When I first saw Billy Joel in concert, he had a full head of hair. It was May 12, 1977. I was a junior in college, and Billy came to our small campus in northwestern Pennsylvania. We knew "Piano Man" and "The Entertainer," for sure. "Captain Jack" sounded familiar. But when he offered up "Just the Way You Are," it was a brand-new song to us. It was nice and catchy.

Naturally, no one knew what lay ahead, for any of us. Back then we were just undergrads looking for escapism before finals week. Billy was in the midst of hitting more than 70 colleges and small venues that year. In the beginning of June, though, he would have a four-day stint at Carnegie Hall. By mid-December, "Just the Way You Are" would reach No. 3 on the charts. Not bad at all.

Over the years, I've seen Billy two more times on his own and three times in tag-team concerts with Elton John. (You can read my review of their 2009 appearance at Gillette Stadium here.) Finally this year, I was able to make arrangements to go with several friends to see Billy perform in his house, Madison Square Garden. I wanted to sing along with "New York State of Mind" in New York. And I wanted to say that I had been there and done that.

This was Billy Joel's 71st gig at MSG. Right away, he and his eight-piece band started the night off energetically with "I Go to Extremes" and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)." Then Billy gave us a choice between hearing "Summer, Highland Falls" or "Vienna." We chose the latter. It was followed by "The Entertainer," "She's Right on Time," "Don't Ask Me Why," "Zanzibar," "New York State of Mind" (YES!), "Allentown," "Say Goodbye to Hollywood," "All About Soul," "Only the Good Die Young" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." And everyone sang along, even if we were tested by the lyrics of the album cuts.

Now at age 70, Billy seemed to be low-key and quiet tonight, as he introduced most of the songs. At one point, he said, "Believe me, I've had more misses than hits. No, actually, I've had four Misses." He paused to let the audience catch up. "Or, I've had three, and I'm still with the fourth." We laughed. Funny stuff.

Billy's MSG gigs also encourage and allow guests to make surprise appearances. Friend of the crew Sydney Ruggles played her flute with the band during "She's Always a Woman." Billy's eldest daughter, Alexa Ray, was considered THE guest of the night. She and her father shared a nice duet on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." But then Alexa and the band launched into a rockin' rendition of "White Christmas" that probably sent both Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby spinning. You shoulda stopped while you were ahead, Alexa. And anyway: the absolute show-stopper of the night was guitarist Mike DelGuidice, who belted out Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" in perfect and passionate Italian and seemingly without much effort, as if he was the lead tenor at the Met. Wow. I'm getting goosebumps again, remembering. And I'm not Italian. Or an opera fan.

I especially admire the way Billy weaves unexpected snippets of other songs into the chord progressions of his own, or even just into the set list. He and his bandmates sang a few a capella strains of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in order to echo their vocal harmonies on "For the Longest Time." (I was disappointed that Jimmy Fallon didn't show up to help them, though. Do an online search, if you don't know what I mean.) When the bass line for "My Life" began, Billy threw an instrumental verse of "Joy to the World" into it before starting with his own melody.

It's also become a regular feature that he'll pop another song into the middle of "River of Dreams." Tonight, it was "O Come All Ye Faithful." And for the last song of the main set, Billy gave us one instrumental verse of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and the beginning of "Frosty the Snowman" before segueing right into "Piano Man." Of course, it was the song that everyone was waiting for. "It's a pretty good crowd for a Wednesday...."

In addition to DelGuidice, the other members of Billy's band are folks you'll probably recognize. Saxophonist Mark Rivera has been with him forever, as has percussionist Crystal Taliefero. Also here were Dave Rosenthal on keyboards, Carl Fischer on trumpet, Tommy Byrnes on guitar, Andy Cichon on bass and Chuck Burgi on drums. Accomplished musicians, all.

And of course, everyone came back for an extended encore. Billy donned an electric guitar to lead off with "We Didn't Start the Fire." He followed it with "Uptown Girl," "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me" (featuring his signature mike stand acrobatics) and "Big Shot." By now, we caught hints that Billy was growing weary. And why shouldn't he be? He'd been up there a good long while, and he saved the most strenuous songs for the end. The concert came to a close with "You May Be Right." As the underlying refrain resounded throughout the arena, suddenly placed on top of it was the first verse of a Led Zeppelin classic. "Been a long time since I rock and rolled." ("You may be wrong, but you may be right.") "Been a long time since I did the stroll." ("You may be wrong, but you may be right.") Who knew these songs could match? Who would even guess? What musical genius!

Once again, Billy Joel was the one we were coming to see to forget about life for a while. We did it 42 years ago to relieve end-of-the-semester stress. Today it was about escaping Daily Life in General and thinking back to those days when we first learned these songs. Thanks again, Billy and band. It's been a long, wonderful time.

by Corinne H. Smith
Rambles.NET
25 January 2020

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