Words about Music
The Second-to-Last Play at Shea
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008So I get this e-mail a couple of weeks ago from Citigroup, marketers of my Citi MasterCard. It says I have an opportunity to purchase advance tickets to Billy Joel’s “Last Play at Shea” concert on July 16th, which will be the last rock concert at Shea Stadium before they tear it down in favor of the new Citi Field, currently being built in the parking lot next door (funny how Citi’s name is all over everything here, right?)
Little did I know how valuable an e-mail that was…
At 9AM on Saturday (2/16), I logged on to 507tixx.com and put in my special password. Viola – I got right in and purchased four tickets on the field. They were a bit pricey ($110/ticket), but what the heck – it’ll be a special night, right? The last concert ever at Shea Stadium. History.
Well, not so much. It seems that Mets season ticket holders were allowed to buy tickets two days earlier, and then the rest of the stadium sold out in 48 minutes. Also, 507tixx.com had problems handling all the volume, and by 10AM on Saturday, a lot of angry, shut-out Billy Joel fans found 441 listings for tickets on StubHub, top asking price: $99,215. As a result, a second show was added on July 18th, making the show I bought tickets for the (somewhat less historic) Second-to-Last Play at Shea.
I’m of mixed emotions on this. On the one hand, I thought I was going to see history being made, and now there’s a little less of that. On the other hand, Joel has always been disgusted by scalpers, so I’m sure he’s no fan of StubHub either. Adding a second show definitely gave fans who weren’t able to buy tickets another chance to do so at (somewhat) reasonable prices. On the third hand (what? why can’t there be three hands?), history aside, if I knew there were two shows in the first place, I would definitely have tried for the Friday night show, avoiding the need to trek out to Queens on a Wednesday night (I live in New Jersey, so it’s a schlep – especially on a work night).
On the whole, I’m not really upset at all. I’ve always enjoyed his concerts, even the more recent ones, and this will still be a special night. Also, it’s not like there isn’t any history here. The July 16th show will make Joel the first (and last) musician ever to play New York’s four major sports venues: Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium and Madison Square Garden. And the concert will be the night after the All-Star Game, which will take place across the river in Yankee Stadium, so we’ll get to hear Billy Joel’s take on that game first hand. All in all, it should be a great night…
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Peace Through Music
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008The New York Philharmonic just performed a concert in Pyongyang, North Korea. The program consisted of the following:
| Patriotic Song (the North Korean National Anthem) |
| The Star Spangled Banner |
| Dvorak’s New World Symphony |
| George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” |
| Encore #1 (not mentioned in the article) |
| Encore #2: Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” |
| Encore #3: Arirang (a folk song beloved in both the North and South and often used as a reunification anthem at friendly events between the two Koreas) |
Kim Jong Il did not attend, but the Vice Culture Minister did. He said this:
I can say that through the concert tonight, all the members of the New York Philharmonic opened the hearts of the Korean people. . . . The concert serves as an important occasion to open a chapter of mutual understanding between the two countries.”
When the concert ended, the audience “stood and applauded enthusiastically, waving to the musicians.”
Bravo, folks. Bravo.
(Hat tip: Kushol Gupta)
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Dolly Parton postpones tour, blames breasts
Monday, February 11th, 2008The title of this post is an actual headline at MSNBC.com (as opposed to, say, The Onion).
Here’s the pull quote:
LOS ANGELES – Dolly Parton’s breasts may be two of the wonders of the entertainment world, but the country music icon says they are a pain in her back.
Parton, 62, said on Monday she would postpone her upcoming North American tour after doctors told her to take it easy for six to eight weeks to rest her sore back.
“Hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don’t have back problems,” the folksy singer-songwriter said in a statement.
Has anyone else noticed that the person most directly responsible for Dolly Parton’s famous breasts is . . . Dolly Parton? Especially now that she’s 62 years old, and the world has folks, like Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton, who promote their breasts by making “accidental” porno videos with their boyfriends, rather than just talking about them all the time?
