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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,

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Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists and writers, policymakers and performers,

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Speaker 1: to hear their stories, what inspired their creations, what decisions

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Speaker 1: changed their careers, and what relationships influenced their work. Billy

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Speaker 1: Joel's fans have gotten to know him quite well over

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Speaker 1: the past four decades. Don't go change to try and

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Speaker 1: please me. You never led meet down before. From the

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Speaker 1: open hearted declarations of old fashioned love and She's Got

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Speaker 1: Away and just the way you are to the hard

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Speaker 1: rocking social commentaries we didn't start the fire and Allentown

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Speaker 1: how sad it's like me. You grew up listening to

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Speaker 1: Billy Joel's music. You can chart phases of your life

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Speaker 1: by each of his albums. Maybe that's because Billy Joel's

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Speaker 1: songs are so passionately connected to who he was at

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Speaker 1: the time he wrote them. Jack want you to get

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Speaker 1: more level, Hello, Hello, Hello, And when you're actually sitting

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Speaker 1: in the same room as him with a piano nearby, well,

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Speaker 1: you can't help yourself. I want you to play me

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Speaker 1: something if you don't mind, because your fans would demand that.

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Speaker 1: I still remember you said that to me years ago,

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Speaker 1: how predictable it was wherever you were that there was

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Speaker 1: a piano. But it was like, Billy, could you do

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Speaker 1: you mind? Right? We just a couple of songs. It's

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Speaker 1: it's just birthday, it's Christmas, and we were wondering if

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Speaker 1: you could play there. It is it's and it's just

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Speaker 1: had it. We just just it's such fans. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: know mine, right, that's your life, yes, but it's it's

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Speaker 1: you know, it's fun. You can't have act alongs. You're

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Speaker 1: an act you can't act along, but you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: sing alongs. I can always sit down at the party

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Speaker 1: play and everybody starts singing. I go to a pub

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Speaker 1: in England, I'm out, Benny Giby's having his zones there.

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Speaker 1: You go there, it's uptown girl up and they all

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Speaker 1: sit around he sing and everybody has a plass. It's fun.

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Speaker 1: It creates a community instantly. Billy Joel is the third

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Speaker 1: best selling solo artist of all time in the United States,

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Speaker 1: where he sold more records than The Stones, Bruce Springsteen,

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Speaker 1: and Madonna, but he admits there's still room for improvement.

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Speaker 1: I know what good piano playing is and I'm not good.

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Speaker 1: My left hand is lame. I'm a two finger left

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Speaker 1: hand piano player, as opposed to post somebody who knows

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Speaker 1: what they're doing with the left hand. I never practiced

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Speaker 1: enough to use all my fingers on my left hand,

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Speaker 1: so I just play octaves, bass notes. My right hand

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Speaker 1: tries to compensate from my left hand being so gimpy,

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Speaker 1: so I overplay my right hand. My technique is horrible.

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Speaker 1: I can't read music. I never really don't read music.

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Speaker 1: I used to, but I don't anymore. I forgot how

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Speaker 1: so I took a piece of music that you didn't know.

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Speaker 1: If I got a score, I wouldn't and I put

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Speaker 1: in videos to play this. You would not it would

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Speaker 1: be Chinese. It would be Chinese. Yet I don't know

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Speaker 1: how did that happen. I started taking lessons when I

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Speaker 1: was about four or five, and I went up till

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Speaker 1: I was about sixteen, so it was almost twelve years

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Speaker 1: of classical piano lessons. I loved it, but I just

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Speaker 1: when you become a teenager, everything changes. I didn't want

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Speaker 1: to read other people's dots anymore. And I also realized

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Speaker 1: early on I'm not going to be a concert pianist.

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Speaker 1: I don't have the rocketmaning off hands, the harrowits hands.

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Speaker 1: I had strong hands, but the short fingers you were

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Speaker 1: Johnny Friendly's hands. Who's Johnny Friendly from on the waterfront

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Speaker 1: reunion boss doing the shape up down to the dock

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Speaker 1: and and hopeboken. Yeah, yeah, you're not, You're not, you said,

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Speaker 1: taking better accad of me, Charlie. He should have looked

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Speaker 1: down for me just a little bit, a little bit.

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Speaker 1: So what did I get one way to get? I'm

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Speaker 1: a bum jolly, Let's face it, that's what I am.

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Speaker 1: That's when I am. So you're a kid? Was there

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Speaker 1: an intimation in your household? There was a pissical music right?

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Speaker 1: My father was music. Yeah, he was a classically trained pianist.

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Speaker 1: He grew up in Nuremberg, Germany. He also went to

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Speaker 1: school in Switzerland. His father was quite well off. They

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Speaker 1: had a mailo out, a textile business. Joel mocked fabric.

