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         To many people's surprise, in 1981 Billy released Songs In The Attic a collection of live performances of some of his pre-The Stranger songs from his first four albums.  This was not a live album of one or two concerts, rather the album was a collection of live versions of the so-called "songs in the attic." It was a way to showcase the songs from his earlier albums which probably had not received the airplay and production they deserved.  It was an inspired and brilliant idea.  

       Songs In The Attic resurrected some undiscovered gems from Billy's back catalog such as "Everybody Loves You Now" and "Los Angelenos," while bringing to life some early staples like "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "Miami 2017" which sound more urgent and brighter.  And just to have "She's Got A Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" on vinyl was a godsend for Billy Joel fans since these songs could only otherwise be found on the then hard-to-find Cold Spring Harbor, which even if you could find it was mixed at the wrong speed.  "Captain Jack" was much more powerful, and "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" just explodes off the turntable (assuming you still have one).  
      As respected music critic Timothy White stated in his 1981 review of the album in Rolling Stone:
  
Joel’s Songs in the Attic is a very careful edit of his scuffling days. These cuts are gimcracks from a catalog that didn’t catch fire until the release of The Stranger in 1977, and Joel, very much aware that they show his development from intent greenhorn to creator of standards, plays them with self-absorbed vigor.

It’s precisely this vigor, along with Joel’s canny pugnaciousness, that lifts Songs in the Attic above the level of a pop-rock rummage sale. At his best, Billy Joel is an angry, defensive wiseacre of a songwriter, so angry about his own suburban angst that he storms with exquisite impatience from typewriter to piano, scarcely noticing the shift in keyboards as he skillfully sketches his all-American rage.
. . . 
​Joel, a true rock & roll anomaly, is blatantly retracing his first halting steps as a dismantler of pop myths — he’s a vicious but not ungenerous malcontent who loved to parody Leon Russell, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen in his early appearances. On Songs in the Attic, you sense he might even go after himself in his brutally unsentimental way, but he and his unbridled musicians battle past that impulse in the first few stanzas of “Miami 2017” and then keep cooking, imbuing great (“Say Goodbye to Hollywood”) and grating (“Captain Jack”) compositions of yore with surprising color and dimension.
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      Songs In The Attic was sort of a pre-Greatest Hits album albeit missing Billy's early hits or popular songs like "Piano Man," "The Entertainer," and "New York State of Mind."  In the liner notes, Billy said that "New York State of Mind" sounded pretty much the same live or in the studio, so why make carbon copies?  Still, one wishes that a few more songs could have been squeezed onto the LP like "Worse Comes To Worst" which was always better live and "Prelude/Angry Young Man" which was often a highlight of Billy's live performances.  At the time, most albums were still released on vinyl rather than CD, so Columbia Records probably selected enough songs that could fit on one LP. 
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       Regardless of what was missing, Songs In The Attic was and remains a satisfying sonic snapshot of Billy's earlier songs as well as a document of a musician and his band (Doug Stegmeyer, Liberty DeVitto, Russell Javors, Richie Cannata and David Brown) at their live performance peaks.  Billy's longtime sound director, Brian Ruggles, also deserves credit for creating a seamless simulation of a single live mini-concert.  It is almost as if you were there.  As Billy stated in the liner notes "if you want to get as close as possible to the real thing, invite your cranky neighbors over and play this record as loud as you can."

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       Billy came up with the album title and the album cover concept, particularly the idea of using a flashlight to shine a light on the sheet music on a dusty piano.  The liner notes were also amazing (click here to read the back cover), and the inside covers (the album folded open though there was just one record) featured old photos from Billy's childhood and teenager years.  This was a very well-conceived package.  See Discogs for more cover art and liner notes.
    
      The music videos for Songs In the Attic ("Say Goodbye to Hollywood," "Everybody Loves You Now," and "Los Angelenos") were all live performance videos done in black & white as well, which was appropriate.  They were recorded at Sparks, a Long Island club owned by Brian Ruggles.  The videos for "She's Got A Way" and "Miami 2017," however, were live versions from a Midtown Manhattan studio that were first aired in 1981 on SNL.

       Billy gave an in-depth interview with DJ Dennis McNamara about Songs In The Attic in 1982.  Click on the "Audio & Videos" tab above, or go to YouTube  here or listen to it here (thanks to BJCR). 
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Back cover from the CD release.
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The album featured great liner notes and early photos of Billy Joel.
Single covers for Miami 2017, Streetlife Serenader, Everybody Loves You Now, Captain Jack, and I've Loved These Days are fictional (they were not released as singles in US or other countries).
Lyrics
(coming soon)
Full Album
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This is a YouTube playlist of audio and videos of the Songs In The Attic album.  Click on the icon in the upper right to see list of songs.

​Interviews & Features

Billy discusses how Songs In the Attic came about, as well as the old photos in the album.
Radio interview of Billy Joel from 1981 about Songs In The Attic.  Interview by Dennis McNamara.  This was also released as a promo album to college campuses.
Interview with Billy Joel on Australia's Countdown from May 3, 1981, by Molly Meldrum.
Billy on Songs In The Attic, from SiriusXM in 2016 (audio).
Outtakes
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"Outtakes" from Songs In The Attic.  This is a YouTube playlist (audio only) of live versions of songs from Billy Joel's 1980-1981 tour, put together by YouTube user Ess Hulk.
Reviews & Articles
AllMusic
Associated Press
Rolling Stone
Ultimate Classic Rock
Washington Post
 Columbia Records Publicity Photo (1981)
It’s precisely this vigor, along with Joel’s canny pugnaciousness, that lifts Songs in the Attic above the level of a pop-rock rummage sale. At his best, Billy Joel is an angry, defensive wiseacre of a songwriter, so angry about his own suburban angst that he storms with exquisite impatience from typewriter to piano, scarcely noticing the shift in keyboards as he skillfully sketches his all-American rage.

                                                                 -- Timothy White, Rolling Stone

Non-"definitive" status notwithstanding, Songs in the Attic did exactly what it set out to do: "provide a selected sampling of the earlier stuff, played the right way — with honest road muscle." Taste is subjective and your mileage may vary, obviously, but it remains arguably Joel's defining statement as a concert performer.  "This album is ultimately a reunion with lovers past," he concluded in the Attic liner notes. "Reaffirming the faith that we in the band and those who had been to our shows during that time had forged in the crucible of the concert stage. This is the way the band and I want to play these songs."
                                                                 -- Ultimate Classic Rock 
Tracks
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1.    Miami 2017 (live) (5:05)
2.   Summer, Highland Falls (live) (3:03)
3.   Streetlife Serenader (live) (5:17) 
4.   Los Angelenos (live) (3:48)
5.   She's Got A Way (live) (3:10)
6.   Everybody Loves You Now (live) (3:08)
7.   Say Goodbye To Hollywood (live) 
           (4:25)
8.   Captain Jack (live) (7:16)
9.   You're My Home (live) (3:07)
10.  The Ballad of Billy The Kid (live) (5:28) 
11.  I've Loved These Days (live) (4:35)
Locations
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Production and Musicians
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Comments

PicturePublicity photo (1981)
All music and lyrics by Billy Joel, except as noted. Lyrics to Billy Joel songs are © Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.  This is an unofficial fan site providing information and commentary on Billy Joel's music. This site has no advertisements, makes no money, and does not collect any personal information.  It is not affiliated, endorsed, or sponsored by Billy Joel, UMPG, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music, Columbia Records, Maritime Music, or any Billy Joel organization.  Billy Joel's official site is at BillyJoel.com.