Not that I’m suggesting Dolly needs a new marketing strategy. I’ve seen all I need to see, thank you very much…
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Headline of the Year…
Thursday, December 13th, 2007Ike Turner died this week. And since his death pre-dated Tina Turner’s death, here’s the headline the New York Post decided to run:
Ike “Beats” Tina to Death
It’d be an instant classic if it weren’t just a little too mean…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Words about Music | 1 Comment »
I Should Be Sleeping: Billy Joel FAQ
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007The most recent analysis of my site statistics (How People Found Me – November Edition) got me thinking: 237 unique Google queries about Billy Joel that found their way to my site. And while these people were able to read my 2006 Concert Review from Madison Square Garden, my preview article about that tour, and the lyrics to All My Life, I couldn’t help thinking that plenty of questions went unanswered.
So, based on the Billy Joel-related queries used to access the site in November, 2007, I’ve decided to compile a Frequently Asked Questions file about Billy Joel. This is not intended to be canonical, nor is it thoroughly researched (I’ve added links where I could, and recounted from memory where I couldn’t). I just figure, if people are coming here looking for Billy Joel information, I can at least provide them my best efforts at some answers.
So, as the man says, Come ou, Virginia, don’t let me wait…
Q1: Where Can I Find a Billy Joel Concert Review? (82 queries)
Well, there’s always mine, but if you want more, the best advice I have is to Google “Billy Joel Concert Reviews” and go from there. Joel’s official site, billyjoel.com does not have concert reviews, nor do I see any sanctioned, dependable source in my own Google search. So, it seems you’re at the mercy of folks like me who attend the concerts and tell you what they think.
Q2: Does Billy Joel Have an Opening Act? (48 queries)
No. Billy Joel concerts typically begin with the house lights going dark, followed by a stirring piece of classical music blaring from the arena speakers. While that’s happening (and the crowd is screaming with anticipation), Joel and his band take the stage in darkness. The classical music either fades out or stops entirely, and then the band kicks into their opening number – usually Angry Young Man or something from the album he’s promoting. (During The Bridge tour in 1986, he opened with Matter of Trust, and during the 1993 River of Dreams tour, he opened with No Man’s Land.)
Q3: Where Can I Find a Setlist for a Billy Joel Concert? (35 queries)
The canonical list seems to be here. Click on a decade, and then a particular show for the setlist. Or you can search the database with keywords. A very handy site.
Q4: Where Can I Find Lyrics/Information about Billy Joel’s new song, All My Life? (20 queries)
Here, Google is not so friendly. Because All My Life is named so similarly to the much more popular My Life, I found it very difficult to find the lyrics to this song online when it first came out. It’s easier now, but if you made it to this page, you might as well just click on my blogpost on the subject.
Q5: Why Doesn’t Liberty DeVitto Play with Billy Joel Anymore? (10 queries)
There are many stories floating around out there, and I’m sure most, if not all of them are laced with false rumors. I can tell you that the story I heard was that DeVitto was upset with some of the things Joel told Hank Bordowitz for his Billy Joel biography, Billy Joel: The Life & Times of an Angry Young Man (which, by the way, I thought was excellent), and that this led to a falling out between the two to such an extent that DeVitto didn’t even attend Joel’s most recent wedding to Katie Lee. Wikipedia, by the way, is strangely silent on the whole thing, both on the Billy Joel page and on the Liberty DeVitto page.
Q6: Where Can I Find Lyrics to Billy Joel Songs? (8 queries)
If you want the lyrics to a particular song, I’d once again recommend a Google search. Type in “Billy Joel <name of song> lyrics”, and one of the first few links should get you exactly what you want. If you’re looking for a discography, complete with lyrics to all of his songs, I’d suggest billyjoel.com, which is affiliated with Billy Joel himself, and has a complete and accurate lyrics list for all of his songs.
Q7: How Long is a Billy Joel Concert? (7 queries)
Obviously, that’s up to Billy Joel, and any concert on any given night can vary in length. Typically, though, his shows tend to start around fifteen minutes after the time printed on the ticket, and then run for around two hours. Like most artists of his generation, he would occasionally do a three or four hour marathon show when he was younger, but I haven’t seen or heard about a show like that in a very long time. If you’ve got after show plans, I’d recommend counting on two and a half hours, just to be safe.
