Piano Man - Billy Joel

Billy Joel was a fantastic songwriter and put out some great pop music.

I was always a little more partial to songs he wrote like:
New York State of Mind
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UZh8YjbDiVk

and
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uDvytBCh3xM

 

My secondary gig is backing a pianist/singer/songwriter as part of a trio with a drummer.

A couple weeks ago we played an anniversary party where we were replacing a string quartet that canceled for some reason. The first half was just playing background music which was mostly jazz standards that I was chart reading. Then we played originals and covers (pop type stuff, like Ben Folds Five, Ben Kweller, etc).

Toward the end of the night this guy asked us a few times to play Piano Man. Alison said she knew the chords but couldn't sing it (not her range, didn't know the words etc) and I (full of wine) loudly proclaimed that I could sing it.

Not only did I do a half-assed job of trying to play the harmonica part on bass, but I forgot the lyrics after the first verse. For the rest of the song, the guy who requested it had to say the beginning of each verse so I could make it through it.

Good times.

 

Billy Joel wrote and performed some great music. It's very listenable, and it sticks in your head. I'm not sure why people poo-poo his work today, but he really did it well.

 

Billy Joel is the man. End of story.

 

I love the song, but I always wondered what the hell a "real estate novelist" was.

As in...Paul is a real estate novelist, who never had time for a wife

My microphone smells like beer too.....

 

I always assumed it meant he was a failed writer. Like the guitar player who takes a job to pay the bills until he "makes it" and never does.

But maybe it's just a dumb line and I think about lyrics too much.

 

The first song I sang in public while playing bass was a Billy Joel song.

My high school jazz band usually worked on fairly challenging jazz charts. Occasionally we did pretty challenging arrangements of somewhat more 'pop'-ish stuff. But for about two weeks, around the same time each year, the director would take up all our charts and replace them with lame watered down elevator-music arrangements of current and near current pop pieces.

He would say "It's time to play for our supper." and we would work them up for two weeks and then go perfom for the Chamber of Commerce luncheon where much of the school budget for the next year would be sort of unofficially worked out.

So one year, he announces that everybody who doesn't have a mouthpiece in or on the lips for any particularly large fraction of a song WILL audition to sing for the lunch gig.

My whole family and several of my friends spent a lot of time telling me that my voice was specifically banned by the Geneva Convention. SO I really wasn't looking forward to having to try to sing in public.

We did the auditions and I was assigned to do "Just The Way You Are".

I got several positive comments afterward. It was pretty awesome. To this day I like a lot of his songs because they are well written and mostly in my vocal range.

 

There's a song for everyone out there somewhere. Look at it this way, if John Belushi could do it, you can!

 

That's it. The equivalent of a 'waiter/actor'.

This thread is funny. The OP is kind of like....

'golly gee, have you guys ever heard of a group called the Beatles. They play really well and even write most of their own songs'

Hey, nothing wrong with finding a great artist or tune for the first time. I thought I discovered Coltrane in 1976 and let all my friends in on my great discovery

 

We used to close with it - every night - for a couple years. I don't need to play or hear it again for a while.

 

I've heard of John Coltrane, and a Jimmy Forrest tune titled Night Train, but not an artist named Coal Train. Must be a new group.

 

Nothing wrong with Billy Joel. He's written a lot of great songs.

I've also done Just The Way You Are a few times and received compliments for it as well. His voice is slightly higher-pitched than mine but nothing serious that prevents me from doing it in the original key. Barry White did a version of it as well...

I might introduce Piano Man on the repertoire, but I don't know what a crowd would dance to that. Waltz? A bit too fast for that I think.... Perhaps it's better to leave it for bar gigs.

 

Typing too fast! Fixed it!

 

To this day, I think Joel lifted the choral idea for Just the Way You Are from 10CC's I'm Not in Love.



The 10CC tune is more inventive and original to me.

Joel has made it writing songs I just don't like.

 

Thanks for the insight. That makes sense. I kept thinking about some guy writing books about selling houses.

I remember when that album first came out. Billy Joel was scheduled to appear at our local arena and the concert was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. The same thing happened to Bruce Springsteen when he was scheduled to appear here back in the 70's. On the other hand, Kenny Rogers sold out in 2 hours. Gotta love my hometown.....