WEBVTT - Billy Joel 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.560 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.680 My chance to talk with artists and writers, policymakers and performers, 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:12.920 to hear their stories, what inspired their creations, what decisions 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:19.720 changed their careers, and what relationships influenced their work. Billy 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.360 Joel's fans have gotten to know him quite well over 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:29.000 the past four decades. Don't go change to try and 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:36.080 please me. You never led meet down before. From the 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.919 open hearted declarations of old fashioned love and She's Got 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.560 Away and just the way you are to the hard 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:54.720 rocking social commentaries we didn't start the fire and Allentown 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:09.679 how sad it's like me. You grew up listening to 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.199 Billy Joel's music. You can chart phases of your life 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.759 by each of his albums. Maybe that's because Billy Joel's 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.319 songs are so passionately connected to who he was at 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.200 the time he wrote them. Jack want you to get 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:28.119 more level, Hello, Hello, Hello, And when you're actually sitting 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.520 in the same room as him with a piano nearby, well, 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.039 you can't help yourself. I want you to play me 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.000 something if you don't mind, because your fans would demand that. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.039 I still remember you said that to me years ago, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.959 how predictable it was wherever you were that there was 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.200 a piano. But it was like, Billy, could you do 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.960 you mind? Right? We just a couple of songs. It's 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.400 it's just birthday, it's Christmas, and we were wondering if 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.320 you could play there. It is it's and it's just 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.920 had it. We just just it's such fans. Yeah, you 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.880 know mine, right, that's your life, yes, but it's it's 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.360 you know, it's fun. You can't have act alongs. You're 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.280 an act you can't act along, but you're gonna have 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.720 sing alongs. I can always sit down at the party 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:13.959 play and everybody starts singing. I go to a pub 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.600 in England, I'm out, Benny Giby's having his zones there. 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.600 You go there, it's uptown girl up and they all 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.040 sit around he sing and everybody has a plass. It's fun. 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.880 It creates a community instantly. Billy Joel is the third 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.560 best selling solo artist of all time in the United States, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.480 where he sold more records than The Stones, Bruce Springsteen, 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.440 and Madonna, but he admits there's still room for improvement. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.200 I know what good piano playing is and I'm not good. 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.720 My left hand is lame. I'm a two finger left 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.639 hand piano player, as opposed to post somebody who knows 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.079 what they're doing with the left hand. I never practiced 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.960 enough to use all my fingers on my left hand, 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.360 so I just play octaves, bass notes. My right hand 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.960 tries to compensate from my left hand being so gimpy, 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.880 so I overplay my right hand. My technique is horrible. 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.320 I can't read music. I never really don't read music. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.120 I used to, but I don't anymore. I forgot how 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.240 so I took a piece of music that you didn't know. 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:13.679 If I got a score, I wouldn't and I put 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.399 in videos to play this. You would not it would 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.359 be Chinese. It would be Chinese. Yet I don't know 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.600 how did that happen. I started taking lessons when I 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.320 was about four or five, and I went up till 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.760 I was about sixteen, so it was almost twelve years 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.720 of classical piano lessons. I loved it, but I just 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.200 when you become a teenager, everything changes. I didn't want 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.600 to read other people's dots anymore. And I also realized 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.440 early on I'm not going to be a concert pianist. 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.400 I don't have the rocketmaning off hands, the harrowits hands. 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.920 I had strong hands, but the short fingers you were 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.160 Johnny Friendly's hands. Who's Johnny Friendly from on the waterfront 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.160 reunion boss doing the shape up down to the dock 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.240 and and hopeboken. Yeah, yeah, you're not, You're not, you said, 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.600 taking better accad of me, Charlie. He should have looked 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.160 down for me just a little bit, a little bit. 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.560 So what did I get one way to get? I'm 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.600 a bum jolly, Let's face it, that's what I am. 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.400 That's when I am. So you're a kid? Was there 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.760 an intimation in your household? There was a pissical music right? 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.800 My father was music. Yeah, he was a classically trained pianist. 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.120 He grew up in Nuremberg, Germany. He also went to 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.640 school in Switzerland. His father was quite well off. They 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.880 had a mailo out, a textile business. Joel mocked fabric. 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.640 So he had learned to play the piano. It was 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.600 a very musical family. He could play Chopini, could play 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:34.360 all the great stuff. He should have become a musician. