POP MUSIC REVIEW : BILLY JOEL ON BRINK OF BEING ‘INNOCENT MAN’?

Christie Brinkley should have taken a bow at hubby Billy Joel’s concert Saturday night at the Forum.

Joel didn’t introduce the famous model, so few in the sold-out arena probably even realized she was on hand. Yet her presence in the front row seemed to infuse Joel with a warm, lighthearted, even--now get this!-- humble spirit. The latter was once as rare at a Joel show as photographers around Elvis Costello.

Joel twirled the microphone stand with a cheerleader’s verve, leaped into the audience on several occasions to shake hands with fans and teased band members with false starts during an a cappella version of “The Longest Time.”

When Brinkley playfully joined the female fans rushing to the stage to give her husband flowers, Joel went into a Robin Williams-like imitation of a Miss America candidate. Wiping imaginary tears from his eyes as he held the roses, Joel said, “I’ll use my beauty for world peace.”

This tomfoolery could be distracting with many performers, but it had a liberating effect on Saturday’s show.

Where Joel was just as energetic in the past, he used to funnel that frenzy into a cocky, pugilistic stance that seemed to be insisting that his middle-brow reflections on suburban alienation bordered on greatness.

The problem for years was that the songs--from the Harry Chapin-like narrative of “Piano Man” to the Elton John accents in “Just the Way You Are’--were so relentlessly derivative that he was tabbed the Pop Chameleon.

Joel’s best tunes (“Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “She’s Always a Woman”) combined a pop accessibility and rock energy reminiscent of Elton John’s recordings. His worst music was infused with the shameless melodrama associated with early Barry Manilow.

The New Yorker made impressive strides toward more significant and affecting terrain in his socially conscious “Nylon Curtain” album in 1982. When sales proved disappointing, Joel moved back the following year in his “An Innocent Man” LP to easier stuff: building upon classic pop and R&B; strains. His new collection, “The Bridge,” is a hollow return to straightforward pop songwriting.

Saturday’s show opened with “A Matter of Trust,” a song from the new album that speaks about trying to have faith once more in relationships. Playing guitar instead of his usual piano, Joel overcame the song’s clumsy imagery (“The closer you get to the fire, the more you get burned”) through the sheer conviction of his vocal.

But the show then settled into a routine journey through some of his early and recent hits before centering on “Allentown,” a highlight from “Nylon Curtain.” Instead of underscoring the darker elements in the look at economic hard times, however, Joel exhibited his worst show-biz instincts. He and his seven-piece band smothered the message of the song with disheartening razzle-dazzle.

Surprisingly, they bounced back with a gripping, no-frills treatment of “Goodnight Saigon,” another song from “Nylon Curtain.” Unlike “Born in the U.S.A.,” this chilling portrait of the horrors of Vietnam could never be mistaken for a patriotic jingle.

While the concert then proceeded predictably through the highs and many lows of Joel’s extensive catalogue, his own attitude became increasingly engaging. Glancing periodically at his wife, he seemed infinitely more comfortable with himself than in the past--and intent on nothing more than sharing that comfort with his fans.

For years, Joel claimed in interviews that he was misunderstood; that a lot of the bombast in his songs was really a mocking aside at his own shortcomings. And the most endearing moments of the Forum concert suggested Joel may be an Innocent Man after all.

As he vaulted around the stage during chest-thumping statements like “Big Shot” and “You May Be Right,” you could feel the satiric sidelights. The moot question is whether Joel always saw the self-deprecating humor in them--or has only recently discovered it.

At any rate, if Brinkley can now inspire Joel to stretch out as a songwriter, they ought to invent a new Grammy category: Best Contribution by a Spouse.