Last night I got to finally fulfill a dream of mine: I got to see Billy Joel live.
In 7th grade, I got myself his greatest hits albums. I remembered listening to the song Piano Man as a kid, and one of my new friends, an odd fellow named Jonah, was a huge fan. Within a few years, my sister and I had every album and every word memorized. He's the first musician that got me passionate about music. He also convinced me to stop listening to the radio.
My junior year of High School, Billy was on what was supposed to be his last tour ever as he slipped into retirement. Lori, now in college, and I decided to spend our life savings to see him perform at Madison Square Gardens in his home town of New York City (mind you, I grew up in Washington State- it wasn't exactly something we could make a road trip out of). It took a lot of saving and a lot of convincing my parents, but we got it all planned and flew out.
We got to see the sites of manhattan, and I got to see Les Miserables on broadway, which is still one of the highlights of my life. However, the day of the concert, we found out it was cancelled. Billy was "sick". And by sick, I mean, probably too drunk to perform. It's something I've been bitter about ever since: Billy stood me up, and I lost my one chance to see him live.
Well, in the years since, Billy has cleaned up a bit. It would appear he's running out of money, as well, so he's touring again. His recent compilation album, "My Lives" was a compilation of his favorite but more obscure songs (much better than his greatest hits- in my opinion, Greatest Hits are seldom an artist's best songs). And this tour went along the same theme. In truth, I've moved on to other artists lately and don't listen to Billy much anymore. I went to this concert mostly to be able to say I finally saw him live, not because I'm passionate about his music anymore.
Then I saw him, and I heard him, and I transformed back into an excitable 13 year old girl, screaming my heart out and nearly bursting with music. The show last night was AMAZING. Honestly, I couldn't be happier with it. His voice is back up to par, his piano was of course incredible, and his song selection... words can hardly tell how happy it made me. The first half hour of the show was particularly good- he even did a song from his first album, which is perhaps his least known album, but my personal favorite. Among my favorites of the evening: The Entertainer, Everybody loves you now, Angry Young Man, Vienna and... well, he didn't actually play it (he let the audience vote and another song won), but the fact he even mentioned Summer Highland Falls made my heart jump.
Now, if only I could get Led Zep to tour in the US again, or make Joni Mitchell 30 years younger...
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1 hour ago
9 comments:
Billy Joel was not 'too drunk to perform' at Madison Square Garden. He had an upper respiratory infection for months which left him unable to sing. This is an example of a lie being repeated so often that it becomes accepted as truth. Don't damage a man's reputation the way the tabloid press does.
Im glad you finally got to see him. Now all of our oldest babies got to be there for a billy joel concert in utero.
And sadly I have to agree with your Annon poster. I was the one who called to tell you guys it had been canceled and oddly enough I remember it was from a respiratory infection.What a sad call to make to you guys hanging out with random guy on the subway. :)
http://tinyurl.com/34hzgr
I don't know.. that link is to the review of the concert the night before, and it doesn't sound like his throat was too bad. Plus, all the concerts got moved to September, and he went into rehab in June.
Plus, Lori talked to some people on the subway who caught that show and they were convinced he was drunk during the show.
To Sam- I DO know what I'm talking about and the fact is that Joel was already sick the night of the concert you are referring to. 'People on the subway' can speculate and talk trash all they want. The truth remains true no matter how much time goes by.
Yeah, Bep, I'm not saying they didn't have an official better excuse for him not performing. The official stance was he had an infection. But, as Sam pointed out, Billy performed the night before, and it was pretty obvious that his throat/lungs were not the problem. And it's no secret he had a drinking problem.
But I'm not bitter about it anymore, because the show the other night was more than I could ever have hoped for.
Mr. Anonymous- I'm sorry if I'm just propogating a lie, but this is a personal blog and I'm letting my readers know my take on what happened. If you want to change my mind about why Billy didn't perform that night, I'd be happy to email with you- jooniper@gmail.com
Sounds as though you hit a hot button. Glad you had a good time.
Sounds like Mr. Anonymous knows a lot, but not enough to stick an identity with it. :-)
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