We think of Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man album as the record where he returned to the music he loved as a kid. A crowd-pleaser of an LP if ever there were one, it strengthened Joel’s vice-like grip on pop music when released in 1983.
Videos by American Songwriter
But the album isn’t entirely lost in the past. The title track stands as one of Joel’s most pointed, adult love songs, the portrait of someone offering love to someone who might not be ready to receive it.
Laments of the “Innocent”
Coming off a wildly successful album (The Nylon Curtain) that pushed him to the brink of exhaustion and worse, Billy Joel took a rare vacation. Heading to an island resort, Joel, fresh off a divorce, found himself flirting with models and playing old songs on the piano to entertain them.
Feeling a lightness that he hadn’t experienced in years, Joel began to equate that feeling with the pop, rock, and R&B songs he loved as a kid. When he started to write for his next project, which he titled An Innocent Man, just about every song that came forth was essentially an homage to one artist or another from that era.
Oddly enough, it’s the title track that feels like a bit of an outlier. If you use your imagination, you can sort of hear echoes of Sam Cooke and Ben E. King, the soul legends Joel claimed he had in mind when writing the song. Joel has also said that he wanted to give himself some challenging high notes in the song, knowing that, before long, he wouldn’t be able to hit them.
Lyrically, however, “An Innocent Man” cuts a little bit deeper than the other songs on the album. Because of the momentum of the album, the song became a hit, making it to No. 10 on the pop charts. But it feels more like a bluesy album track where the creator unburdens himself without concern about how the masses will accept it.
Examining the Lyrics of “An Innocent Man”
In “An Innocent Man”, Joel plays the role of a suitor unafraid of his new romance’s potential pitfalls. Scarred before by failed trysts, the girl doesn’t have that kind of courage. He spends the entirety of the song trying to convince her that she can trust him.
Joel uses metaphors to make his point about “Some people” scared to take chances. “They hear a voice in the hall outside/And hope that it just passes by,” he sings. And then: “Some people live with the fear of a touch and the anger of having been a fool.” Without directly saying so, you can tell that the narrator doesn’t believe this is a good way to go about living your life.
He presents himself as the antidote to her reluctance. “I’m not above doing anything/To restore your faith if I can,” he promises. He realizes that he’s paying for the sins of others. “I know you’re thinking of somebody else,” he says. “Someone who hurt you.”
None of that deters him from his quest. He’ll be patient: “I’m not above being cool for a while/If you’re cruel to me I’ll understand.” But he makes it obvious that he isn’t going anywhere. “But I’m not willing to lay down and die/Because I am an innocent man.”
“An Innocent Man” comes off as a bit of a sore thumb (albeit a pretty-sounding one) on the album of the same name. But it nonetheless stands as one of the finest songwriting efforts and vocal performances in Billy Joel’s monumental career.
Photo by Clive Dix/Shutterstock
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.