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Speaker 1: So he had learned to play the piano. It was

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Speaker 1: a very musical family. He could play Chopini, could play

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Speaker 1: all the great stuff. He should have become a musician.

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Speaker 1: He became an engineer, worked for Chee and then he

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Speaker 1: was in promotion he was never really happy because he

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Speaker 1: didn't become a musician. We had an old, upright piano

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Speaker 1: in the house, a Leicester piano, real piece of junk,

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Speaker 1: and ended up being a planter in the garden. My

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Speaker 1: mom used it to grow a honeysuckle. She sang. Her

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Speaker 1: family were all singing Gilbert and Sullivan, English music hall people.

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Speaker 1: So I grew up in a very musical home. I

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Speaker 1: heard musical all the time. My father was playing my

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Speaker 1: that would saying radio is always on, listening to Milton

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Speaker 1: Cross and the opera. On Sunday, Leonora enters learning a light.

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Speaker 1: So I used to bang on the piano. My mom

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Speaker 1: got sick of hearing me bang, and she dragged me

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Speaker 1: down the street and I started taking lessons and I

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Speaker 1: took to it. Now, where was the family when your

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Speaker 1: father was there? And the piano? Where were you? Were

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Speaker 1: you and the lester and your mother and your father?

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Speaker 1: Where is this brother in Hicksville? My family moved with

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Speaker 1: me out of the Bronx when I was a baby

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Speaker 1: and maybe a year old. Basically grew up on the

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Speaker 1: on the Island. I grew up on the island and

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Speaker 1: the Levittown section of Hicksville, We had a levitt house,

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Speaker 1: the cape cod on the quarter raker. Everybody's house looked

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Speaker 1: the same. Started out looking the same. Now it doesn't

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Speaker 1: look anything like Levittown, like my town. Yeah, sixteen years old, Hicksville,

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Speaker 1: Long Island, Vietnam War going on, yes, very very tumultuous times,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, what do you decide you

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Speaker 1: want to do well? I joined a band when I

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Speaker 1: was fourteen. I was asked to be in a band,

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Speaker 1: the Echos. This is the Echoes band. Well, guitars, because

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Speaker 1: there really weren't no keyboards that you could amplify. I

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Speaker 1: played the piano. I never played the organ. Finally figured

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Speaker 1: out how to amplify keyboards. I think that Dave Clark

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Speaker 1: five was the first band that had a an organ.

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Speaker 1: You could hear vox organ. It was pieces, bits and

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Speaker 1: pieces and I'm feeling good. It's the most unglad sounding song. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you amplify the keyboard. We we got an organ

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Speaker 1: and I and I was They decided I had the

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Speaker 1: best voice in the band, which isn't really saying much

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Speaker 1: because nobody could sing all that well in the band.

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Speaker 1: We couldn't even harmonize. We're very bad singers, but they

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Speaker 1: decided you really got the best voice, you'll sing the songs. Okay,

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Speaker 1: how did you feel about that? I felt a little

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Speaker 1: funny about it because I'm not a front man. Where

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Speaker 1: you stand with Mick Jagger, I didn't have to Mick

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Speaker 1: jaggon moves. I had a keyboard. You kind of locked in.

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Speaker 1: You can't move around. You can't carry a keyboard around

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Speaker 1: unless you were acordion player. And that looks like Lawrence

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Speaker 1: Welcome Havan. Then the two. So I stood at the

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Speaker 1: piano or I sat at the piano. And but then

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Speaker 1: I realized, you know, that girl I always had a

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Speaker 1: crush on, is actually looking at me. She never looked

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Speaker 1: at me twice all those years in school. And uh,

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Speaker 1: we're playing at the Holy Family Church, the church dance

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Speaker 1: that was about fifteen. Virginia is looking at me, you know,

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Speaker 1: come out Virginia at that Virginia and the band sounded great.

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Speaker 1: I love what I was doing. The crowd went yea

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Speaker 1: when we finished every song, and at the end of

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Speaker 1: the night, the priest gave us each fifteen dollars, which

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Speaker 1: in nineteen was that was it? The door locked behind me.

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Speaker 1: This is what I'm gonna do. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: go to Carner all anymore. I ended up on corn anyway.

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Speaker 1: And what music were you performing covers of other people?

