Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Billy Joel

Bill and I went to see Billy Joel in concert last night. The last time I went to one of his concerts was in 1982. I enjoyed this one just as much. The light show was spectacular, although I don't very often go to rock concerts, so maybe they're all like that. His piano elevated through the stage while the lights were out, and the second song he sang was My Life, my favourite song since my ex-boyfriend introduced me to the music of Billy Joel about 27 years ago (thanks Dan!). Then he turned to the audience and said, "Hi, I'm Billy's dad. Billy couldn't be here tonight. He's home combing his hair."
The song that almost brought the house down - billed by Billy as a religious song that we would remember long after the concert was over - was actually Highway to Hell sung by Chainsaw, a member of his road crew. We were sitting in the nosebleed seats, and everybody in the stadium stomping in unison shook the whole building. I was just hoping that it didn't set up some sort of oscillation and literally bring the house down.

I knew all the songs by heart except one, and he sang most of his hits. I had a blast! At least the drummer didn't moon the audience this time. He finished his encore with, of course, Piano Man and amazed me again with the ability to sing, play the piano, and play the harmonica simultaneously.And, here's some trivia: Billy Joel is on the Celebrity Atheist list.

5 comments:

Mr Farty said...

Ahhhhh. I've been a fan of Billy's since The Stranger. Until I realised that Piano Man was one of his. So technically 35 years. What a guy!

Laurie said...

I wore out The Stranger album when I was a teenager. Rolling Stone lists The Stranger as #67 in the top 100 Greatest Albums ever made. The album Bill wore out (when he was slightly older than a teenager), Dark
Side of the Moon, is #43.

Anonymous said...

Once, at karaoke, I went up to sing, "Only the Good Die Young". The karaoke host told me this song had special meaning to him because it was played at the funeral of a friend who had died in high school. Apparently, everyone there was oblivous to what Billy was singing in that song! Yeah, after hearing that song, I was pretty sure he was an atheist. What a great songwriter!

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Always yours,
miss MW