"The Stranger" totally holds up as a creative master class. Stranger-52nd Street-Glass Houses is a pretty solid run of albums.
I wish they'd spent more time on the music, the musicians, the songs, the studio process, etc. - and a bit less on "the romantic history of Billy Joel."
I'm sure Joel is capable of being abrupt and difficult, but I got a little weary of hearing how much it hurt Liberty's feelings when he didn't use him on a project, and how much it hurt Phil Ramone when Joel wanted to use a different producer, etc, etc. It's a complicated and nuanced thing to talk about loyalty in those situations where there's a completely one-sided power dynamic. I'm sure no one would argue that those people played a huge role in shaping the music. But let's remember that for a lot of those musicians, being in Joel's band is the difference between jetting around the world surrounded by luxury and adoration vs. teaching music lessons for $50/hr and making a few bucks every weekend at a nightclub.
It has to be more complicated than Joel is the greatest down-home, loyal, never-changing, stand-up guy only as long as he uses the same cast of Long Island guys... and he's a treasonous disloyal asshole when he wants to do something different or work with a different person.