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Speaker 1: Tuke Bux bands were playing early Beatles, Stones, Sam, the

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Speaker 1: Sham and the Finger. At that time, when you're seeing

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Speaker 1: Tommy James and the shan Del's and all that music,

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Speaker 1: who were you saying to yourself, I want to have

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Speaker 1: his career? Well, I like the had a different kind

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Speaker 1: of music. I already came out of a classical background,

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Speaker 1: and I really dug jazz when I was in my

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Speaker 1: early teens. They brew back, Oscar Peterson, ar Taanum, Jimmy Smith,

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Speaker 1: Bill Evans. I loved jazz, but I realized I ain't

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Speaker 1: gonna be one of those guys either, because I wasn't

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Speaker 1: a good enough pianist. I mean, these guys are as virtuostic,

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Speaker 1: virtualistic whatever, juostic, virtuostic, as the classical as a religion.

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Speaker 1: Yeah is it? Yeah? That's a really darm kidding. They're good.

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Speaker 1: They're just really good. I mean, the top of the

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Speaker 1: line guys, at the top of the line in classical

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Speaker 1: and jazz. They could have gone either way. The top

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Speaker 1: line classical guys, how they decided to be jazz guys

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Speaker 1: could have been just as good as the top jazz guys,

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Speaker 1: and vice versa. I was good enough to play rock

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Speaker 1: and roll and pop. But when I really fell in

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Speaker 1: love with as a teenager with girls and stuff was

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Speaker 1: first out like soul music, James Brown, Wilson, Pickett, Otis Redding,

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Speaker 1: the Temptations, Marvin Marvin Gay, Smokey Robinson, Gladys No. I

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Speaker 1: mean I just loved well, I tried to, you know, well,

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Speaker 1: it was you know, they were they were all white people,

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Speaker 1: and there weren't Long Island. There wasn't anybody but white

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Speaker 1: people in my school. I think there were a couple

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Speaker 1: of Jews, some Latinos. That was sprinklings. But everybody's white.

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Speaker 1: But everybody likes the music a twist and shout or

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Speaker 1: everybody would do come on now, shout, come on and

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Speaker 1: Louis Louis, I think that was the kingsman. What I say,

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles, So you're a girl all dressed in green,

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Speaker 1: and you'd make up really dirty words to that. We

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Speaker 1: came up with some really good stuff. So I love

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Speaker 1: that stuff. And then the Beatles came around and there

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Speaker 1: was Boom four. Working class guys from Liverpool, which is

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Speaker 1: as close to Levittown in England, I think and sounding anyway, Okay,

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Speaker 1: if what guys from Liverpool, Yeah, Liverpool, it's possible. It's possible.

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Speaker 1: They don't look like Frankie am Along, they don't look

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Speaker 1: like Bobby Rydell. They look like four working class guys

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Speaker 1: from anywhere. They could be from Micksville, from love It Town.

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Speaker 1: So I said, that's that's possible. That's what I want

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Speaker 1: to do. I want to write my own songs. I

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Speaker 1: want to play in my own band, do our own

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Speaker 1: arrangements and make our own way. When did that start?

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Speaker 1: This is before the Echoes, before before I joined the band,

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Speaker 1: the Beatles came out. You were a kid. I was

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Speaker 1: a kid. I was thirteen. You started writing music. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I started writing air Zots Beatles songs. But I climbed

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Speaker 1: the highest mountain. Ye hold your perse like that. I

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Speaker 1: want to hold your purse. Trying to sound live Napoleon Puglian. Puglian, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, she don't love me like before my own

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Speaker 1: song she don't love me any more. I believed all

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Speaker 1: the l she told me. Uh uh, you know that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing. Trying to sound like the early Beatles.

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Speaker 1: It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I

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Speaker 1: was asked to join the band after the Beatles came out.

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Speaker 1: And now you gotta remember. November of sixty three, John F.

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Speaker 1: Kennedy is assassinated. The country goes into the dumps. Even

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Speaker 1: though we didn't know that much about politics government. He

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Speaker 1: was our guy. He was the young, vigorous progressive and

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Speaker 1: he was bump. He was shot taken away. Everybody just

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Speaker 1: turned off, like a switch turned off. We became very cynical,

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Speaker 1: the whole nation and the blues. February of sixty four,

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Speaker 1: who comes out? The Beatles come to America. We took

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Speaker 1: them in. We just embraced that. They walked into that

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Speaker 1: spaceful funny, it was. They were warm everything, everything that's

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Speaker 1: taken away from us. Great, let's go have a party.

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Speaker 1: Let's party. So you start writing songs and you're saying

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Speaker 1: air sets Beatles songs. What's the first song you write

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Speaker 1: that you can remember? Was called My Journey's End. I

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Speaker 1: could play it in film me too. Let's hear it

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Speaker 1: whill I climb the highest mountain and I swim the

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Speaker 1: deep scene. If I knew you were there at my

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Speaker 1: journeys and waiting for me. Let me tell now much

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Speaker 1: that you love me, sign the letters that you say

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Speaker 1: Jesus anywhere, And you were waiting there at my journeys.

