Still Rock and Roll: The Impact of Billy Joel

From The Lost Souls to Madison Square Garden

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In 1980, I was a sophomore in high school when Glass Houses dropped, and it hit me like a brick through a plate-glass window. It was loud, edgy, playful, and full of hooks. This was before streaming, before playlists, before you could hear what you wanted when you wanted. You caught your music on the radio, on vinyl, on 8-track, or on cassette. The funny thing to me is I don’t think I ever owned any of Billy Joel’s albums outright, but they lived in my head anyway. They got in through repetition and radio waves and the sheer inevitability of greatness.

Eventually, most of his songs found their way into my rotation. Billy was everywhere, at school dances, on car radios, blasting out of boomboxes. He was the soundtrack to breakups, parties, and quiet moments of clarity.

For me he was always one of those artists that I really enjoyed but never sought out. I knew the words to a lot of his songs and, he had so many that you could sing along to, but for whatever reason I never went out of my way to acquire any of his music.

Fast forward 45 years, and I finally got to see him live.

My wife and I were lucky enough to catch Billy Joel in concert earlier this year, before his recent illness forced him to step back from touring. He was sharing the bill with Sting (whom we love, and had seen in Vegas the year before), but the truth is, as much as I love Sting, Billy stole the show. At 76, he was still in perfect voice, hitting the high notes with power and ease. And beyond the voice, it was showmanship. He’s a natural. He knows how to connect. He’s funny, loose, commanding, like someone who’s been playing to packed stadiums his entire life (which he has for more than 40 years) and still gives a damn every time.

It was more than a concert. It was a masterclass in endurance, craft, and joy. Another thing that really struck me was just how good his voice was, and still is, at least before his diagnosis of hydrocephalus, and being a singer/songwriter, he was always able to write to his strengths.

Preparing to go to the show and looking at his playlist for the concert it was amazing to see just how many hits he had, easily twenty huge hits and arguably another ten. From Cold Spring Harbor in 71 to River of Dreams in 93, he made 13 studio albums as a solo artist, along with 8 live albums. He also did a classical music album after he quit making pop music. This year he put out a companion album for his documentary and it includes stuff from his earliest work with his first bands The Lost Souls, The Hassles, and Attila, outtakes and intros to songs, covering his whole career.

This week, we started watching his documentary, The Billy Joel: And So it Goes, the new one that features not just Billy but his early bandmates, his first wife, who was also his early and most successful business manager, and the people who helped shape his early rise. It’s riveting. Honest. Full of grainy footage, backstage tension, and those little musical decisions that end up defining an artist. It also includes a bunch of never-before-seen footage. I knew a lot of Billy’s music. I didn’t know his whole story. It’s fascinating. His first wife, Elizabeth Weber comes off as the hero in part one and his divorce from her is where part one ends. Without her Billy might have never had the huge career he had. It might have all ended with The Stranger, without the right singles and the right PR push at the right time. She was a notoriously tough boss and being his wife she didn’t get the credit or respect she deserved.

Part two is his life after divorcing his first wife. Three more marriages and a betrayal by his new business manager, who was his first wife’s brother and whom she advised him against hiring.

The revival of his spirits when he met Christie Brinkley was a bittersweet time. They were really happy for many years and had a daughter together, who also happens to be a singer/songwriter. But it came to light that his manager basically fleeced Billy of all his money. He had to rebuild his fortune and so dove hard into touring and writing new music. Sadly, this actually led to the end of his marriage to Christie, as the pressure of so much travelling and pushing to write new music really drove him to alcoholism, something he struggled with for most of his adult life. His third marriage was almost doomed from the start, as his drinking was a massive problem that he was unable at the time to get under control. His fourth marriage was something he didn’t expect, and he has two young children now and seems to be happily married and has finally managed to find balance.

Part one already made me appreciate him on a deeper level, as an artist, a survivor, and a man who kept showing up even when the industry tried to chew him up and spit him out. Part two revealed his desire to be the dad he never got to have. Although he did eventually find his father in Vienna and that he had a half-brother, also a piano player and conductor. It feels like this desire to get approval from his father was a driving force in his life, even though he might not have been consciously aware of it. In the end, his brother told him that his father loved him and respected him and his accomplishments, but Billy didn’t believe him, as he never heard the words come from his father’s mouth.

Part two also showed Billy’s renaissance, after he had stopped making new music and taking a long break, he was asked to perform for the Hurricane Sandy benefit, which was received so well that it led to his Madison Square Garden residency, which lasted ten years and 104 sold out shows in row. It was a feat he really didn’t expect, and it revitalized critical opinion. He finally achieved the recognition that he deserved for his talents.

Here is a quote from his last MSG show:

“Let me mention a couple of things that we’ve done,” he said. “We were the first group to play at Yankee Stadium [in 1990]. We were the last band to play at Shea Stadium [in 2008]. We played Berlin the night that the Berlin Wall came down [in 1990, so not quite]. We were the first American full-fledged performance in the Soviet Union [in 1987]. And we were the first band to play after Castro came to power, and we played Cuba [1979]. We played in front of the Coliseum in Rome for a half million people [in 2006]. And the food was great. But out of all of them, this is the best. There’s no place like this.”

We sat through each part in their entirety, which is uncommon for us. We usually do thirty minutes with dinner, maybe an hour. But these episodes were so riveting we had to watch the whole episode in one sitting. (2.5 hours a pop on back-to-back nights)

His music really turned out to be timeless and has aged immaculately. His music was honest and soulful and real. He really couldn’t be pigeon-holed into a music category and that was part of the early career negative critical review.

Billy Joel has always been part of the landscape of my life. But somehow, he keeps surprising me, showing me there’s more to the story. That may be the best any artist can hope for.

I hope he overcomes his health issues and can return to performing. If he does, I cannot suggest strongly enough that you should go see him. He is simply an amazing performer. One of a kind.

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