“Don’t you know that only fools are satisfied” croons Billy Joel in his 1977 classic, Vienna. Indeed, considering the often distressing lives of musicians about to be unpacked, perhaps he has a point. One often overlooked feature of this incredibly successful and nuanced album, The Stranger, is its cover. Black and white, featuring Joel looking down at a theatre mask - there is something rather melancholic and lonely about it. While a picture is worth a thousand words, there is one glaring deduction that comes to mind when first seeing the image, this is Joel looking into the eyes of a mask - presumably the one he wears through the entirety of his career as the great “Billy Joel”. The haunting loneliness of the image appears to be an encapsulation of what it means to be famous and an artist, as well as the sour taste such a combination can leave. It seems, in fact, that the “stranger” in question is not necessarily a distant lover, as one might expect, but rather how Joel sees his persona - as a stranger.
This concept of oneself becoming a stranger is nothing new, it’s been seen time and time again with artists in the entertainment industry, and is a natural consequence of life in the public eye. The documentation throughout their work is particularly fascinating, as these ideas are expressed in nuanced metaphors and lyrics that have the ability to resonate profoundly with the careful listener. There’s a dangerous and dark side to this forced creation of persona, however. Billy Joel, one of the most talented songwriters and musicians of the 20th century, stopped writing for the past 17 years, citing it as becoming too “painful”. This begs the question - how can someone with such love and talent for music, go almost two decades without so much as writing a word? How does one go from their entire existence revolving around music, to finding it too distressing to create anymore?
The answer can be found scattered throughout musical history, in the lives of great names and voices. The one thing they all have in common - there’s two of each of them. Amy Winehouse and Amy. Bob Dylan and Robert Zimmerman. David Bowie and David Jones. “Ground Control to Major Tom”, Bowie cried, “your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong”. The disconnect between self and persona, is a constant battle for musicians in the public eye. Billy Joel isn’t the first musician to find himself wandering down such a road, and he certainly won’t be the last. A significant reason for this is a false perception of celebrities created by fans and the media. Fame by its very nature necessitates a persona for the public that may be extremely different from the private self1. In a world rife with stereotypes and false perceptions, a one dimensional concept of who a celebrity “is” tends to be the leading image of who they are. This can cause them to lose sight of their true, multi-faceted personality. They may find themselves entangled between reality and persona, unable to distinguish between the two amidst a crisis of self. Over time, this dichotomy and battle of selves can cause increased isolation and a disconnect from one’s authentic self.
When taking this into account, it’s no wonder Billy Joel stopped songwriting. How can you write about experiences and emotions, when you struggle to even understand who’s looking back at you in the mirror? As Lord Huron put it in their song Not Dead Yet, inspired by the delirium of being the road for a gruelling tour, “there’s a stranger in my eyes again, I swear to god I don’t know him”. It’s not just persona that causes great suffering for artists - the industry relies on the exploitation of pain and trauma. The songs that sell are often the most honest or painful; think about how many number one hits have been about heartbreak. Night after night, Taylor Swift gets on stage and sings about her darkest, most painful times. “I can go anywhere I want. Anywhere I want, just not home”, she sings in My Tears Ricochet. In another, Marjorie, she sings for her deceased Grandmother, and how she "should've kept every grocery store receipt, cause every scrap of you would be taken from me". It’s beautiful and it’s transcendent, but there comes a point where one must question the genuineness of it - to expose such pain to the public hundreds of times, surely there must be a some element of performance and disassociation? It would be far more manageable to see oneself as a character (indeed some do, such as Billie Eilish), but at great cost. Over time, one must distance themself further and further from the scenarios - fantastic for the performance, yet difficult to come back from.
These musicians are deeply intelligent, as very few can put into words the emotions they feel and capture life in such a way that can resonate with millions (or even billions) around the world. It is their downfall, however, as they are so captivating and alluring that the world can’t help but wonder about the people behind the voices and the words. Where there’s curiosity, there’s business, and so we cart them up on stage each night to admire and connect with them. I won’t deny there’s something magical about the experience, and for some artists it’s their calling and they thoroughly enjoy it. But I can’t help but wonder about a world where we didn’t force musicians to curate a public persona, but rather left them to their own creative devices. Imagine a world where Billy Joel could “take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while” as in Vienna. He could just be William again, keeping in touch with his passion, still writing songs. He could go about his life and day and wouldn’t be held to such high standards. We could live in a world where musicians could just live, make their art, release it, and whoever was interested would listen. And if you saw them in the grocery store, maybe you’d say a quick word of appreciation or just smile to yourself, but you wouldn’t disrupt them. Or put them on a pedestal. Just a world full of humans making music. And other humans appreciating it.
1 Donna L Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff). “The Psychology of Fame: Unraveling the Mental Impact of Stardom.” Medium, Psych Pstuff, 14 July 2023, medium.com/psych-pstuff/the-psychology-of-fame-unraveling-the-mental-impact-of-stardom-9a95a2e647b1.
2 Quinn, Dave. “Billy Joel Drops ‘turn the Lights Back on,’ His First New Song in 17 Years - Listen!” Peoplemag, PEOPLE, 1 Feb. 2024, people.com/billy-joel-drops-turn-the-lights-back-on-listen-8557365#:~:text=Joel%20previously%20said%20he%20retired,more%20than%20one%20hit%20song.
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