ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I’m sorry. I just took an $87.50 nap.
I remember going to Kuhn’s in Belle Meade in 1975 after “The Sting” was released to buy a 45 of “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin. I screwed up and bought a Billy Joel song instead. Hey, I was eight. I could barely read. Thus began a lifetime of disappointment with Billy Joel.
Don’t get me wrong. Billy was in excellent form and voice tonight, and his band rocked! I especially liked the numbers where the horn section went tri-saxual. His banter between songs was witty and personable. He played almost every hit I could think of, plus some cool deeper album cuts.
But I like a Krispy Kreme donut every now and then…I just don’t want thirty of them.
Lest you think I slept through the show, here’s the set list:
Prelude/Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Ballad of Billy the Kid
Allentown
Stuck in Nevada
Zanzibar
New York State of Mind
Rootbeer Rag
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
Don’t Ask Me Why
Shameless
She’s Always A Woman
Keepin’ The Faith
The River of Dreams
Highway To Hell
We Didn’t Start The Fire
Big Shot
It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me
You May Be Right
Encores
Only The Good Die Young
Italian Restaurant
Piano Man
I’m glad I went, because it meant a lot to RUABelle, but for the cost of our two tickets I could have bought twenty, yes twenty!, of his albums on iTunes.
It was a late night because traffic was a bear and they delayed the start of the show. To pass the extra half hour, RUABelle and I played a couple of games. First we tried to find the youngest person in the crowd who wasn’t with their parents. We figured about 30 years old. Then we played count the black people in the arena that weren’t beer vendors. We stopped counting after 3. Cuz that’s all we saw. Oh well, I have to head to Birmingham at 6:30 tomorrow morning and back in the afternoon. So I guess it’s time to finish this nap in my own bed.
February 22, 2007 at 3:57 am
Ai yi yi. I was a fan as a much younger person, I had most of the early albums. I am not sure I could have sat through this set, so more power to ya there.
Glass Houses is actually an excellent, excellent album and I could probably sit through a performance of that album, but no others.
Yuck, Birmingham -I hate traffic down there. Have fun…
February 22, 2007 at 8:30 am
Did you say “Highway to Hell?”
February 22, 2007 at 9:29 am
He was fantastic at Starwood about 10 years ago. It would be cool to see him w/ Elton John again.
February 22, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I think it was about 15 yrs ago that I saw him at Starwood…got dragged by two fans. Never was one myself.
February 22, 2007 at 12:49 pm
There’s something about watching older men play rock music that makes me sad. It’s doubly-bad when they play their hits from their youth. It’s sort of like the concert version of whittling and talking about the good ol’ days. (Exceptions for the Stones and Bob Seger here.)
February 22, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I don’t know. Joel never offended me but I think of him more now as a karoake sort of thing, and I’m with Kat that it sort of saddens me to see rockers get older.
Of course, it is representative that I’m getting older too.
I still heart the B-52’s and would knock back a cool hundred to go see them in a minute.
February 22, 2007 at 2:47 pm
You are a great man for enduring that show. I would not have attended for payment any less than $500,000.
Though I admit, I like Allentown and Pressure and when I was in junior high, I was all about Uptown Girl and one or two other songs, I haven’t liked him since my ears matured (except the first two songs I mentioned). Plus, he’s just such a pathetic old goat what with a wife the same age as his daughter and all. Ew.
February 25, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Seriously, this is a site I will do all I can to avoid, except for when I’m looking to be put in some sort of weird, music-snob induced bad mood. I’m glad most of you are such musical geniuses that there is nary a good word to say about Billy Joel. I will admit, I am quite biased, as I am a huge fan, but I have also been through plenty of music-snob phases, and sorry, but Billy Joel is still amazing, and simply one of the best.
February 26, 2007 at 1:44 am
Well, to each their own, J.
February 26, 2007 at 9:14 am
Hi J.,
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine. If you actually read what I wrote, I think you’ll find a complimentary paragraph that praises your hero. He’s just not my cup of tea.
The same way I am free to change the channel on my TV, you are free to never type http://www.thedryspot.net ever again. It’s really hard to do by accident. My cat has a pretty talented butt when he sits on my keyboard, but he’s never found a way to accidentally get to my site.
February 26, 2007 at 10:40 am
…”there is nary a good word to say about Billy Joel. ”
er, isn’t my comment praising of him?