{"id":6914,"date":"2025-10-29T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:10:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:10:25","slug":"arachnophonia-billy-joel-the-stranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2025\/10\/arachnophonia-billy-joel-the-stranger\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: Billy Joel “The Stranger”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection.<\/p>\n

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional relevant<\/a> information from<\/a> around the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> is by student assistant Julie (class of 2028) and features Billy Joel’s classic 1977 album The Stranger<\/strong><\/a>. Thanks, Julie!<\/em><\/p>\n

Billy Joel<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe Stranger<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

The Stranger<\/a><\/em> is easily my favorite album by American pianist and singer-songwriter, Billy Joel. I grew up hearing his music blasting from the radio and my dad\u2019s speaker, and while this album contains several of his popular, more up-beat hits such as \u201cMovin\u2019 Out (Anthony\u2019s Song)<\/a>\u201d and \u201cOnly The Good Die Young<\/a>,\u201d I have to admit that \u201cVienna<\/a>\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s Always A Woman<\/a>\u201d have my heart. <\/p>\n

Easily recognizable by its iconic piano introduction, \u201cVienna<\/a>\u201d leaves the listener with a gentle reminder to stop and smell the roses as a young adult; life doesn\u2019t end with old age! <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s Always A Woman<\/a>\u201d is, I think, one of the most beautiful love songs out there. While it\u2019s certainly mellow, the complexity of Joel\u2019s melody and instrumentation make it stand out in a crowd without losing its approachability. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll always jump at the chance to use my CD player, and for me, I found The Stranger<\/a><\/em> to be the perfect soundtrack for a rainy day study session. With a stellar group of songs perfectly representing a wide variety of emotions, this album truly has something for everyone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Arachnophonia (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library\u2018s collection. All links included in these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15223,15242],"tags":[38125,37984,61217,232024,38177,15315,232135,15334,232136],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collection","category-promotional","tag-album","tag-albums","tag-arachnophonia","tag-arachnophonia-25-26","tag-billy-joel","tag-cds","tag-julie","tag-popular-music","tag-the-stranger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6918,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions\/6918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}