A most excellent album and if not for "Madman Across the Water", my favorite of his.
My problem with him is the same with Billy Joel and Chicago, they all lost their edge and became Adult Contemporary stars and when they started out could only get played on Album Rock stations. I don't call it selling out, they just changed. Joel was at his best when he'd been dumped on, brought out that edge.
I saw Billy Joel right after his first album came out at UTA as the opened for Charlie Daniels and ZZ TOP so you can imagine the crowd in Tejas. He was an unknown and "Piano Man", his first release, had only been out a week; however, I'd bought his album the day it hit and was familiar with his music and it was impressive. He comes out in a black suit, white shirt, black tie and white tennis shoes and the crowd immediately began to murmur in a hostile fashion. Then he began to perform and owned a Daniels/ZZ TOP crowd within 3 songs standing up and playing the piano with a fury and had a really tight band. That night, the opener got a standing ovation and an encore, unheard of at that time. Ya know how it's the opener's job to "sell" the headliner? Both Charlie and Billy Gibbons couldn't say enough about him. I could only imagine what this New York kid was thinking when he looked out into that crowd before taking the stage.
I live across from Detroit and I saw Elton John on the Canadian side in a 6000 seat arena. It was a good concert. Very surprised he'd play here.
