I recently watched the Billy Joel five-hour HBO documentary “And So It Goes,” and found it tremendously fascinating. Yeah, it kinda bordered on hagiography at some points, but the early moments of Billy Joel’s career – his involvement with the Long Island band The Hassles, his attempts at hard rock with Attila – were intriguing.
But it’s when we get to Joel’s first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, where things really get weird.
Follow me on this.
Billy Joel’s first producer was Artie Ripp, who was heavily involved with the 1960’s pop music scene. But Artie Ripp did something to Billy Joel’s first recordings – he accidentally mis-mastered them. So original pressings of Cold Spring Harbor are off-speed.
For example, here’s what one of the tracks, “She’s Got A Way,” SHOULD have sounded like.
But HERE’s the version that graced record stores in 1971.
YIKES!!
It got worse as we get further into the album. Here’s another track, “Everybody Loves You Now,” and this is how it SHOULD have sounded.
But on the original 1971 version, it sounds like Billy Joel has to finish the song and catch the last train back home and he’s already ten minutes late to leave.
The mis-mastered album eventually cost Joel a ton of sales, to the point where he tried to break his contract and leave Artie Ripp. Eventually the two settled out of court, and although Billy Joel still acknowledges Artie Ripp as the only person at that time who would give him a chance to make an album, it was still without much in the way of proper recording technique.
But it could have been so much worse. I mean, it’s not like they sped Billy Joel’s voice up so much that he sounded like this … oh, wait …
Chuck The Writer 