Music Album Review: 'Billy Joel: Концерт (Concert)'

On October 26, 1987, Columbia Records released Billy Joel's second live album, Концерt, which is Russian for "Concert." Recorded during his six-performance gigs in Moscow and Leningrad (now called St. Petersburg), Концерт was the first American rock-and-roll album ever recorded in the then-Soviet Union. 

In its original 1987 version - Columbia re-released it in 2014 as an expanded album titled A Matter of Trust: The Bridge to Russia - Концерt is a 16-track recording released as a double-LP vinyl set, a double-length cassette, and on compact disc. It presents one Russian song (Odoya), 13 songs from various Billy Joel albums, including 52nd Street, An Innocent Man, and his then-current The Bridge, which Joel was promoting in his "The Bridge Tour." Концерт also includes two covers: The Beatles' Back to the USSR, and Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin'. 

Track List:

1. Odoya: Performer – Zhournalist: 1:17

2. Angry Young Man: 5:04

3. Honesty: 3:40

4. Goodnight Saigon: 6:39

5. Stiletto: 5:14

6. Big Man On Mulberry Street: 13:09

7. Baby Grand:5:43

8. An Innocent Man: 6:02

9. Allentown: 3:49

10. A Matter of Trust: 4:52

11. Only the Good Die Young: 3:34

12. Sometimes a Fantasy: 3:40

13. Uptown Girl: 2:58

14. Big Shot: 4:42

15. Back in the U.S.S.R. Guitar – Billy Joel; Written by – John Lennon, Paul McCartney: 2:26

16. The Times They Are A Changin' ; Guitar – Billy Joel; Written by – Bob Dylan: 2:12

Концерt (pronounced "kontsert") was, as I said earlier, recorded in the Soviet Union in the late stages of the Cold War. Before Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the Kremlin's official stance on American rock and roll was не разрешено (not permitted) because it was not part of Russian culture. Soviet jamming stations pretty much created an electronic "great wall" that kept most foreign radio stations' broadcasts from penetrating into Russia's vast territories, though on occasion Russian listeners could hear Voice of America programs that featured music by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and other musical artists of the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies. Still, Western pop musicians, especially rock and R&B singers, were seen as dangerous threats to traditional Russian and Communist culture and ideals.

Gorbachev, who was a true believer in Marxism-Leninism but was perceptive enough to understand that the Soviet system he had inherited from his late predecessors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko was stagnant and failing, knew change was necessary. He wanted to save Lenin's vision for the Soviet Union by revitalizing its economy and shifting its focus from heavy industries and military production to the manufacture and sale of consumer goods that the average Soviet citizen needed to lead happier and more productive lives. 

To achieve these goals, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union needed change if it was to co-exist with the West. He came up with two connected policies that would revitalize Soviet society: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (re-structuring). 

In an attempt to bridge the wide cultural gap between the Soviet Union and its Cold War rival, the Kremlin decided to invite an American rock singer and band to perform in Moscow and Leningrad.  The apparatchiks wanted a relatively clean and safe performer who wouldn't "rock the boat" politically, but was still a major star in the business. Billy Joel turned out to be that performer.

Considering that the gig was limited to six performances in only two cities, this was still a big deal. Ronald Reagan was still in the White House, and the history-minded Joel understood that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  And as anyone who has heard We Didn't Start the Fire can tell you, the Piano Man is truly a "Cold War child" who had grown up in an era when World War III was more than just a speculative fiction trope for James Bond and Jack Ryan novels and nuclear holocaust movies like Nicholas Meyer's The Day After. 

So, Billy accepted the Kremlin's invite, and thus Концерt was born. 

My Take

I was given my Концерt album on compact disc as a birthday present sometime in the mid-1990s. It's one of the oldest CDs in my collection, which I started putting together in 1990. (It's not a particularly large collection, but it suits my needs.) 

Концерt  was also my first album of a "live" performance by Billy Joel (I also have his Millennium Concert 2-CD set), which, despite its inherent flaws, makes it a valuable keepsake. Not just in musical terms, but also as a time capsule to a different era. 

Since I don't own every album Billy has made with Columbia (once a division of CBS, now a wholly-owned label of Sony Music Entertainment), I was not familiar with a few of the pre-1983 tracks on this recording. For instance, I heard Angry Young Man for the first time when I got Концерt and played it on my then still-newish Magnavox stereo system.

But I was familiar with most of the other songs from earlier records, especially 52nd Street (Big Shot, Stiletto, Honesty), An Innocent Man (Uptown Girl, An Innocent Man), The Bridge (A Matter of Trust, Big Man on Mulberry Street) and Billy Joel: Greatest Hits 1973-1985 - Volumes I & 2.

As is usually the case for me when it comes to pop/rock albums, I already loved most of the songs that I already knew, but it took me several play throughs of Концерt to embrace Angry Young Man and Sometimes a Fantasy, which were the two Billy Joel songs that I was unfamiliar with. I like them now a bit more now, but they're still not in my Top 10 Favorite Songs by the Piano Man list.

As for the non-Billy Joel songs - and there are three in Концерt - here's my take:

Odoya is a traditional Russian song performed by a Soviet male choral group called Zhournalist. If you've seen The Hunt for Red October movie or any World War II documentary that uses Russian male choir music, that's the vibe that this opening number gives off. It's an interesting non-rock song that gives listeners an "OK, we're not in Kansas anymore; we're now in the heart of Russia!" sensation. 

I thought it was rather cool that Billy would cover  The Beatles' Back to the USSR, a rockabilly song with witty lyrics by John Lennon and guitar-driven music credited to both Lennon and Paul McCartney but most certainly written by John himself. The Russian crowd - judging from the reaction heard in Концерt's track 15 - seems to have appreciated Joel's wit and sense of historical irony. 

The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan is, in retrospect, an obvious choice in the context of the era and especially this concert. Glasnost and Perestroika ushered change in the Soviet Union, all right, just not in the form that the Kremlin apparatchiks imagined at the time. I wonder what the KGB and Communist Party members present at Joel's state-approved Концерt  thought when they heard Dylan's mystifying song at the end of the set. Did they smirk cynically in their seats and say Da, right! as they watched their fellow Russians clap and cheer at their U.S. guest? Or did a shiver run up and down their collective Communist spines, leaving traces of unease and fear of the future in its wake? 

As for the quality of the album?  Well, it was produced from several live performances, which means that Billy's performances are great but don't have a clean, polished sound like his in-studio recordings often do. Here, in audio only, you can tell his heart is truly in the moment and Joel is giving his Soviet audiences one hell of a show. But if you listen carefully, his voice is rough and deeper than usual. Apparently, the Piano Man had been in Europe on his promotion tour for The Bridge and (a) had worn out his voice giving interviews and (b) had a sore throat by the time he got to Moscow for his Концерt gigs. 

Reportedly, Joel is not fond of how he sounds in Концерt , so he doesn't count this among his favorite albums in his discography. 

Be that as it may, Концерt is still worth a listen, especially if you are into history and want a window into a moment that preceded the (apparent) end of Soviet-American enmity and ushered in a new era for the Russian people.