Behind the Album: Billy Joel Goes for Broke with ‘The Nylon Curtain’

Artists tend to be their own harshest critics, so when they heap praise on an album of their own making, it’s probably something special. Billy Joel has often contended that his 1982 release The Nylon Curtain is his finest LP, and based on the aural audience it contains, it’s hard to argue with him.

Joel seemed to be at the peak of both his musical and lyrical powers, and current events at the time seemed to push him in a direction he might not have otherwise gone. Here is how he constructed The Nylon Curtain.

Raise the Curtain

Throughout the first half of the ‘70s, Billy Joel struggled to put together the momentum that would propel him from journeyman to superstar. Delivering two commercially successful singles or albums in a row was a battle for him. All that changed with The Stranger, his 1977 release that spun out hit after hit and also started a string of top albums for him.

Joel had scored big with Glass Houses in 1980, playing the new wave game without losing his singer/songwriter credibility. But he started to feel the urge to try something different for his next release. There were several factors that added up to lead him in this new direction.

Lyrically, Joel had dealt almost primarily with romantic issues on Glass Houses. But with The Nylon Curtain, he started to write about the issues of the day, both specifically (songs about the Vietnam War and struggles in American industry towns) and generally (there’s an overriding sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction wafting throughout the album).

On the musical side of things, Joel and producer Phil Ramone plotted out an album that would use the studio and all its technical capabilities to the fullest. It was a very Beatlesque idea, and Joel admitted at the time how much the death of John Lennon in 1980 had affected him. Tracks like “Laura” and “Scandinavian Skies” are dripping with the kind of psychedelic production touches that the Fab Four themselves might have used circa 1967.

Joel encourages his band members to ignore worries about having to recreate their parts live. The Nylon Curtain was meant to be a grand artistic statement on its own, rather than just a springboard for hit singles and concert material. When it arrived in 1982, fans heard Billy Joel going for broke and nailing it.

Another Listen to The Nylon Curtain

Up to that point in his career, Joel’s hit singles often fell into the slice-of-life or love song categories, and he was very adept at doing a lot of novel stuff within those well-trod topics. But with The Nylon Curtain, he mastered the art of delivering crowd-pleasing songs that spoke intelligently and passionately on the weightier issues of the day.

“Allentown” features a bittersweet yet catchy melody, and it does an amazing job of detailing the plight of a modern factory town and the people within it. Joel makes his points about Vietnam on “Goodnight Saigon” not with soapbox proselytizing, but by detailed reportage. Maybe the frenzied music of “Pressure” is too on-point, but there’s no doubt the song is a rush of a listen.

The non-singles don’t slack off at all. “Laura” proves nobody does bile quite with quite as much gusto as Joel. “Surprises” features a tune that lives up to the song title in its unexpected twists and turns. And closing track “Where’s the Orchestra?” sounds suspiciously like autobiography, with Joel assessing the trappings of fame all around him but failing to see the substance.

A motorcycle accident suffered near the close of recording the album only added to what was an arduous process of making the album. But Joel would probably say all the effort was worth it. The Nylon Curtain, Joel’s choice for his best album, also fills that slot in the hearts and minds of many of his fans.

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