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.000 He became an engineer, worked for Chee and then he 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.320 was in promotion he was never really happy because he 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.200 didn't become a musician. We had an old, upright piano 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.080 in the house, a Leicester piano, real piece of junk, 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:47.800 and ended up being a planter in the garden. My 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.040 mom used it to grow a honeysuckle. She sang. Her 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:55.119 family were all singing Gilbert and Sullivan, English music hall people. 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.599 So I grew up in a very musical home. I 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.920 heard musical all the time. My father was playing my 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.400 that would saying radio is always on, listening to Milton 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:09.039 Cross and the opera. On Sunday, Leonora enters learning a light. 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:12.640 So I used to bang on the piano. My mom 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.359 got sick of hearing me bang, and she dragged me 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.159 down the street and I started taking lessons and I 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.560 took to it. Now, where was the family when your 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.120 father was there? And the piano? Where were you? Were 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:22.920 you and the lester and your mother and your father? 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.080 Where is this brother in Hicksville? My family moved with 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.120 me out of the Bronx when I was a baby 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:30.599 and maybe a year old. Basically grew up on the 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.200 on the Island. I grew up on the island and 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.960 the Levittown section of Hicksville, We had a levitt house, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.680 the cape cod on the quarter raker. Everybody's house looked 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.039 the same. Started out looking the same. Now it doesn't 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.360 look anything like Levittown, like my town. Yeah, sixteen years old, Hicksville, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.440 Long Island, Vietnam War going on, yes, very very tumultuous times, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.159 and all of a sudden, what do you decide you 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.120 want to do well? I joined a band when I 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.880 was fourteen. I was asked to be in a band, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.440 the Echos. This is the Echoes band. Well, guitars, because 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:06.440 there really weren't no keyboards that you could amplify. I 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.560 played the piano. I never played the organ. Finally figured 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.440 out how to amplify keyboards. I think that Dave Clark 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.039 five was the first band that had a an organ. 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.200 You could hear vox organ. It was pieces, bits and 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:29.440 pieces and I'm feeling good. It's the most unglad sounding song. Yeah, 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.359 so you amplify the keyboard. We we got an organ 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.039 and I and I was They decided I had the 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.360 best voice in the band, which isn't really saying much 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.320 because nobody could sing all that well in the band. 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.920 We couldn't even harmonize. We're very bad singers, but they 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.200 decided you really got the best voice, you'll sing the songs. Okay, 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.240 how did you feel about that? I felt a little 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.960 funny about it because I'm not a front man. Where 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:52.800 you stand with Mick Jagger, I didn't have to Mick 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.480 jaggon moves. I had a keyboard. You kind of locked in. 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.240 You can't move around. You can't carry a keyboard around 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.520 unless you were acordion player. And that looks like Lawrence 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.360 Welcome Havan. Then the two. So I stood at the 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.640 piano or I sat at the piano. And but then 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:08.760 I realized, you know, that girl I always had a 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.480 crush on, is actually looking at me. She never looked 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.280 at me twice all those years in school. And uh, 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.840 we're playing at the Holy Family Church, the church dance 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.680 that was about fifteen. Virginia is looking at me, you know, 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:25.200 come out Virginia at that Virginia and the band sounded great. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.280 I love what I was doing. The crowd went yea 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:30.400 when we finished every song, and at the end of 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.320 the night, the priest gave us each fifteen dollars, which 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:38.520 in nineteen was that was it? The door locked behind me. 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.480 This is what I'm gonna do. I don't want to 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.800 go to Carner all anymore. I ended up on corn anyway. 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.360 And what music were you performing covers of other people? 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.600 Tuke Bux bands were playing early Beatles, Stones, Sam, the 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:52.760 Sham and the Finger. At that time, when you're seeing 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.920 Tommy James and the shan Del's and all that music, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.280 who were you saying to yourself, I want to have 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.680 his career? Well, I like the had a different kind 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:02.920 of music. I already came out of a classical background, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.800 and I really dug jazz when I was in my 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:10.320 early teens. They brew back, Oscar Peterson, ar Taanum, Jimmy Smith, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.400 Bill Evans. I loved jazz, but I realized I ain't 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.960 gonna be one of those guys either, because I wasn't 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.080 a good enough pianist. I mean, these guys are as virtuostic, 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:28.280 virtualistic whatever, juostic, virtuostic, as the classical as a religion. 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.679 Yeah is it? Yeah? That's a really darm kidding. They're good. 