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The Opus podcast is again with Episode 1 of Season 19, this time taking us contained in the legacy of Billy Joel’s breakthrough document, The Stranger.

Everybody loves an underdog story, and regardless of its legendary standing, that’s the story of The Stranger. It was Joel’s fifth full-length, however in some methods it felt like his debut. Regardless of having just a few hits to his identify, his genius had been hampered by a string of overly slick producers who didn’t join along with his musical imaginative and prescient. He might not have recognized that his profession was on the chopping block, however he knew that his subsequent document needed to be precisely the kind of music he’d all the time needed to seize — on his phrases.

A collection of occasions led to that being doable: First, Joel dropped his administration and employed his spouse, Elizabeth Webster. Second, he insisted on recording solely along with his stay band, no extra session musicians. Then got here a collection of exhibits at New York Metropolis’s landmark Carnegie Corridor, performances throughout which he’d debut his newest materials and impress the person who would go on to develop into his longtime producer, Phil Ramone.

And there it was, the magical mixture that might lead Billy Joel to create his true opus, The Stranger. We lay out the groundwork for a way all of this got here to be within the first episode of The Opus: The Stranger, that includes archival interviews with Joel and Ramone, plus a recent dialog with Joel’s drummer, Liberty DeVito.

Take heed to Episode 1 above, and ensure to love, evaluate, and subscribe to The Opus wherever you get your podcasts to maintain up with the remainder of the brand new season from Consequence Podcast Community and Sony Legacy.

For extra of the Piano Man, stream or obtain the The Stranger right here, and likewise take a look at the lately launched Reside at Yankee Stadium, capturing Joel’s 1990 two-night stand at The Home That Ruth Constructed. You can too snag tickets to Joel’s upcoming live shows, together with a 2023 co-headlining tour with Stevie Nicks, right here.

Followers of The Opus podcast also can decide up an official Opus hoodie or T-Shirt on the Consequence Store or through the use of the buy-now buttons under.