Billy Joel

[ktdids]

Didn't see a thread for him, and he just announced an ongoing concert series at Madison Square Garden, sort of like an artist in residence. He's doing 7 shows so far starting in January, and then it seems he'll do a show once a month after that, as long as tickets sell for them! I hadn't thought about trying to get tickets, but if there's a fairly regular opportunity to see him, now I probably will!
I am a little puzzled as to why he would agree to something like this, but I guess he gets to do a show regularly and keep himself fresh and interested, and the income as well.

[Freypower]

I was hoping the announcement was going to be that he was returning to the recording studio.

I am a huge fan who has seen him about five times including once with Elton John. When I have more time I will post a list of favourite songs & albums.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I did see that announcement, along with a show in Pittsburgh and Auburn Hill, MI. I haven't seen him in concert in a long time, but the ones I went to rank pretty high on my list of great concerts. I wish he'd announce some other shows.

[ktdids]

I would have loved to see him when he closed out Shea Stadium, but tickets were gone in seconds. The documentary Last Play at Shea is also one that I could watch again and again.

[Witchy Woman]

Billy Joel is one of the greatest songwriters of our time. I have seen him once with Elton John, but I do plan on trying to get tickets for one of his shows at MSG or Barclays.

[NYC Fan]

I really like this idea of him doing an open ended residency. The TV commercials are calling him the newest MSG Franchise. We already had our tickets to the April show when they announced this, and it was a tough ticket to get. I can see him selling out for quite a while.

He has said in some interviews that he'd like to do some full albums and deeper cuts in his shows, so maybe this is the opportunity to do that for a hometown audience.

I saw Elton John at MSG last week and they raised a banner to the rafters for him. 64 shows at the Garden: The most by a single artist. Maybe Billy is trying to break the record. He already has one banner up there. Maybe he'd like another ;-)

[Freypower]

My Top 10 Billy Joel songs are:

1. Allentown
2. We Didn't Start The Fire
3. Leningrad
4. Say Goodbye To Hollywood
5. Zanzibar
6. It's Still Rock'n'Roll To Me
7. I Go To Extremes
8. Piano Man
9. The Downeaster Alexa
10. New York State Of Mind

You may be able to tell from this that my favourite album is Storm Front (four songs from it in that list) followed by The Nylon Curtain & The Bridge.

[sodascouts]

I LOVE Billy Joel. He really does have a staggering amount of high-quality music in his catalog. He definitely deserves his recent recognition!

[Topkat]

I tried to get tickets for one of the shows. It was sold out in about 10 minutes.
He said the reason he is doing this is because he wants to play but no longer wants to travel. He says he likes to just commute home after the show! I will hopefully get to one of these shows, but the first 4 are sold out. Unless I can score something on Stub Hub at a decent price, I will be waiting for one one of the upcoming shows. I had also seen him at the show with Elton with the dueling huge pianos on the stage....It was quite a sight & a wonderful show. I hear they are good friends. Perhaps Elton will join him for a show again.

I just saw Elton last week, & he did almost a 3 hour show with no break. He is still amazing!:smile:

[VAisForEagleLovers]

He's coming to Louisville on Apr 6!!! I'm so excited! Gotta go, gotta go! A friend went to the New Years Eve concert at the Barclay Center in NYC and loved it. I went twice, once back in Pittsburgh at the igloo in about 1981 and then at the Capital Centre in DC in 1983 or 1984. Both were great shows. It's just a darn shame that I can't buy tickets on Ticketmaster at the office...

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I had to use the TM app on my phone, so it took a while and I didn't get a very good seat, but I did get one. I'm really looking forward to it!

[prayfordaylight]

Just got my tickets for his Nationals Park show in DC! I got spoiled by the seats I had for McCartney there last summer but I'm only a few rows further back for this one.

I've gotten to the point when I've seen almost everyone I want to/can see. Now I'm seeing a lot of acts I think I *should* see before they retire.

[Tiffanny Twisted]

wow guys I am aging myself but when I was a "Kid" I saw him at the academy of music in Philly when Piano Man album came out....talk about awesome and then I saw him a few times at his many Spectrum concerts in Philly....something definatly pre JAHH days lol

He puts on an awesome show and is very entertaining.
I have been listening to his cd from 2009 in the car and I love the kennedy center honors tribute they did for him

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Went to the show last night and it was great!! I wish I had time to do justice with a real review, but alas, I have a lot of things on my plate right now.