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:34.520 They're just really good. I mean, the top of the 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.720 line guys, at the top of the line in classical 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.719 and jazz. They could have gone either way. The top 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:41.760 line classical guys, how they decided to be jazz guys 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:43.880 could have been just as good as the top jazz guys, 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.520 and vice versa. I was good enough to play rock 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.160 and roll and pop. But when I really fell in 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.760 love with as a teenager with girls and stuff was 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:57.800 first out like soul music, James Brown, Wilson, Pickett, Otis Redding, 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:03.839 the Temptations, Marvin Marvin Gay, Smokey Robinson, Gladys No. I 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:09.600 mean I just loved well, I tried to, you know, well, 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.880 it was you know, they were they were all white people, 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.160 and there weren't Long Island. There wasn't anybody but white 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.440 people in my school. I think there were a couple 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:23.240 of Jews, some Latinos. That was sprinklings. But everybody's white. 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.880 But everybody likes the music a twist and shout or 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.040 everybody would do come on now, shout, come on and 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.240 Louis Louis, I think that was the kingsman. What I say, 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.959 Ray Charles, So you're a girl all dressed in green, 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.400 and you'd make up really dirty words to that. We 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.040 came up with some really good stuff. So I love 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.360 that stuff. And then the Beatles came around and there 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.319 was Boom four. Working class guys from Liverpool, which is 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:52.360 as close to Levittown in England, I think and sounding anyway, Okay, 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:58.720 if what guys from Liverpool, Yeah, Liverpool, it's possible. It's possible. 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:00.720 They don't look like Frankie am Along, they don't look 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.440 like Bobby Rydell. They look like four working class guys 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.160 from anywhere. They could be from Micksville, from love It Town. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.400 So I said, that's that's possible. That's what I want 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.240 to do. I want to write my own songs. I 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:14.120 want to play in my own band, do our own 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.920 arrangements and make our own way. When did that start? 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.760 This is before the Echoes, before before I joined the band, 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:23.959 the Beatles came out. You were a kid. I was 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.480 a kid. I was thirteen. You started writing music. Yes, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:32.160 I started writing air Zots Beatles songs. But I climbed 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:38.319 the highest mountain. Ye hold your perse like that. I 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:44.200 want to hold your purse. Trying to sound live Napoleon Puglian. Puglian, Yeah, 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.439 you know, she don't love me like before my own 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:52.360 song she don't love me any more. I believed all 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.640 the l she told me. Uh uh, you know that 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.360 kind of thing. Trying to sound like the early Beatles. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:01.720 It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.600 was asked to join the band after the Beatles came out. 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.040 And now you gotta remember. November of sixty three, John F. 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.520 Kennedy is assassinated. The country goes into the dumps. Even 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.240 though we didn't know that much about politics government. He 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.000 was our guy. He was the young, vigorous progressive and 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.920 he was bump. He was shot taken away. Everybody just 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.600 turned off, like a switch turned off. We became very cynical, 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.200 the whole nation and the blues. February of sixty four, 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.640 who comes out? The Beatles come to America. We took 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.440 them in. We just embraced that. They walked into that 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:43.760 spaceful funny, it was. They were warm everything, everything that's 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:45.920 taken away from us. Great, let's go have a party. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.320 Let's party. So you start writing songs and you're saying 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.160 air sets Beatles songs. What's the first song you write 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.679 that you can remember? Was called My Journey's End. I 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.200 could play it in film me too. Let's hear it 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:11.120 whill I climb the highest mountain and I swim the 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.800 deep scene. If I knew you were there at my 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:22.680 journeys and waiting for me. Let me tell now much 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:27.040 that you love me, sign the letters that you say 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:35.880 Jesus anywhere, And you were waiting there at my journeys. 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:43.760 And so what's the first song you wrote? So what's 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:45.959 the first song? Which was one that you wrote? Well, 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.920 it was probably in the Hassles, the Hassle sould records 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.360 a few on Long Island problems, maybe Jersey exactly on 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.559 the turn policies at the Woodrow Wilson rest stop. Yes, 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.840 I think it was the coffee chock full nuts in 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.960 Paramus because we opened it. We kind of has played 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:08.960 at the opening. Um the first thing I we sold anything. 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.480 So I was signed originally with the Echoes to Mercury Records, 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.120 and we changed the name to the Lost Souls. Were 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.080 the Lost Souls for a while, we made a couple 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.559 of records, nothing ever happened. H was the other one, 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.559 she don't love me before, she don't love me anymore. 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.280 I believe all the last she told me, don't you 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.640 know it's true that she stole me away from my 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.960 true love and now my Lula doesn't love me any 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:45.160 email most like Mr Um And then we became the 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.040 Lost Souls, and it turns out there was an English 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.080 band called the Lost Souls, so we had to change 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.960 our name. So the president of Mercury Records, brilliant guy 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:55.920 at the time, said Okay, we're gonna give you a 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:00.920 new name, the Commandos Vietnams. At the put time, you're 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.760 gonna be the Commandos. We hate that name, nobody likes 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.720 or yeah, we likes that stuff. You know, you're gonna 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:10.240 be the Commander's gonna be great, and we're gonna get 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.240 your outfits. And so that lasted about fifteen minutes and 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.200 we got dumped off the label. So it's Echoes, Echoes, 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:21.280 Lost Souls, Souls and then Commandos for a weekend. For 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.560 a weekend, opened up one quick choc full of nuts. 