Billy Joel Finishes What the Beatles Started
Thursday, July 17, 2008
By Roger Friedman
Billy Joel on Wednesday night began to finish what the Beatles started
in 1966. He played the first of two shows at Shea Stadium, the last
live music act before the cesspool of a s****ting arena finally closes
this fall.
And I do mean cesspool. As a Yankee fan, I haven=92t had much use for
Shea Stadium in all these years except for the night the Yanks took
the World Series from the Mets in October 2000. A big paint chip
hovered over my head that night. Things haven=92t gotten better and, in
fact, even the neighborhood surrounding Shea looks like it=92s gotten
worse.
But I do digress: Joel lit up this forlorn palace, filling it to the
brim with fans as he performed about 30 hits and introduced several
guest stars: John Mellencamp (adding his "Little Pink Houses"), Don
Henley (doing "Boys of Summer") and John Mayer. On Friday night, the
guests are rumored to be Steven Tyler, Garth Brooks and, possibly and
fittingly, Paul McCartney.
Tony Bennett is featured on both nights. When he walked out to sing
"New York State of Mind" with Billy on Wednesday, the crowd roared
with delight in a way that sounded like Beatlemania. How ironic:
Bennett=92s career was derailed by the Beatles=92 arrival in the
mid-1960s. Now, at 82, in many ways he=92s just as big.
Billy does not run around the stage like he used to, but he=92s still
got the energy of 10 men. He piloted his superior band through three
hours worth of music, from "Angry Young Man" to "River of Dreams" and
finally to his signature hit, "Piano Man."
A huge camera crew filmed the show, but the real do***entary, I think,
would have been better made watching the audience members sing "Piano
Man" in unison, acting out the different lines, with looks of joy on
their faces. That=92s what art is all about.
Joel=92s songs mostly tell stories, and the fans =97 at least 51,000
Wednesday =97 know all of them better than they do "Mother Goose" or
"Little Red Riding Hood." The audience was filled with Brenda-and-
Eddies from "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," Billy=92s slightly
jaundiced saga of a working-class couple with aspirations that don=92t
materialize. Never mind that the song is an indictment of their lives:
The fans love it anyway.
There was a lot of reminiscing, as Billy played some Beatles songs in
honor of the group that made Shea a rock house.
"I want to thank the Beatles for letting us use their room," he said
after playing "She Loves You." "The best band that ever was, the best
band that ever will be," he said of the Fab Four of yore.
Mostly, though, he played his own hits. During "She=92s Always a Woman
to Me," Joel=92s wife, Katie Lee, now a cookbook author, danced in the
aisle with famed concert promoter Ron Delsener. Bold-faced names such
as Kelly Ripa and Ronald Perelman were spotted enjoying any number of
Joel=92s gems, from "You May Be Right" to "Allentown," "The
Entertainer," "Zanzibar," "Movin=92 Out," "My Life" and so on.
The nice surprises: "Goodnight Saigon," a song that=92s somehow grown in
stature over the years, and "This Is the Time," which Billy told the
crowd is often used as a prom song. Mayer supplied some nice guest
licks on guitar.
There=92s a lot of ruminating you can do on Billy Joel. He=92s Long
Island=92s local boy made good =97 although, as he said, he didn=92t even
attend his prom because he didn=92t finish high school. He was already
out on his own, playing piano bars.
He=92s a generation younger than the Brill Building/Phil Spector pop
writers, but his music is mostly one of a piece of it. At one point in
the show, he throws in a dollop of The Drifters=92 "Stand by Me" in
their style =97 and then you see the whole thing. Billy Joel is Leiber
and Stoller by way of Gershwin.
Yes, did I mention there were at least 30 songs in the show =97 and
still we didn=92t get a bunch like "Just the Way You Are," "Big Shot" or
"Say Goodbye to Hollywood." On Friday, there=92s a rumor that Christie
Brinkley may show up =97 their daughter, Alexa, was at Wednesday night=92s
show.
Maybe we can pray for "Uptown Girl" just one last time. As Billy sings
in what might be his best song, "Summer, Highland Falls": "It=92s either
sadness or euphoria." Well, not sadness, exactly, just nostalgia for a
time when singer-songwriters were really, really great.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,384526,00.html
|
