Posted on 04/10/2014 6:39:57 AM PDT by Borges
Billy Joel got to watch a Billy Joel concert Wednesday.
The Piano Man himself was a surprise guest in the audience at Glen Cove's Deasy Elementary School spring concert, "The River of Dreams: A Billy Joel Tribute."
In the show, kindergartners through second-graders performed 15 songs from various phases of Joel's career.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
What a cool gesture!
Good for him. It’s a shame the audience members couldnt’ have left him alone until all of the kids got a chance to perform for him.
“Although he can’t drive with a broken back, at least he can polish the fenders”
Reminds me of my late Uncle Eddie in the mid-1950’s.
Looks like something less than a sellout. (Who’s Billy Joel?)
Yes, it is. Years ago, when I used to live in Indianapolis, there was a dive bar called the Red Key Tavern about 20 minutes from downtown. It was not well-known, but after he played a concert in Indy, he would go to the Red Key and play its piano until the bar closed.
One day he just showed up and asked to play the piano. They said ok, and after that, he made it a tradition. I haven’t lived in Indy in 15 years or so. I wonder if the Red Key still exists, or if he still does this.
It’s a performance by 5 to 7 year olds. Did you think there would be lines? Billy Joel is the guy who sells out Madison Square Garden.
Sing us a song, you’re the piano man.
Saw Billy Joel in concert back in the 1980s, it was a rockin’ show.
A bottle of red, a bottle of white,
Whatever kind of mood you’re in tonight
I’ll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian Restaurant.
It’s a good song. When I was a lad, my uncle gave me a copy of The Stranger. A lot of good songs on that one, including that one. It’s funny; there are a few songs on that record that I distinctly remember not liking, including Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, that I came back to years later and liked a bunch more. Say Goodbye to Hollywood is another song that I didn’t appreciate for years.
Despite his commercial success, I think he sort of gets pooh-poohed as far as his ability as a musician, I guess because he hasn’t turned out anything decent in a long time. But boy, did he write a bunch of really good songs in the 70s and 80s.
Actually his musicianship is never in question, it’s the fact that he’s not really an innovator and plays on what’s already been done. As for anything decent recently, his last album was 21 years ago.
“I guess because he hasn’t turned out anything decent in a long time.”
Well, he officially retired from recording music like 20 years ago, so that is probably why.
He’s been writing classical music. He got bored with pop songs.
He hasn’t even been doing that. One classical album came out in 2001 and that was it.
He “had to be a bigshot, dintcha”...
Billy Joel was in ascendancy in 1975 at the same time as Elton John peaked in the first phase of his globalized career ~ 1975 and John began to wane as he flirted with the disco and soul craze.
Elton John did not re-surface credibly again until ~ 1983 or 1984, but Billy Joel had been keeping the bleachers warm through out that same time with album after album of solid non-disco genuinely talented writing, composing, and performing.
I saw Joel for the first time in Richmond, VA, April 1, 1979. He came out on stage and played a number solo on the piano. Single spotlight. He completed the song, left the stage, and the lights in the Coliseum came up and roadies started making like they were dis-assembling the equipment.
Predictably, a wail, hue, and cry went up from the audience, then the roadies departed the stage, lights went down suddenly, and Billy Joel dashed back out on stage with the single spot light again trained on him and he grabbed the microphone and shouted "April Fools!!!".
Saw Elton John in concert in 1980 -- a shadow of what he was popularly in 1980 vs what he was in 1975. It was obvious. The band, Chicago, was visibly on the wane then too.
Joel and John were eventually paired in presence and prominence from mid-'80s's through the early 1990's.
The two of them eventually went on tour together ~ 1994. My wife saw them perform together at the Meadowlands.
FReegards!
Looks like something less than a sellout. (Who’s Billy Joel?)
“Joel drove to the Finley Middle School’s Wunsch Art Center, where Deasy’s concert was held, a mere 10 minutes from his Centre Island home, via motorcycle. He arrived casually five minutes before the 9:30 a.m. start.”
Five minutes notice. Smart guy.
He was also married to a supermodel at one time.
Love his music.
He also wrote one of the best modern anti-’goverment regulation’ songs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN4I1od02Dw
If I am not mistaken he was classically trained.
He long ago passed the point where he needed to sell albumns, so that’s when they start doing projects they want to do, and since these often are not mainstream they tend to not sell and their pop careers slowly end.
Every year’s a souvenir, that slowly fades away...
Joel was unique in that he went out on top. His last two studio albums (Stormfront in 1989 and ‘River of Dreams’ in 1993) were huge sellers. And he’s still very popular.
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