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.960 And then I there was a band on Long Island 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.520 which was making a lot of local noise called the Hassles. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.760 They asked me to join. The guys in my band 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.560 and the Echoes, Lost Souls Commandos. They were all going 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.000 on to either the military or college. None of them 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.520 were really seriously going to be musicians except the bass player, 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.800 and I I said I'll join all right, I'll join 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.400 the Hassles. They wanted me to play organ. I'll join 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.400 if I can bring my bass player with me, because 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.520 they didn't have a bass player, and they said okay. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.640 So that became the Hassles. And then there was another guy. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.360 He got with a lot of Mick Jagger moves, Little John. 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.760 His name was great Hair, good looking guy, couldn't sing 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:04.640 to save it didn't matter. He was gorgeous and women 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.520 just went nuts and I'm I'm in the back doing death. Well, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.200 but they had eyes, you know, they could see, they 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.320 could see the music video killed the radio absolutely glad 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:17.920 I came up in an air where it wasn't that prep. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.240 So then I was in the Hassles. Now the Hassles 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.760 were a band, blue white soul band. There were a 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.720 bunch of them. The Vagrants was another one. Uh. They 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.520 used to play at the Action House all the time 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.840 on Long Island. We made two albums with the United 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.760 Artists and they both bombed out. That that's the first 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.520 time we started selling anything. Every step I take, but 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.360 the first song that I wrote that actually sold something. 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:58.360 Everything I do, I don't know. The course went every step, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.840 every move I make. You know I'm trying to do 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.640 enough without you. I turned eye run eye hide really bitlers, 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:12.000 but I know deep inside a part of me has died. Yeah, 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:26.960 like Popeye, He's gonna I didn't know you wrote that. 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.040 That's great. That's how my father used to start. It 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.560 sounded like Popeye. Yeah. So that was probably the first 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:33.280 thing that saw I was in the first Hassle's album. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.080 I think we saw a dozen copies. But our big 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.320 single was actually a cover of a Salmon Dave record, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:57.480 You got Me humming, Uh, I don't know what you got, 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.880 but it's dead man, you got me and you got 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.240 Me on and it's a big song by Sam and Dave. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:10.280 Everybody was covering soul records and doing them psychedelic or 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.240 doing their own arrangements of them. That was the Hassle's hit. 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.120 First album was horrible, the second hal was really horrible. 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.040 And then I, me and the drummers split off from 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.639 the Hassles to form a power duo. We were gonna 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.080 destroy the world with amplification. It's just like the heavy 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.560 metal thing we heard Zeppelin. It blew our minds, Iron Butterfly, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:46.399 I gotta divid, don't you know that? I Love you? 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.640 Went on and on and on. So when you get 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.560 to this point where you say, a couple of albums, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.359 the hassles, and then when is it you? Well, like 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.960 the band's got someone was smaller and smaller until I 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.000 became a two man. And so when you and he 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.440 went off, until it was the two of you, until 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:06.119 it was just the two What did he play? He 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:10.520 played drums? I played Hammond Oregan wired directly through hand. 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.480 So we're getting closer to Lawrence welk. Now the more 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.679 we go, it's getting closer. You almost got the according 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.720 but it was louder. It was much louder. And we 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.320 got signed to Epic, and we were on Epic from 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.600 one album and it was a colossal failure. We played 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.000 one gig I think it was an Unas on the 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.880 West Side in Manhattan, and people went fleeing from the place. 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.360 We were so loud he could see blood coming out 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.879 of ears. Horrible. Thank god it didn't happen, because I 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.520 would have screamed myself out of the right, out of 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.560 the business. So after you nearly kill a room full 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.359 of people at onn what happened then that we broke 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.920 up and I decided I don't longer want to be 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.280 a rock and roll star. I got that out of 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:50.320 got that out of my system. I was about nineteen 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:57.199 or twenty. I want to write songs now coming up. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.639 How this kid from Long Island adjusted to life in 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.879 Los Angeles, chicks coming and stuff from the beach, rubbing 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:06.879 your neck and shoulders while you're playing. Yeah, that's what 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.160 it looks like in the movies. And why even so 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.000 he was able to say goodbye to Hollywood. This is 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:23.159 Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. This 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.680 is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.920 Billy Joel never set out to be a rock star. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.560 He just wanted to write songs like this one. Baby, 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.159 all the lights are turned on you. Now you're in 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.639 the center of the stage. And sometimes he heard his 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.240 songs in a voice other than his own. Baby on 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.119 a lance attend on you. You're in the center of 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:52.919 the stage. Everything revolves on what you do. You're in 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.800 your prim coming. Did you send him that song to record? 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.560 I wanted him too, But Bob writes his own stuff. 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:01.760 He's not gonn do covers. He doesn't buy songs from 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.920 the people. No, he does not. But I no longer 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:06.600 wanted to be the guy on stage. I wanted to 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.399 be the guy behind the scenes. This just happened to 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:14.159 coincide with the era of the singers songwriter Harry Chape 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.840 and Jim Croce. James Taylor was huge at the time. 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:20.120 So the advice I got was, what do you want 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:21.840 people to hear these songs? Why don't you make your 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.160 own album? Okay, I got a record deal, Family Records, 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.919 This guy named already RiPP, perfect name, like I was 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.320 like Pinocchio. Yeah. I fell in with the you know, 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.320 Hydride Lidy an actor's life for me, for those people. 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.880 And I recorded an album in l A. I lived 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.080 in l A for a little while. They said, okay, 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.600 then you made the album. Now now you got an album, 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:44.720 you need to promote it. You need to go on 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.720 the road and play and promote the albums. Oh okay. 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:51.200 It's a kind of a strange way to be a songwriter. 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.960 But that's what other people were doing. You know, other 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.359 people be interested in my material. If I promoted it, 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:58.919 promote the album, you'll hear it. Well, the album was 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.120 mastered at the wrong speed. So a song like this, 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:14.560 She's got away about her, I don't know what it is, 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.720 but I know that I can't live without played like this, 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:26.480 She's got away. I don't know what it is, but 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:28.879 I know that I can't live without it. So if 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.560 you hear that recording, I sound like the Chipmunks, well 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.320 speed it up kind of. It's terrible. The album never 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:38.440 went anywhere. Nothing happened, and I went on the road. 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:40.920 I promoted it and never saw it in the stores. 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:43.560 But that was when I was me. That was just 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.240 Billy Joel. So when you when people buy that album, 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:49.159 there's album has been rereleased where it's not at that speed. 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.040 It's been remastered, but it's still there's something wrong with it. 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.480 It just doesn't sound. I would advise people don't buy it. 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.680 If you can steal it, steal it. So Cold Spring 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.200 Harper is the first album. It's you how many band 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.920 members guitar, bassed, drums, and there was some violins that 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.240 were put in by Auady ripping. You know, he was 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.119 trying to be Phil Specter. It got all glopped up. 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:12.000 It was supposed to be more of a folky recorded 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:13.760 that in l A, recorded it in l A. How 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.240 long were you in l A? Three years? What was 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:20.280 that like for you? Weird? Yeah? How I went there 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:25.040 and I stayed on Santa Marca Boulevard. It's just dumpy. 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.119 A little place called the Tropicana Motel right there on 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.359 Santi the Duke's with the Duke's Duke's coffee shop. Maybe 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:33.960 the huge sandwiches for the poor. You have breakfast the Duke's. 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:36.760 It was great. You know a buck you could eat 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.240 like a king. The place was a dump, but the 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.240 postcards said the Tropic Canna and it had like a 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.600 palm tree on it. So I said postcards, all my friends, 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:48.240 I've made it here. I'm in Hollywood, coming together. Cat. 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.399 I'm having on what's on Santa Monica Boulevard for a dollar, 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:55.719 I mean to play in my song with a Chipmunk speed. Well, 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.520 if it's all going great, Yeah, if you're from Long Island, 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.720 you get a postcard pumped you the Tropic can It's 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:04.720 oh my god, he's made it because you and I 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:06.959 are from the same background. Yes, I mean from SAA. 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:08.880 Your friends you grew up with a propate like mine 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.880 where they probably get that post like like Joey, come here. 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:15.600 I got a postcard from Billy. He's the Tropicana here. Wow, 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:18.119 he's on the beach with girls like the beach boys. 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:20.600 He's driving cars. But I would make movies that coul 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.080 my friends be like, they say, let me ask you 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:24.240 a question. You do a love scene with it brought 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:26.679 the movie, Like do you ever get excited like yourself? 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:28.879