The warm-up band was Gavin McGraw, and he was pretty good. He did one song that was rather long, but he walked around the arena as he sang, and came up in the aisle next to me to sing. Very interesting and the crowd ate it up and loved it.

I've seen Billy Joel twice before, but the last time was the Glass Houses tour, so it's been a while. He came out on stage and introduced himself as "Billy Joel's Dad." He said that Billy was "doing some hair styling thing somewhere", it was pretty funny.

They played Root Beer Rag which I heard him play live back in the 70's, and I loved it. They had the camera up in the air and pointing straight down, so you could see his fingers on the keys as he played. He said there was a mistake, though, I think the band wasn't in sync with him, and so he stopped the song and they then picked it up again from there. He was quite amusing about it.

He only had one encore, but it was five or six songs, and all songs from the 80's like Uptown Girl.

The surprise of the evening was when he introduced one of the road crew and said he'd sing. The guy came out and did an incredible job with Highway to Hell, and the entire place was rocking. Everyone seemed to like it, and all sang along. Billy played guitar on it, and just stayed out of the way. I was thinking, that as a solo act that played over two hours, it made for a good break for him.

He had some sort of inhaler/squirter thing and he kept spraying his mouth. He explained that it moistened his throat, that he'd seen Madonna use it once, and while it hadn't helped her, he found that it helped him. He made jokes like that all night long.

He had a trumpet player, and he had the guy play the Call To Post that they play before the Kentucky Derby, and of course the crowd loved it. Then he mentioned that Wilson Pickett was from Louisville, and then played a verse and chorus of In The Midnight Hour, and the crowd liked that as well. Of course, the crowd all noticed that he pronounced the name of the city "Louieville", which of course is not correct. He was smart enough to not bring up the topic of basketball.

He played Piano Man as the last song of the set, before the encore, and at the end, the band was quiet, he quit playing and singing, and gestured for the crowd to sing. It was great to hear that many people sing "Play us a song you're the piano man..."

If I think of more, I'll add to this, but it was a great concert, and I recommend catching this one to anyone who has a chance to go.

[sodascouts]

Thanks for the review!

[Houston Baby]

Thanks VA! It sounds like a wonderful time!

[Zanny Kingston]

Thanks for the review VA, you're so lucky you got to see him!

[Freypower]

Thanks VA. Re Highway To Hell & the roadie, that happened the last time I saw him down here.

[prayfordaylight]

Thanks for the review! Makes me more excited to see him in July for sure.

[Brooke]

VA, thanks for your review. I would like to see him sometime.

And, what is the correct pronunciation of Louieville? Do you pronounce the s?

[Tiffanny Twisted]

thanks va great performer

[Freypower]

VA, thanks for your review. I would like to see him sometime.

And, what is the correct pronunciation of Louieville? Do you pronounce the s?

When I was there we were told it's pronounced 'Louavull', so although they don't pronouce the s they don't try to make it sound French either.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Thank you, FP. I knew after I posted the review that someone would ask that question and I have no idea how to write it phonetically! You did great! I'll add one thing, while it's still a three syllable word, it's pronounced with only two. The 'Loua' is short and quick, and very nearly has another 'L' in it...like 'loualvull'.

I had a teammate on one of the many volleyball teams I played on that was from here, and he taught me very quickly how to say it, so folks around here were quite surprised that I arrived here saying it correctly.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Glad you had a good time at the show, VA. And no matter how many times I say it, I'll never pronounce it properly - for me, it's Lou-e-ville. But, I do try to say it quickly to make my gaffe a little less noticeable. :thumbsup:

[Brooke]

Same for me dreamer! It'll always be Lou-e-ville! :lol:

[WS82Classics]

Music has been one of my major interests for a long time, and this song is the one that started it all for me. It was June, 2004, and the local adult contemporary station was starting to slip older songs into their playlists. The song has such a colonial, renaissance-like sound to it. Like a grenade, it blew open my 9 year old head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaUyJyPekJE

Here's another one of his you don't hear often at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8eOd0DoWVM