The Mexican Connection
Song: The Mexican Connection
Album: Streetlife Serenade (1974)
No, no, no, no, no. Nooooooooooooo!
That is what I would have told Billy Joel had he asked me if he should include “The Mexican Connection” on Streetlife Serenade.
Since I was an infant when this record was released I was unavailable for consultation and that is one of the reasons this three and a half minute piece of incidental music closes out Streetlife Serenade.
Maybe I got my hopes up because I liked “Souvenir” so much but this instrumental song was a disappointment.
Throughout the course of this album I’ve gotten the feeling that Billy Joel was working towards a grand sweeping statement about America. “The Mexican Connection” sounds at various times like:
- The music that plays over the credits of the film made about this record.
- The theme song to the TV Show based on Streetlife Serenade
- Music you’d hear in the theater before a movie starts*
*For a while Billy Joel used this as the music that played before his concerts began.
“The Mexican Connection” is a filler piece on the weakest of the three Billy Joel albums I’ve reviewed thus far. The song isn’t bad enough to get worked up about, it’s just bad enough to pretend it never happened.
I’m happy to be closing the book on Streetlife Serenade. It’s a record that could have been good, but with the exception of “The Entertainer” and the pretty decent “Los Angelenos” the ideas at it’s core were never fully realized.
Let’s pretend that this song never happened and move on to the next record. I’ll begin Turnstiles next week.
