Billy Joel (Official Thread)

METALPRIEST

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35 Years Ago

52nd Street



joel52.jpg
 

TheSound

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I see Billy is coming out of retirement and playing some shows, you can’t call it a tour, it’s four dates in Florida, and one show here in New York. I’m not even going to waste my time trying to get a ticket, you spend all day online to Ticketmaster, or on the phone, only to finally find out that it sold out inside 5 minutes, 10 hours ago.
 

LG

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^^That's reprehensible the the way online distribution has changed getting hold of tickets, and many times scalpers scoop up the best seats without any intention of attending the show.:wtf:

I preferred the old tried and true method of going in person and buying a ticket, you looked at a map of the venue what seats were still available and got your tickets. Of course there were still scalpers back then but they weren't nearly as mercenary as the digital age outlaws are now.
 

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Billy Joel Announces Monthly Residency at Madison Square Garden



Billy Joel will be joining hockey’s Rangers and basketball’s Knicks and Liberty as a permanent franchise resident of New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The rock legend will perform one show a month at the famed venue for “as long as there is demand.”

Four previously announced 2014 shows — Jan. 27, Feb. 3, March 21 and April 18 — are already sold out. A fifth, scheduled for Joel’s 65th birthday on May 9, goes on sale tomorrow if you have the right credit card. The singer and piano player, whose name already hangs in MSG’s rafters as a result of his 2006 feat of selling out 12 straight shows, has indicated that he will change the set lists to make each show unique and special.

Speaking at a press conference where his own special logo (really, just a font) was displayed alongside those of the professional sports franchises he now shares a home with, Joel understandably got sentimental.

“In 1978 I achieved my dream of playing this iconic venue for the first time,” he said. “I thought it didn’t get any better than that moment. Now, 35 years later, I’ve had the incredible fortune to experience 46 of those incredible moments right here, including both the Concert for New York and 12-12-12, which were so important to this city. I said it in ’78 and I’ll say it here again, there’s no better venue in the world.”

 

Cosmic Harmony

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I can't help but feel like there is more legitimacy to playing consecutive shows at MSG over Vegas like most people do. Partially because Billy is a home town boy for NYC but also because I've always thought it was gimmicky for people to only play in Vegas. It seems like a thing to do when you're on the back 9 of your career to me.
 

METALPRIEST

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I can't help but feel like there is more legitimacy to playing consecutive shows at MSG over Vegas like most people do. Partially because Billy is a home town boy for NYC but also because I've always thought it was gimmicky for people to only play in Vegas. It seems like a thing to do when you're on the back 9 of your career to me.

Yeah now for a guy like me I would die to play Vegas....but million dollar stadium bands playing there seems funny to me
 

TheSound

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Yeah I got my BJ ticket for next May at the weekend, or should I say somebody got it for me, though I doubt I would want to see his show every month, once will be quite enough for me. I’d be more interested in him writing and releasing a new record to be honest, he hasn’t done a new album now for 20 years, apart from that Fantasies and Delusions classical piano thing he did a few years ago, which was OK , and it showcased just what a brilliant classically trained pianist he is, but it really doesn’t count. He used to be incredibly prolific as a recording artist, 13 albums between 1971 and 1993, but then he suddenly stopped, and all we’ve had since 1993 is a couple of great live albums.

Btw, Billy last night was the most recent ‘rock’ recipient of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, which are bestowed by each President on artists (from music, film, media, writers, TV etc) who have made a significant contribution in the arts, and it really is viewed as being a huge honor, past rock recipients include Springsteen, Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, The Who, Brian Wilson, Elton, Paul Simon, Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, B B King, Pete Seeger. It was all very snobby and stuffy and highbrow for many years, with really only opera singers and classical/jazz artists from the music world awarded, but then Bill Clinton came along and started awarding guys like B B King and Cash and Dylan, and ever since then there has been a major figure from the world of rock/pop included every year – I always actually really liked Rock ‘n Roll Clinton!!...and I totally don’t care who he slept with. Anyway, Billy Joel is now in there, so that’s very well deserved. The great Carlos Santana and Herbie Hancock both got the same award yesterday too.

Here’s the link to this morning’s NYDN article about it…

Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine receive Kennedy Center Honors for impact on American culture - NY Daily News
 

Hurdy Gurdy Man

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Most deserving of the honor.Of course,no one should be bestowed with such a prize just because of a good show on the Billboard charts,but Joel has indeed had his own special way of articulating feelings and emotional states in a way that sometimes listening to him,you may feel as if you're taking some wisdoms from a dear close friend.Greatly inspired by Lennon and McCartney,Joel has exhibited some of their brand of depth of writing...........
 

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