I first heard Billy Joel around the age of 14 or 15, growing up in Calcutta in India. We had one state-run broadcaster and the only western pop you would hear on it was either at lunchtimes or late at night. 'Lunchtime Variety' on Sunday usually featured some interesting DJs and one of them used to play this interesting piano-driven track called 'Surprises' endlessly.
The first collection of his I heard was a 'Greatest Hits' cassette, which of course did not even feature 'Surprises', which was on 'The Nylon Curtain'. This was the first real album I heard, full of little gems like 'Allentown', with its steam-whistle intro, 'Pressure', with the immortal non-sequitur 'All of your life is Time magazine, I read it too' and the cod-Beatles-psychedelic 'Scandinavian Skies' that is much less irritating than it sounds.
Fast forward to New Year's Eve 1999/ 2000, years after Billy Joel had either decided to become a 'serious' classical musician or hit a serious case of writer's block, he decides to play some New Year's shows at Madison Square Garden, which was interesting, but not half as much as the prices for the show - top tickets around $ 3000!!! For a guy who used to sign off on stage saying 'Don't let the bastards grind you down', it was a depressing little segue into 'Exclusive pre-booking for American Express cardholders' or some such. I think it was The Eagles' neverending 'Reunion/ Farewell' tours that started to set my teeth on edge and longing for 1977 all over again (this was of course before Johnny Rotten appeared on 'I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here'), but this was up there with the greediest of them.
When I saw he was touring again this year, on the strength of the success of 'Movin' Out', the musical based on his songs, it seemed like another bad cash-in by someone whose best days are clearly behind them. Having said that, I have to confess I was struck by the live album that's come out of his 12 nights at Madison Square Garden earlier this year - '12 Gardens Live'.
Unless there has been a vast amount of studio overdubbing added on (think Led Zeppelin's Song Remains The Same...), his voice, singing and playing are all surprisingly strong. It's not as if there are any huge surprises in the arrangements, but when I heard 'Miami 2017', I was ready to love the album. He's dipped deeply into a very strong songbook and played some of my personal favourites - 'Zanzibar', with the great 'I got a jazz guitar, I got my old man's car, I got a tab at Zan-zi-bar!'; 'Everybody loves you now'; 'Keepin' the Faith' - 'I got a fresh pack of Luckys and a mint called Sen-Sen'; 'Big Shot' and of course 'Movin' Out'. With these, you can even forgive clunkers like 'Always a woman' and 'River of Dreams'.
I'm still not going to watch the show when it rolls around - I refuse to be the sheep that gets sheared for the pension fund or the second alimony (There's an idea for a tour - 'The Summer 2006 Alimony II Tour!'), unless there are some new songs or a new album that at least proves the artist in question is trying to do some new work. (The exception being The Rolling Stones, who put out new albums just to have a name for the tour. If you sat Keith Richards down and asked him for the name of the last three Stones albums, I think you might wait a long time.) But by all means, run out and buy '12 Gardens Live'.
By the way, on the subject of topping up pension funds, I was rolling over with laughter when I read the name of 'The Eagles'' latest tour - it's called 'Farewell 1' - ha ha ha! How brazen do you have to be to make it so bleeding obvious - why not call it the 'Blatant Cash-in till we come round again' tour? More 'authentic', isn't it?
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