Comments for Joel, Billy, Revenge Is Sweet

I remember when I first heard this album. The sound was so different, but the voice was pure Billy. The writing was done in conjunction with P.Smith who has a tendency to show up on Billy's later work. Specifically, the Greatest Hits Videos. Although the first copy I picked up did not have the Holy Moses track, I did find another copy that was completely intact. My favorite track is Tear This Castle Down. Wonder Woman sounds too much like The Guess Who's American Woman.

My experience with this CD was not pleasant. I originally owned it on LP as a reissue from BackTrack Records, and then I eventually found a couple copies of the original issue. Being the "die-hard Billy Joel completist" that I am, I looked forward to it''s eventual release on CD. I was pleasantly surprised to find a budget release entitled "Rollin'' Home:Attila and The Hassles featuring Billy Joel" for a mere $3.99. Cool! I put in my car CD player and was happy to find that unlike "Further Than Heaven", this disc had not been mastered from vinyl - at least there was no surface noise on this one. Unfortunately, though a couple of the tracks did not start up to speed. It was like someone had put their hand on the turntable in between songs and let it go when they wanted the next song to start (presumably after the index flag had been inserted, I don''t know.) Anyway, I figure, you get what you pay for. Then, I found out that the "Attila" album had been official released by it''s original label - Epic (a division of Columbia, now owned by Sony) So I figured, cool. Original artwork, liner notes, first rate remastering job, worth the $40 or so they want for it. WRONG! At least I was right about the album art, but I disovered to my dismay, that both releases had been mastered from the same source, and subsequently, had the same mastering errors! So I paid $40+ for having a CD book- let featuring a long haired, mustachioed Billy Joel (and Jon Small, ex-Hassles drummer, and first ex-husband of Billy Joel''s first wife, Elizabeth) clad in a loincloth! Live and learn. (Although I WOULD pay big bucks for CD versions of the American Capitol albums with original album art.)

It`s pretty bad. This is a re-release of Atilla`s _California_Flash_; Atilla was an old Billy Joel band between his Hassles work and _Cold_Spring_Harbor_. Some of the songs aren`t that bad, and it does sorta grow on you. But it`s only for the die-hard Billy Joel completist.