I have not listened to an early Billy Joel album for a long time. In my quest to find more music that explicitly references suburbs, I recently ran into his song “The Great Suburban Showdown,” track number three on his 1974 album Streetlife Serenade. The character in the song is headed home for a visit and this is the chorus:

I’ve been gone for a while
Made some changes in my style
And they say you can’t go home anymore
When the streets all look the same
And I’ll have to play the game
We’ll all sit around in the kitchen chairs
With the tv on, with the neighbors there

The song describes several common images of American suburbs:

1. Family life in suburbia. Home is where mom and dad are. There are barbeques, neighbors.
2. Things look the same and the suburbs have not changed.
3. In contrast to #1 and #2, the main character is now living somewhere else. He has made changes to his life while the suburban life still looks and feels the same. Suburban life is dull and predictable but not other kinds of places are not like this.

The song refers to a “suburban showdown” where all this will come into conflict. Joel himself grew up in suburban Long Island; could he be referring in this song to his own experiences?