Sometimes – often – he sounds like a young fogey, as on Captain Jack, an acid, hilarious and despairing take on the drug scene. Billy Joel had lived plenty before he tasted success, which perhaps explains the jaundiced and downbeat tenor of many of his greatest lyrics. His debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, released in 1971, was mastered at the wrong speed, and upon hearing weird chipmunk tones where his vocals should have been, Joel ran into the street and hurled the vinyl into the air with anger. Done with bands, Joel then recast himself as a solo performer and singer/songwriter but if you think this is where his luck changes, think again. Overcome by the emotional turmoil, Joel attempted suicide by guzzling furniture polish this too failed. Attila were similarly ill-fated, though it wasn’t just “musical differences” that spelt their doom – Joel had pinched his bandmate’s wife, later marrying her. After two dismally selling albums, Joel bailed the Hassles in 1970 to become one half of Attila, a heavy-rock drums’n’keyboards duo who sounded like In Rock-era Deep Purple if they’d locked Ritchie Blackmore out of the studio. First he hooked up with the Echoes, who became the Emeralds and then the Lost Souls, exiting to join the Hassles, a Long Island R&B group who already had a recording deal. Billy Joel’s earlier grabs for fame hadn’t played out well.
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