The First Time

I have always been a huge fan of older, classical, and frankly, better music of days before I was even born. So, what better way to find great classics than to look through your dads old box of records? A few caught my eye, Elton John, Toto, Journey, and Queen, but one struck me and just drew me in. That album was The Stranger. The man on the front just seemed so young and contemplative, staring at this face who's lying in his bed, as if he doesn't even know who it is. He's obviously a fighter, as you can see from the boxing gloves. Just from seeing the cover, not knowing who Billy Joel was, or what he was all about, I already knew I related with him, at least in some way.

The year was 2007, almost exactly 30 years after The Stranger's original release, and I had just discovered it. I asked my dad all about the album, all about Billy Joel and I just fell in love, all-the-while, I'd yet to even hear a song of his. So, after gathering all of this information, I was even more intrigued and curious, so I went out to the store and found the CD. I began listening to it from the top, working my way to the bottom. I froze after track number five; Vienna. After the last lyric was said, and the last few tunes played, I just began to cry. This song was me. It was the advice and attitude I'd been needing to hear for years. I was only 18 years old at the time. I know, it's so young, but I'd been through so many tragic things in my short years; unimaginable things, so of course as I got into my later teen years, I was constantly trying to be the grown-up, taking care of other people, getting jobs to help support the family, doing pretty much everything I could for every person I cared about, everyone but myself. I was constantly disappointed and unsatisfied with where I was in life, I never knew why, until this song, "you're so ambitions for a juvenille...you can't be everything you wanna be before your time...slow down you crazy child". Those lines struck a cord in me and all of a sudden it made sense. I just need to slow down. I was only a kid, and I needed to enjoy my adolescence, and just be a kid. I had my whole life ahead of me, there was no reason for me to try and get everything done and accomplished at once...I understood that concept fully after hearing "Vienna". Though I wasn't even alive when The Stranger was released, I was there for the 30th anniversary...And it simply changed and shaped my life in its entirety. I can relate with that young man on the cover. I'm the mirror-image of what that guy was feeling and thinking, only in female form.

I will NEVER forget the first time I heard that song. For my life wouldn't be the same without it.