re: Billy Joel: And So It Goes (new documentary on HBO)

unpopular opinion but still my favorite BJ song

quote:

---

Katie Lee another of his ex wives

---

Dude either sold his soul for rock-N-roll or he's got a firehose in his trousers.

quote:

---

The Bay City Rollers were really popular in the 70s but, ended up broke because their manage stole all of the money.

---

Badfinger is the poster boys for corrupt management failures. Not only did they not make money, but they ended up owing the manager's share of the lawsuits he lost.

The two members of the group responsible for writing one of the greatest ballads of all time, Without You, ended up hanging themselves in their garages.

Sad story.

quote:

---

Prime Christy Brinkley

---

And Elle MacPherson before that

I've always felt bad for Alexa Ray; Christy Brinkley is your mom but you got your dad's facial features.

His song Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel) was one of the first songs I put in my daughter's playlist when we found out we were having a girl.

Found it by surprise flipping channels and had to watch to the end. Really well done.

It was sort of amazing to realize that I've been listening to or hearing Billy Joel's music for pretty much my whole life, but knew basically nothing about him. Knew nothing about his first wife and her role in his early career.

Definitely worth watching.

quote:

---

And now with Brian Wilson gone he's the greatest living American songwriter.

---

I absolutely love Billy Joel, but those are strong words.

I think Paul Simon has to be in the discussion.

quote:

---

the drummer trying to keep up with him

---

That drummer is Liberty Devito, who is a legend in his own right….if you watch how Billy Joel did him in the Hired Gun documentary about backing musicians it will show you another side to Billy Joel. Not a good side.

Just knocked it out myself, so good!

Everyone touched on how cool it was to hear about the ways the songs were written, totally agree, but I also loved how he talked about his “sound”. I liked how he compared someone like Elton to him, then how he talked about how we wanted his sound to be loud and almost more rock than pop, something that was more akin to how you’d play it in front of a stadium crowd.

What blew me away was how quickly he was selling out these huge live events when his albums weren’t really doing much. Is that common? How would that happen back then? How would folks even hear about the dude without buying the album or hearing it on the radio?

Kind of nuts he had these huge stadium concerts before he was a real bonafide star.

Hmmm, I’d throw in James Taylor or Dylan…

quote:

---

What blew me away was how quickly he was selling out these huge live events when his albums weren’t really doing much. Is that common? How would that happen back then? How would folks even hear about the dude without buying the album or hearing it on the radio?

Kind of nuts he had these huge stadium concerts before he was a real bonafide star.

---

Go look at the release dates on his discography. It was a slightly longer process than it looks in a 2 hour documentary. He was in the business touring small venues for a good 10+ years before he was playing large venues.

For example, I looked up his early Houston appearances. In 1974, after Piano Man, he was playing Liberty Hall, a trendy place that held maybe 450. In 1977, after Turnstiles but before The Stranger, he played the Music Hall, which held over 2,000 people.

Also have to remember how much liberty FM DJ's had in the 70's. If a local DJ liked a song or even a full album, they could play it as much as they wanted to hype a show coming to town. The show gave the example of one station playing Captain Jack over and over, but that's just one anecdote to demonstrate how they could build a following.

ETA: the opening act for his 1977 Music Hall show was Fever Tree, a local psychedelic band that I'm not sure ever played outside of Houston and Austin.