Q8: What is the Stage Layout at a Billy Joel Concert? (5 queries)
The stage layout varies from tour to tour, but the basic configuration is always the same. The grand piano is either in the center of the stage, or at stage left (that’s the left side from Joel’s perspective, the right side from the audience’s perspective). His guitar and sax players stand upstage (closer to the audience) on stage right, with auxiliary percussion behind them. The drummer is almost always center stage near the back of the stage (which is true of almost any rock and roll concert, I guess), and any other musicians (e.g., horn players) tend to be downstage on stage left, behind the piano. Joel’s stage also typically has two wings, with an electric keyboard in the back corner of the stage on each wing.
As you would expect, Joel spends most of the show at the grand piano. In the more recent concerts, the piano is typically on a turntable, so it rotates around in a circle during the show, giving everyone in the arena a chance to see him from every angle. In older shows (or smaller arenas), the piano is stationary. At some point during the show, he runs to the wings of the stage and plays a few songs on the electric keyboards, which gives him a chance to face those fans sitting on the sides or behind the stage (see Question #13 below for a discussion about sitting behind or on the side of the stage). I’ve heard Joel say many times in interviews that a piano is not like a guitar – you can’t strap it on and do rock and roll moves with it. He often apologizes to those he has his back to, and promises to turn around when he can.
Most shows also feature a block of songs that Joel sings from a microphone in the front-center of the stage. These typically include Glass Houses hits like You May be Right, Sometimes a Fantasy, and It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me, as well as the title track to the Innocent Man album. When this happens, someone in the band usually moves in to play the grand piano, although the person is never prominently lit or acknowledged on the stage, lest the attention be drawn away from The Piano Man himself.
Q9: Where Can I Find Information About Billy Joel’s Band Members? (5 queries)
For this, I would recommend Wikipedia’s Billy Joel page. They have a complete list of Joel’s current and former band members, including links to their respective Wikipedia pages. Here’s the list, reproduced as of this writing, for easy access:
| Members | Former members |
| Billy Joel | Richie Cannata |
| Tommy Byrnes | Liberty DeVitto |
| Chuck Burgi | Doug Stegmeyer (Deceased) |
| David Rosenthal | David LeBolt |
| Mark Rivera | David Brown |
| Crystal Taliefero | Russell Javors |
| Carl Fischer | Jeff Bova |
| Jeff Jacobs | |
| Larry Russell | |
| Rhys Clark | |
| Ron Tutt |
Q10: What’s the Story with Billy Joel, the OCC, and a motorcycle? (5 queries)
On March 25, 2006, Billy Joel played The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York for 39,000 people (breaking the record for the largest crowd in the Carrier Dome, previously held by The Rolling Stones). During the show, the hosts of the Discovery Channel show, “Orange County Choppers,” came on stage and presented Joel with “The Billy Bike,” a motorcycle they had built specifically for him. The event was covered on the show (Episode #82).
Q11: Why Doesn’t Billy Joel Play Just the Way You Are in Concert Anymore? (3 queries)
Just the Way You Are was a love song that Billy Joel wrote for his first wife, Elizabeth Weber-Small. He has said in recent interviews that when he told her the song was for her, she asked him if that meant she would get the royalties for it, but that might be the divorce talking. At any rate, Joel claims that he took the song out of regular rotation because of Liberty DeVitto’s habit of singing along with songs during concerts in order to keep his place in the song. In the chorus of this particular song, DeVitto would often replace the actual lyric, “I love you Just the Way You Are,” with his own creation – “She Got the House, She Got the Car.” Once that began happening, Joel claims, it was time to put the song away.
For what it’s worth, my take on it is that Joel simply got bored with the song, and didn’t feel it was getting the kind of energy it deserved when performed live. Not to say his story isn’t true, but distractions like that are more effective when an artist is “going through the motions” on a song he’s played thousands of times than on songs that are fresh and new.
Q12: What is Billy Joel’s Concert Schedule? (2 queries)
Once again, I’d recommend billyjoel.com, which has an On The Road menu item, currently listing the remaining shows scheduled for 2007 (no word on any 2008 shows just yet). I don’t know how quickly the official dates get posted, so if you’re more interested rumored tour dates, I’d suggest a search in Technorati, since a quick pass through the blogosphere may be more informative than the standard entertainment/news websites.
The one rumor I can pass along today is that Billy Joel has agreed to be the last event at Shea Stadium before they tear it down at the end of the 2008 baseball season (October, 2008. Late October if Met fans have anything to say about it UPDATE: Turns out, the “Last Play at Shea” is happening in July, just after the All Star Game. For more on that, including the story of how I got tickets to the show (!), click here).
Q13: Where are the best seats at a Billy Joel concert? (1 query)
This, obviously, is a matter of taste. Some people like to be on the floor, right in front of the stage. If that’s your cup of tea, I will warn you that Joel typically leaves the first couple of rows unsold, and then has people walk through the crowd (typically in the upper levels) and choose young, enthusiastic (and, while I can’t prove it, it would seem attractive and female) fans to come down to the front row. His rationale is that the show has more energy when there are screaming kids right up by the stage, rather than old, rich men who can afford the most expensive tickets. So if you’re looking for close to the stage, and you can get seats that aren’t exactly front row, grab them – they might be the best ones available.
Another option at Billy Joel concerts is to sit directly behind the stage. As I mentioned above, the piano is often on a giant turntable, so you get a good view of him while he’s performing, and he also has the keyboards on the wings of the stage that he uses to play to the back of the house. It obviously depends on the arena, but these seats tend to be almost as close to the stage as the floor seats, plus they’re a little elevated, which provides a better and more comfortable view (at least in my opinion. Your mileage may vary).
As for me, I prefer a seat just next to stage left, where I can get as good a look as possible at Joel’s hands while he plays the piano. As an amateur piano player myself (and an avid player of Joel’s music in particular), his concerts are almost as educational for me as they are enjoyable, as I get a real kick out of watching what he’s actually playing while the familiar arrangements are performed by the full band. On a good night, I’ll improve the way several of his songs sound when I play them, just by watching how he plays them in concert. But that’s just me…
Q14: Where can I find a Billy Joel concert poster? (1 query)
I honestly have no clue. I did a Google search, and this site came back as the “Billy Joel Official Store.” I’ve never heard of fanfire.com, so I don’t know how legitimate it is, although they do seem to have an impressive collection of T-shirts, concert programs, teddy bears, hats, and yes – posters, available for sale. I can’t vouch for them at all, but at least you have a starting point.
Q15: Where can I download Billy Joel Music? (1 query)
Well, you can buy his music at the iTunes Music Store, or on CD at various retailers. Also, sites like amazon.com and billyjoel.com offer samples of many songs. If you’re looking for free downloads of Joel’s (copyrighted) material, then I’m afraid you’re on your own. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, but I don’t care to look for it or help anyone else find it. Sorry…
Q16: Is Billy Joel sober now? (1 query)
It’s none of my business (and, IMHO, none of your’s either). But, given the realities of celebrity, the question does get asked often. Everything I’ve heard/read about Billy Joel suggests that he went into rehab to fight an alcohol addiction at least twice (Wikipedia says 2002 and 2005), and that he’s been clean and sober ever since. Of course, anyone who doesn’t know him personally is just guessing about this, so I don’t tend to put a lot of stock in what I read on this topic and hence, don’t care to read too much about it in general.
If I’ve answered your question here, I’m glad. If not, I’d suggest heading back to Google and seeing what you can dig up.
Categories: Words about Music | 2 Comments »
TV Theme Treasure Trove
Monday, December 10th, 2007A little alliteration goes along a-way.
Anyway, this comes from James Lileks at buzz.mn: 3,589 TV Themes in MP3 format.
The mind boggles…
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Is It Too Soon for Christmas Carols?
Friday, December 7th, 2007Now this is how Christmas Carols should be done:
(Hat tip: deMaurie Mackie)
This post dedicated to Michael Weinmayr, loyal ISBS reader and a heckuva caroler in his own right…
Categories: Words about Music | 2 Comments »
Why You Don’t Send the Police to do Diplomacy
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007Here’s a story that starts out strange, and then only gets stranger:
Back in October, the drummer for The Police, Stewart Copeland, gave an interview with Mercurio, a Chilean newspaper, in which he said, “Look, the future President of Argentina would be good for one beer; yours (would be good) for four.”
Here’s how Reuters described the incident:
While it was not clear what Copeland meant with the comments, many Chileans took them to mean he found their first woman president, Bachelet, less attractive than Argentine president-elect Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who will be her country’s first elected female leader.
Apparently, someone asked the Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet, what she thought of the remark, and she declined comment. Copeland sent her a letter which said:
I was mortified to learn this remark reached you and you were asked to comment on such a trivial matter. . . If by chance you are able, Sting, Andy (Summers) and I would welcome the opportunity to personally express our admiration for you and your wonderful country by extending an invitation to you and your guests to attend our performance.
So, let’s review:
A rock and roll drummer says something incomprehensible about two female, South American world leaders. The press in one of the countries says, “we’re not sure what he means, but we think he just called our President ugly. Let’s ask her what she thinks about that.” The President says, “Leave me alone.” Then the drummer sends a letter to the President saying, “Sorry about that, Madame President. Won’t happen again. Hey – would you like free tickets to our concert?”
And why wouldn’t he – after all, she’s good for four beers!
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Marching Band. Video Game. Where Could You Go Wrong?
Thursday, November 15th, 2007Check out the Cal Marching Band’s 16-big Video Game Halftime Show:
The Gizmodo video doesn’t lend itself to easy embedding like YouTube, so the picture above is a link to another page, but trust me – it’s worth the click…
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ISBS Concert Review: Bruce Springsteen at Continental Airlines Arena, October 9, 2007
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007Watching Bruce Springsteen perform is like watching a freight train run at full speed. While standing on the track. In front of the train. Without earplugs.
At 58 years old, Bruce is still the hardest working man in rock & roll. He hit the stage with a hard rocking Radio Nowhere, and basically played straight through for more than two hours. And when I say played straight through, in most cases I mean he actually played straight through. A song would end, “Mighty Max” Weinberg would rattle the drums over the last chord, the crowd would go wild, and then Bruce would run to the back of the stage, grab a new guitar from a roadie, run back to the microphone and yell, “1, 2, 3, 4!” and off they’d go into the next song. The energy required to maintain this pace showed in Bruce’s perspiration, but not in his music. Every hard rocking tune was loud and electrifying. Bruce’s emotions ran from exhilaration (Candy’s Room) to anger (Livin’ in the Future) to fun (Dancing in the Dark) to unadulterated soul (American Land).
The E Street Band did its part, to be sure, and while the sound was amazing, I’d say their body language ranged from “keep up with him if you can!” to “man, I’m getting too old for this…” Of course, I can’t say I blame them. The only true weakness in the band is Bruce’s wife, Patti Scialfa, who’s voice is really not strong enough to be doing duets with her husband on slower songs. But who am I to deny Bruce a little nepotism? After all, it’s his show…
As to the setlist, I was once again impressed with Bruce’s abilities as an artist and as an entertainer. Here’s a man who released his Greatest Hits disc in 1995, and now, twelve years later, he can put on a 23-song show that uses only four of those greatest hits, and with nary a complaint from the crowd. It also speaks to his confidence in his new disc, Magic, from which he played eight of the eleven tracks. Bruce Springsteen has clearly never heard the term “filler.”
Some other reviews of the show that I’ve read this morning called out the crowd as being more subdued than previous crowds. And while it’s true that Bruce did say, “Philly was louder than you guys” at one point, I think it’s relevant to note that the average age at the show probably pushed into the high thirties. Philadelphia was probably louder because it’s more of a college town, and so Bruce probably draws a younger and more energetic audience. Ironically, here in New Jersey, where Springsteen exists somewhere between “Icon” and “Supreme Being” status, his shows are as much about nostalgia as they are about the music.
Whatever your agenda, though, you come away from this show fully satisfied, vicariously exhausted, and with a not-so-insignificant degree of hearing loss. And that, as they say, is rock & roll.
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