In "Only The Good Die Young," Joel instructs a timid Catholic virgin, "They never told you the price that you pay"--"they" is understood to symbolize the evils of an establishment left undefined. "They" as the collective brute force of society appears also in "My Life," one of Joel's biggest hits; in "The Entertainer," show-biz contempt worthy of Eddie Vedder; and in "Miami 2017," a vision of urban apocalypse released in 1976, the same year as the Clash's "London's Burning" (not to be confused with the later "London Calling").

Joel defiantly declares himself a precursor of post-punk attitude in "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me," from Glass Houses, his 1980 new wave move. Guardians of punk purity were understandably horrified by his hubris. But as far back as 1973, Joel was likening suburbia to death in "Captain Jack," with a static vision of swimming pools, masturbation, and (literally!) drowned fathers--when the Sex Pistols made a similar survey of England four years later, Joel must've felt a kinship with punk, even if the connection escaped others.