-section of genres, styles and time periods. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album or view the full album index here.
BILLY JOEL | Концерт
Columbia (1987)
Selected by Libby Cudmore
I am as famous for my hatred of Billy Joel as I am for my love of Steely Dan, but I’ll give credit where credit is due. At his peak, Joel was an electric performer, shaking off the too-slick polish of studio production to bring a rock-and-roll rawness to otherwise embarrassing tracks like “Big Man on Mulberry Street” and “Stiletto.”
Концерт was recorded in 1987, the first American concert in the Soviet Union, billing Joel as a safe American pop star to implement Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost, meaning “openness” to outside influences. And Joel brings it, kicking off with the best performance of “Prelude/Angry Young Man” and carrying the good stuff all the way through to covers of “Back in the U.S.S.R” and “The Times They Are a Changin’.” Hell, anything that can get me to enjoy “Sometimes a Fantasy” deserves some sort of peace prize.
Perhaps Joel’s biggest tragedy is that he no longer performs with this same kind of energy, preferring instead to grind out the hits like he’s being held at gunpoint. Consider this an artifact of better days.
LISTEN: