Re-Billy Joel Doc.

Bob,

About an hour into part one.  Riveting, but what a rollercoaster ride…already. 

I grew up in Hicksville, lived 3 blocks from Billy Joel's childhood home, a stone's throw from ("...remember those nights hanging out at")  the Village Green.

Back then, for kids from Long Island, he was our hometown hero.  Over the years, he'd give props to our collective geography. In NY area shows when singing the line from "New York State of Mind" 

"…the New York Times, the Daily News", he'd add "…and Newsday too", our local paper. 

Billy's Long Island roots ran deep, Cole Spring Harbor, Oyster Bay and of course Hicksville where as as delinquent student,  Billy received the praise of one Mr. Charles "Chuck" Arnold, Hicksville High School's long time music teacher.  

Many years later, Mr. Arnold and the Hicksville High School chorus appeared on the recording of "Leningrad" on 1989's Storm Front. When Mr. Arnold retired—Billy returned to the school's auditorium to speak at a "Mr. Holland's Opus " style retirement event to return the praise for a man who changed his life. 

I was fortunate to enter the music business predominately with MTV as the gateway, in 1981.  I had two encounters with my Hicksville hero.  The latter was a meeting that Jeff Schock (Billy's dearly departed and longtime man of many talents) and I had before a Billy Joel concert in New Jersey.  We were there to convince Billy to perform for his televised induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. 

A man who was proud of his work, Billy didn't want to put himself in the spotlight, but finally bought into a proposed idea of him singing "Only the Good Die Young" to follow Jann Wenner's annual roll call of those lost the year before. That's the best we could get from the Piano Man.  We took it. 

But the moment that sticks with me, that reinforced--for good, bad or indifferent that Billy is a man who never lost his Long Island roots, was about 10 years before that. 

I happened to be north of the border and sessions for "Storm Front" were taking place at a friend's home.  Another friend was producing and when said friends learned I was in town, they insisted I come over the next day for a hang.  Billy was there, and as I watched him record vocals, I felt like Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams....

"I am pitching to Shoeless Joe Jackson"

A "take five" in the action led to my heading upstairs to the kitchen in my friend's home studio and as I was making some tea, in walked the man  himself…just me and him.  

Billy was kind of sizing me up and so I went for it. 

"So, uh…I'm sure you hear this all the time, but I'm from Hicksville".  Somewhat delighted, but cautious,  he looked at me and shot back "Oh yeah? What street?"  I told him and he shot back his street.  

I responded with "I know the street where your house was...right near Fork Lane Elementary"  "Yeah, okay, so did you go to Fork Lane?", Billy asked. "Yep", I volleyed back.   

He then went deeper.  "Who'd you have for music?" Total recall kicked in and I responded "Miss Miladantre (sp)" For visual purposes, I remember her looking like a chain-smoking Olive Oyl from the Popeye cartoons.  

I guess he had the same recall and without hesitation, Billy put two fingers to his lips like he was taking a drag off an imaginary cigarette and with a Brenda Vacarro-like growl said "Okay kids, do the chorus one more time" and he feigned Miss M. walking away like she was more interested in her cigarette than the kids.  

We both cracked up. "Man", he added, "that woman? She needed to get laid".  

And 36 years later (and in part one alone), he's still the same lovable wise guy from Long Island.  

Brian Diamond
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Bob, Billy Joel came into my office in Hollywood looking for work on November 8, 1972.  I still have his hand written resume.  He seemed pretty desperate.  I personally thought he was unfriendly, all business, but later realized this was typical of New Yorkers.  I gave his number to a top 40 lounge agent who auditioned him and later told me that he was terrific, but he couldn't book him because "all he wanted to play was his own originals!"

Sterling Howard, founder/owner 
https://www.MusiciansContact.com 
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When you say "Billy continued to have hits and figured out MTV," it's only fair to point out that it was director Russell Mulcahey who figured MTV out (among Russell's many brilliant videos was the very first to open MTV - "Video Killed The Radio Star"). Russell directed "Allentown," "Pressure" and "She's Right on Time" - all from "The Nylon Currtain" album - which broke Billy on MTV. Russell later followed up with the video for "A Matter of Trust" (which I produced) that Billy has called his favorite of all his music videos. 

Paul Flattery
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Re: McCartney's comment about "Just The Way You Are" (a song he wished he had written).

I was once at a songwriters round table event/performance at NY's Bottom Line…
Alan Toussant was a participant and was asked what song he wished he had written and his response was "Muskrat Love" - He was dead on serious and preceded to perform it ! You never know! 

Doug Pomerantz
________________________________________

I'm glad I didn't take your advice. I was not a fan of Billy Joel, but I am now. I lived in a very small rural town and we had two radio stations to choose from. A classical music station or the adult station, so I got to hear Billy Joel.  I had forgotten the impact he had on me in my childhood years. His songs told me stories about adults. But I only heard whatever the program director at that adult station wanted me to hear, so some of his music escaped me. Until last night. I watched part one and then I ran to Spotify to listen to some old favorites I had forgotten about an discovered some new ones. I was shocked to see he has 38 million monthly listeners! I am looking forward to part two. 

Keith Michaels
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"Re: "However, what really happened with the Family Productions legal situation... Rumor was always that Billy signed with Columbia and they didn't know he was already under contract. This could be untrue, but I would have liked to have heard more about the nitty-gritty of the ultimate settlement.""

Artie is still around and not who you and most people think he is. He lives in the LA area and I'd be happy to connect you. I haven't seen the movie, but if they didn't talk about how Billy was re-united with his biological father and equally talented sibling, they didn't cover the significance of Artie's involvement. 

I worked for him at Family Productions and managed the associated Fidelity Studios during the time when the Billy Joel Columbia contract – I was told it was the biggest single artist contract ever at the time and was given a paper copy to peruse – provided the revenue for Artie's operations. Billy Joel royalties paid part of our salaries, and the controversy over "Cold Spring Harbor" was active. 

As the popular refrain now goes, "I don't want to get ahead of my (former) boss", but I assure you that there's an entire movie's worth of material around that period – but that's Artie's story to tell….

Victor Levine
________________________________________

The term documentary suggests a candid, balanced representation of a given subject, but they're often anything but these days. That's especially true of documentaries featuring recording artists given their direct and indirect participation in their making. Glenn Frey (History of the Eagles), Taylor Swift (Miss Americana), Billie Eilish (The World's a Little Blurry), Bruce Springsteen (Western Stars), Paul McCartney (McCartney 3,2,1) are among the artists who served as executive producers of documentaries in which they are featured. 
 
Steve Cohen, Billy Joel's longtime creative director and collaborator, is an executive producer of Billy Joel: And So It Goes.
 
For many recording artists, documentaries constitute an additional revenue stream, not to mention the opportunity to airbrush their legacy. That doesn't make them any less entertaining, but let's not delude ourselves into believing that these artists are showing us anything they don't want us to see.
 
Bob Knott
Baltimore, MD
________________________________________

Broadway rocker is a good description.  I like him, but not enough to watch a documentary more than 30 minutes.  He had a dozen top 10 hits in the 70s and 80s, and as you say, not all that interesting back story.

Thanks for watching so I don't have to.

Edmund J. Kelly
________________________________________

Perfect analysis, thank you. I felt the same - but when the artists themselves put these things together, what can we expect? Always gonna be at least somewhat absent of 'awkward' facts. 

Adam Howell
________________________________________

Completely disagree
i've never been a Billy Joel fan. After watcvhing the doc, I have respect for him and his craft.

Defne Tabori
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"Others have come down off our thrones and realized our roots are who we are, public school and single family dwellings on a plot of land."

This! Thats us …

Billy is our Beatle, Bob! 

Got to MSG twice in May and June of 23. Best. Live. Experience. Ever. Home court advantage. 3 hour sing along! 

Glass Houses …owned it on vinyl and 8 Track …

The night we were there…he played 6 tracks off of it, never before, never since. 

All for Leyna, Sleeping with the Television On, 
C'etait Toi…plus the hits …like the Beatles, the whole album is Fab three more singles could've been released at least! 

Keep Rockin! 
Blaine Leeds
________________________________________

Count me in the camp that recognizes Billy Joel's great musical talent but is not a fan of it. I particularly detest the trite and egomaniacal lyrics of his megahit "Piano Man", so I found this essay both hilarious and on target. Enjoy the humor if you haven't read it yet.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-158845411


Regards,

Barry Ekstrand
________________________________________

When I started reading your rundown of the new documentary about Billy Joel, I said to myself "obviously Bob's not from New York."  To us New Yorkers, Billy Joel is the closest thing we have to a Poet Laureate. 

We grew up with him, we grew up with his music. His narratives had real meaning to us - his references were our references - from the ode to NY loser kids on Long Island in Captain Jack to his references to a crumbling NYC in Miami 2017 to our unofficial anthem NY State of Mind to the tale of a drunken night of abandon at Elanie's in Big Shot to Scenes from an Italian Restaurant to the desire to the stories of working class New Yorkers people trying to break out of their wasted lives in Movin' Out and even schmaltzy hits about a working class guy falling in love with a rich Upper East Side girl like in Uptown Girl. 

There's so many more references I could provide, but these songs, many of which had international success, resonate with Every New Yorker in a way that's incomprehensible for people to understand that didn't grow up here. Not just the Bridge and Tunnel crowd - all of us. 

More than that, he's one of us. You'd see him at Nello's on the Upper East Side having a drink, you'd go see him play The Garden, you'd turn the corner of a street and see him recording a music video - and if you were lucky like me, get to join in.  

Growing up in NYC, I was into The Talking Heads, the Jam, The Clash, Blondie, all kinds of dance music, New Wave, Punk, but Billy Joel, even at his worst was never uncool or irrelevant to us New Yorkers. He's part of the fabric of our state, our city and our lives. But more than that, he's a great artist and his music resonates not only with New Yorkers but with people across the planet. 

As to the documentary?  It's not too bad.  Worth a watch and listen.  But if you want to know his story, just dig into his catalogue. 

Mark Frieser - Sync Summit
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I'm quite amazed how accurate you can be sometimes.

Billy Joel IS a national songwriting treasure.

I'm seen a few clips of him on Stern's show and he comes off very much like one of us.  I imagine though to work with him on stage might be a big challenge.

Thanks,

Will Eggleston
________________________________________

Beautiful review touching  all the dots that connect to make a superstar career..
My only add-on would be a tip of the hat to his amazing band.. they delivered every night! 

Marty Simon. 
________________________________________

WRONG

Kathleen Stagg
________________________________________

I was born in 74, so my consciousness of music begins right around the time Billy Joel was blowing up. His songs were all over WLS in Chicago. The late 70's were a weird time for rock. KISS and Aerosmith were on their way down, even if they didn't know it yet. Disco was huge. Punk was a movement, but was never going to be mainstream. Van Halen was just getting started. Soft rock/yacht rock was also huge. There weren't a lot of true rock n' roll bands carrying the torch, so by those standards Joel was considered rock n' roll. And parents loved it because it wasn't metal and it was music they liked listening to as well. Therein lies the true test, right? If it's something both you and your parents can enjoy together, how rock n' roll is it? Regardless, he certainly did well for himself even if he seemed hell bent on signing bad deals and getting ripped off. 

Neil Johnson
________________________________________

Bob, you always described growing up in the Northeast -- specifically the Tri-State Area - so perfectly, within the context of the music you love. You've got 20 years on me, but the feeling absolutely still resonates with Billy Joel. "Summer Highland Falls" -- when I listen to it -- it smells and sounds like New York. Hence, getting out of the city and going to the respite places. Being with your people -- the friends and family who punch you on your shoulder and put you down as a sign of endearment. I love Billy and can't wait to watch this doc.

Josh Valentine
Longmont, Colorado (via Rockland and Bergen Counties)
________________________________________

My wife was/is a big Billy Joel fan.
When I met her in 85 I had a pretty negative view of him. Growing up in London I really only knew "Just the way you are" and "Piano Man", neither of which impressed me. Yeah, I thought he was a schmaltzy MOR piano man, like you would hear at a Holiday Inn.
So the wife convinced me to go with her to his next gig. She had seen him many times back in the pre-arena days.
It only took one live experience at MSG to put me straight as to his chops, his incredible catalog and his dynamic stage presence.
Like Bruce, if you don't get him then you've likely never seen him live.
I thought the doc was solid, I liked how they covered every album.
But at 2 and a half hours it was a bit of a slog. With typical English snark I suggest they should have called it "And slow it goes."
Looking forward to part 2 though.

Mrak Hudson
________________________________________

Billy Joel attended the opening of the Billy Joel exhibition, Billy Joel - My Life, A Piano Man's Journey at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame and before addressing the guests looked around and said, quite humbly, "I guess I really did have a life".
He was speechless, in awe of himself and his success as he took in his entire life and career showcased in one 5000 square foot room. 
The tens of thousands of fans who have visited the exhibition come because they see themselves in his songs and love him because he's still a regular guy from Long Island singing about their everyday lives. 
No pretense. No frills. Just the piano man. 

Ernie Canadeo
Chairman
Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
________________________________________

Thanks for letting me recoup some time in my life.
I f*cking hate Billy Joel, so your first sentence was very helpful in that regard.

Cheers.

Doug Collitz
________________________________________

Looking forward to Billy's doc. I've always been a big fan. First learned about Billy from a progressive AM station in Allentown, PA. I lived in Easton, PA nearby. The station, WSAN, now an oldies outlet, played tracks from Cold Spring Harbor, and then Piano Man. She's Got a Way, from Cold Spring was probably the first tune of his I heard. Loved it. Then the station announced he would be playing at the Roxy Theatre in Northampton, PA. 

My wife,then, and I pounced on those tix. They cost either $2.50 or $5.00. I forget.

Anyway, the show was amazing. The theatre sat 500. He played songs from both albums. 

My faves were: Captain Jack, Stop in Nevada, and Billy the Kid. He told cool stories between tunes and sang like a dream. He told how he used the name Billy Martin when he played at the bar where he drew the inspiration for Piano Man. Cool.

His opening act was also a treat, Henry Gross, now mostly forgotten, but he also had a big voice and loads of energy.
His cover of Meet Me on the Corner was perfect.

But the Billy tune I'm dying to mention is from the album 52nd Street. Until the Night.
The blessed night when things really begin to pop. I was having an affair. It was this tune dthat carried me along so many nights, and made me cry.

Thanks for talking about the doc and including Billy as the real deal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuV-zEqB2QQ
Until the Night.

Mighty Tim Young.
________________________________________

that's the trouble...
people re-writing reality for a perception they WANT, but isn't true.
why not pull back, really consider the singularity and polish that?
Billy Joel spoke to the disenfranchised frustration of those suburban kids who wanted to go to Studio 54, but were too bridge and tunnel... who weren't nihilistic enough to be Lou Reed, poetic and arty enough to be Patti Smith
there were so many more of them.
living in Cleveland, Ohio, Joel was the heart of Murray Hill, the Little Italy piece of the east side that STILL has brick streets.
their own culture, their own cool, Sinatra (and Dean-o, Tony Bennett) never went out of fashion, and yes, show tunes!

why can't that be brilliant for holding up the light to that piece of the population?
they didn't have to be Petty/Browne/Springsteen kids, they were something more, different, but just as impassioned -- and as "Deer Hunter" demonstrated profoundly -- as well as fed up with being marginalized
these kids went to dinner with red checkered table cloths, church, shoveling the stoop, but they burned just as much.

if what you say is true, making him over as something other than that is a tragedy
celebrate his specific slice of the American Pie -- because it was robust and glorious with a bit of the Spector drama thrown in!

holly gleason

a kid who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio when Kid Leo ruled the air, Michael Stanley was our king + WMMS won all the Rolling Stone Readers' polls
________________________________________

If "Piano Man" is an inferior "Taxi", then "Just the Way You Are" is an inferior "I'm Not In Love "

Best,
Tom Quinn
________________________________________

This piece is a nice little companion to the doc:

"'No matter what, I will always be a Jew.' Billy Joel opens up about his family's Holocaust history.":

https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/755308/billy-joel-and-so-it-goes-hbo-documentary-holocaust/

Vince Welsh
________________________________________

"She's always a woman" what a tune

May not be Springsteen, but u can't say sh*t about that song.  

If that was all he ever did that's special . Like what's better than than now. F*ck all

Todd Clark
________________________________________

Phil Ramone was a great guy, but he destroyed the real singer-songwriter Billy Joel and replaced him with a plastic guy who wanted to own a Cadillac-ack-ack-ack-ack.  Out on Long Island, it was sad to watch the guy who wrote brilliant B-Sides like Captain Jack and Traveling Prayer to back classic standards like Piano Man and NYS of Mind churning out bubble gum junk like Only the Good Die Young and Uptown Girl for his wife to gawk around to.  And for the "documentary" to ignore the firestorm created with Ritchie Cannata over bringing in Phil Woods to do the Just the Way You Are alto solo is more proof that this doc was designed, as you say, to legitimize an image fallacy.

Charlie Sanders
________________________________________

well written.  I have seen Billy twice, once earlier this year.  he is a pro, his supporting musicians are great and the songs are sung like they were when i was young.  hope i get to see him live one more time but i realize it is unlikely.

Roger Ellis
________________________________________

Never have been a Billy Joel fan and along with Meatloaf & The Eagles, I almost always changed the station in the 70s when he came on except for 'Moving Out' & 'She's Always a Woman'. 

I agree with most of what you said except the later years Elton comparisons. Joel didn't 'press on' in the 80s or 90s. 'We Didn't Start the Fire' is a terribly tedious song and that's pretty much the only thing in the later years that he's known for before completely drying up creatively. Elton continued to make hits in the 80s and has continued to put out a slew of new music consistently like it or not. He had a 3 album dry run with Blue Moves, Single Man & Victim but then came back fairly quickly.  

Anyway, I won't be watching the Joel doc...
Lovingly sent from Jemal Jalal Hines's iPhone
________________________________________

The Stranger i know every word to every song...my teen years and beyond..that says it all

Chris Rodinis
________________________________________

You sound implicitly critical (or skeptical ) in defining Billy as a "rocker" in the same vain as..say Bruce (or Jackson Browne). Not sure if that's a fair comparison.

As someone who saw Billy perform at MSG in 1978, I witnessed a complete "rock show" that had 20,000 fans screaming the entire time. I came away wanting more.  But you are correct that his recent "residency" show at MSG were just as amazing. 

Perhaps you need to take off the California hat and be in a "New York State of Mind " to best appreciate both Billy's story and the brilliance of his music.

I look forward to part 2 of the documentary.

Michael Borodinsky
________________________________________

Shiite

Eric Brendo
________________________________________

I never bought a Billy Joel album but I always liked the songs everyone liked and I loved some of his deep tracks like All For Leyna and Vienna. 
When he passes, he'll be worthy of being on the cover of Time magazine (if it still exists).

Jeff Sacks
________________________________________

Bang on Bob. I knew Billy fairly well years ago and I can tell you the Artie Ripp story is true. Billy paid him a percentage of his recording profits for decades. I interviewed him also  around the mid 80s  when he'd written a song on the LP "The Bridge" about Artie and I said "Tell me you aren't still paying Artie" and he confessed he was. I forget the amount but I think it was 5%. You know Billy is a natural mimic and comic and he is very entertaining. No interview question he won't answer except maybe his persistent alleged alcoholism. 

Larry LeBlanc
________________________________________

"No one in the west cared about Oyster Bay, hadn't even heard of it."
 
100%
 
We in LA in 1975 didn't care about "Thunder Road" or "Jungle Land" either. The East Coast seemed to love hearing about California girls and tequila sunrises, but this was not a symmetric sentiment – we couldn't have cared less about the Jersey Shore, for the most part. 
 
As a UCLA student, saw Bruce at the Roxy and was bored out of my mind, though the audience was into it. I had heard the first albums in the hallways at Dykstra – all critic's darlings but I couldn't relate to any of the lyrics until I moved back east. "Why's he going on and on about these mundane places and people?", we thought.
 
Then, something happened to me. 
 
I was in the Air Force from '78-'81. Every other week, I'd drive my MG, top down,  from Syracuse to Staten Island to hang out with my girlfriend, which I did once a week. We'd spent every day together going into Manhattan, seeing musicals, hanging out at Sweet Basil to see Jim Hall, buy books at the Strand, and then head back to Tottenville at the end of the day. But that didn't help me get it.
 
On one trip in late '79, I was coming down on a late Friday night drive as usual from the Delaware Water Gap and into Jersey, I got lost. I ended up on a busy street in Kearny going all the way to the make out area on the Passaic River in what looked to me like a smelly, garbage-strewn superfund site loaded with kids making out in and out of their cars. I took that interesting scene in, then got my Rand McNally map out, plotted my back to the highway. And then it hit me as I drove down what appeared to be a main boulevard crowded with Friday night life.
 
The streets were full of young people on the stroll - sitting on curbs, some carrying guitars with no case down the street (like switchblades!, I realized), everyone just hanging out, there were literally girls sitting on the hoods of cars drinking beers. Warm, I imagined.
 
It hit me - it was all true! 
 
I got to Tottenville at about 9, and we went to an Italian place up the road. Sitting there, with the jukebox playing songs from "The Stranger", I looked around the restaurant and again realized, it was all true!
 
I never got any of this until I moved back east. We were clueless, as you point out. But it was all true, and more accurate than any Eagles song was about Los Angeles, I thought then.

Gary Lang
________________________________________

I haven't seen the new Billy Joel documentary yet, but I am pleased to see how Billy has over the last 20 years finally gotten the respect he's deserved.  You're right – he wasn't cool for those in the rock crowd back then.  He wasn't from the streets; he was suburban, non-threatening.  But he was a damned great songwriter.  I was fortunate to grow up near Philly, which embraced Billy early on (as I recall, WMMR was one of the first stations to put "Captain Jack" into their rotation), and so I got to hear a lot of Billy's music.  The hits were great, but for me it's all about the album tracks.  I love "Summer, Highland Falls."  And "Vienna" – sure, it's popular now, but this was a deep cut then.  And "Zanzibar" from 52nd Street, "All for Leyna" from Glass Houses…great, great stuff.
 
Of course, by the time you get to Storm Front, it was obvious Billy was getting tired of being a star – that album is as moribund as his earlier work is full of vitality and life.  And maybe quitting recording was the best move Billy made; it allowed us to step back and appreciate his body of work for what it was, and it's a great body of work.
 
Take care,
Wes R. Benash
________________________________________

I worked with Billy doing his publicity and he was one of   my favorite clients-no pretense - no ego- anxious to please and very serious about his music - I dealt with Elizabeth with no issues even tho I was warned about her- but she put him down in front of me and that was disgusting- he did not deserve what happened to him but he learned a hard lesson - anyway/ he will always be up on my top 5 list of clients! Carol Ross
________________________________________

I read your review of recent Billy Joel  documentary .
I'm sitting here trying to figure which is worse
The Doc or your review. 
Billy is a Pop icon, he's had 50 years of hits on the radio.

You don't like him, many other people do. Walk away,Bob.

Bo Overlock


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