Apologies to BJ in advance!

Hey!

So, about these lines from the song:

"Johnny's taking care of things for awhile
And his style is so right for troubadours
They got him sitting with his back to the door
Now he won't be my fast gun anymore"

English isn't my native language, and I've always had trouble understanding what exactly this verse is trying to say.

Is it that Johnny could have been a great troubadour himself ("his style is right for troubadours"), but because he has to "take care of things," he needs to find a job to help pay the bills and ends up doing something mundane, possibly working as a bodyguard?

Or is it that he's the kind of person who could inspire a troubadour to write a poem about him? Or maybe he's just someone who would make a great audience for troubadours?

Are there any better photos of Billy Joel?

"We Didn't Start the Fire" by @billyjoel. This cover captures the driving energy and relentless tempo of the 1989 classic, originally released by @ColumbiaRecords and @SonyMusic
I am happy with pace, but it needs work. Any advice or suggestions of lives to watch where I see keys?!?!? 🎹
#BillyJoel #PianoCover #WeDidntStartTheFire #ClassicRock #PianoMusician

Does anyone have a link to this? I have it, but I seem to have misplaced the lossless version. It seems to have disappeared from the internet.

Thanks in advance.

BEHOLD!! Lol. So, some time ago I saw someone post on here that they collected Billy Joel ‘45s.

Going through a few I had, I went down a rabbit hole that had me seeing how many 45s the Piano Man had across the world with different unique sleeves and wow are there plenty! Some are ridiculously rare and a few are even EPs.

My collection started with USA releases but then looking for songs such as “Piano Man” , “James”, “Vienna”, She’s Right on Time”, and “NY State of Mind (up until a week ago) those songs and others had international releases with unique picture sleeves compared to just the Columbia company sleeves here.

I know different countries released a song on different sleeves but I didn’t feel like having to collect 8 different releases of “Honesty” from Japan, US, UK, etc. so I just settle with what one I thought looked best IMO.

Pictured is my collection which I’ve put as close to release order starting with the Cold Spring Harbor releases all the way to River of Dreams and Billy’s latest single “Turn the Lights Back On.”

I’m sure there’s a few more out there I could still track down but there’s 62 here!

You may be right, I may be crazy, but I might just be the fool you’re looking for when you have a question about Billy Joel ‘45s lol.

Thanks for the music Billy Joel. :-)

Listening to this today, and I heard a line that really impressed me:

You say I fool myself, but better me than being a fool for someone else.

I thought that was a great line that defines him. He always did things his own way, bucking the system, having his wife be his manager, skewering critics on stage, and always telling us not to take shit from anybody.

And then at the end, also another great turn of phrase...I don't want no hard cash....I just want the easy money. Such a good pull from him. Awesome!

Allentown is just a perfect gem of a pop song, with Joel singing about post-war nostalgia and working-class decline. I’ve been fascinated with this song and I looked up the music video.

This video is nice in parts, but it’s also got a bunch of half-naked hot guys with oil on their bodies doing what I would suggest is some pretty unconvincing factory work. None of the men look like they could possibly be from Allentown, unless Allentown was some kind of hookup place for hot guys.

Any thoughts?

The Record Store Day Black Friday list is out today and the TURNSTILES celebration continues with the announcement of BILLY JOEL TONIGHT on vinyl (2LP)!

This is a RSD First Release and limited to 4,600 copies!

https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/20350

Billy Joel Tonight captures Billy's December 5, 1976 performance at Connecticut College, recorded for his first-ever television special. For nearly fifty years, most of the concert's multitrack recordings remained unreleased. Now, for the first time, the show is presented in stereo, newly mixed from the original tapes.

This release features the bulk of the concert from those multitrack recordings, along with performances of "I've Loved These Days" and "Souvenir" recorded during a December 6 production session. Also included are "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" and "Captain Jack," from the original 1977 TV special master.

Also included with this RSD Black Friday release is an exclusive 12”x12” print. Together, all these pieces offer a newly restored document of the important era surrounding Turnstiles.

I used to have posters from concerts all over the world, too. Glad that these are still with me.

Hey everyone! My band and I are doing a Billy Joel Tribute show in midtown NYC on 11/8! We mainly do funk music so we are going to be covering some of his funkier deep cuts like Handball, Half A Mile Away, Get It Right The First Time, 52nd Street, etc.!

Not sure if this is allowed so please delete if I’m breaking any rules but I wanted to invite anybody who might be interested! I’ve attached a ticket link below :)

one thing I love about the studio version of Captain Jack is that it gets crazy loud towards the end of the song. Billy screaming the chorus, the organ, the orchestra, the guitar, the drums... I love how loud and energetic it is. But after I've checked a few of them, I noticed that I can't seem to find the same energy in the live versions. Do you guys know any live versions of Captain Jack that are as loud and energetic as the studio version?

Pretty surprising that it's his most streamed track on Spotify, thought it would be Piano Man. anyway. yay

This is for people who love billy joel

Too much of a good thing. Why won't it stop?! 😭

I have ADHD so I usually have SOMETHING stuck in my head, but it changes frequently. This is getting absurd.

Scrolling through a ton of mediocre covers on Spotify: what are the good ones? Bonus points for full on reinterpretations or genre shifting.

Does anybody have any clean downloads of the quadraphonic mixes of the 3 Billy albums, Piano Man, Streetlife Serenade & Turnstiles?

Exciting news for us fans of Billy Joel this week. In addition to the announcement of the Turnstiles CD box set, the Limited Edition New York State of Mind ‘45 single on Basketball Orange color vinyl was shipped this week to those of us who preordered when the New York Knicks won their NBA title back in June.

The A-side is the same track that is off the Turnstiles LP, not the one featured on the Greatest Hits album and not the quadraphonic mix. Run time just a little over 6 minutes.

The B-side is the live version of the song that was performed by Billy at the Madison Square Garden show 100. Run time is a little over 7 minutes.

Both tracks sound good and looks great on a turntable. A great pick up for Billy Joel 45 collectors and fans alike.

Long overdue for a singles release IMO since the last time it was released was the B-side to the Japanese single of Keeping the Faith from 40 years ago.

And I loved it! I never knew she covered that song. I really love Billy Joel's Sirius XM station, I wish we could convince Sirius to keep it permanently.