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Speaker 1: And so what's the first song you wrote? So what's

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Speaker 1: the first song? Which was one that you wrote? Well,

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Speaker 1: it was probably in the Hassles, the Hassle sould records

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Speaker 1: a few on Long Island problems, maybe Jersey exactly on

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Speaker 1: the turn policies at the Woodrow Wilson rest stop. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I think it was the coffee chock full nuts in

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Speaker 1: Paramus because we opened it. We kind of has played

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Speaker 1: at the opening. Um the first thing I we sold anything.

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Speaker 1: So I was signed originally with the Echoes to Mercury Records,

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Speaker 1: and we changed the name to the Lost Souls. Were

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Speaker 1: the Lost Souls for a while, we made a couple

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Speaker 1: of records, nothing ever happened. H was the other one,

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Speaker 1: she don't love me before, she don't love me anymore.

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Speaker 1: I believe all the last she told me, don't you

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Speaker 1: know it's true that she stole me away from my

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Speaker 1: true love and now my Lula doesn't love me any

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Speaker 1: email most like Mr Um And then we became the

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Speaker 1: Lost Souls, and it turns out there was an English

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Speaker 1: band called the Lost Souls, so we had to change

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Speaker 1: our name. So the president of Mercury Records, brilliant guy

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Speaker 1: at the time, said Okay, we're gonna give you a

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Speaker 1: new name, the Commandos Vietnams. At the put time, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be the Commandos. We hate that name, nobody likes

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Speaker 1: or yeah, we likes that stuff. You know, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: be the Commander's gonna be great, and we're gonna get

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Speaker 1: your outfits. And so that lasted about fifteen minutes and

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Speaker 1: we got dumped off the label. So it's Echoes, Echoes,

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Speaker 1: Lost Souls, Souls and then Commandos for a weekend. For

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Speaker 1: a weekend, opened up one quick choc full of nuts.

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Speaker 1: And then I there was a band on Long Island

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Speaker 1: which was making a lot of local noise called the Hassles.

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Speaker 1: They asked me to join. The guys in my band

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Speaker 1: and the Echoes, Lost Souls Commandos. They were all going

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Speaker 1: on to either the military or college. None of them

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Speaker 1: were really seriously going to be musicians except the bass player,

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Speaker 1: and I I said I'll join all right, I'll join

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Speaker 1: the Hassles. They wanted me to play organ. I'll join

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Speaker 1: if I can bring my bass player with me, because

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a bass player, and they said okay.

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Speaker 1: So that became the Hassles. And then there was another guy.

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Speaker 1: He got with a lot of Mick Jagger moves, Little John.

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Speaker 1: His name was great Hair, good looking guy, couldn't sing

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Speaker 1: to save it didn't matter. He was gorgeous and women

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Speaker 1: just went nuts and I'm I'm in the back doing death. Well,

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Speaker 1: but they had eyes, you know, they could see, they

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Speaker 1: could see the music video killed the radio absolutely glad

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Speaker 1: I came up in an air where it wasn't that prep.

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Speaker 1: So then I was in the Hassles. Now the Hassles

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Speaker 1: were a band, blue white soul band. There were a

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Speaker 1: bunch of them. The Vagrants was another one. Uh. They

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Speaker 1: used to play at the Action House all the time

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Speaker 1: on Long Island. We made two albums with the United

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Speaker 1: Artists and they both bombed out. That that's the first

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Speaker 1: time we started selling anything. Every step I take, but

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Speaker 1: the first song that I wrote that actually sold something.

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Speaker 1: Everything I do, I don't know. The course went every step,

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Speaker 1: every move I make. You know I'm trying to do

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Speaker 1: enough without you. I turned eye run eye hide really bitlers,

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Speaker 1: but I know deep inside a part of me has died. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like Popeye, He's gonna I didn't know you wrote that.

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Speaker 1: That's great. That's how my father used to start. It

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Speaker 1: sounded like Popeye. Yeah. So that was probably the first

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Speaker 1: thing that saw I was in the first Hassle's album.

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Speaker 1: I think we saw a dozen copies. But our big

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Speaker 1: single was actually a cover of a Salmon Dave record,

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Speaker 1: You got Me humming, Uh, I don't know what you got,

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Speaker 1: but it's dead man, you got me and you got

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Speaker 1: Me on and it's a big song by Sam and Dave.

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Speaker 1: Everybody was covering soul records and doing them psychedelic or

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Speaker 1: doing their own arrangements of them. That was the Hassle's hit.

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Speaker 1: First album was horrible, the second hal was really horrible.

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Speaker 1: And then I, me and the drummers split off from

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Speaker 1: the Hassles to form a power duo. We were gonna

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Speaker 1: destroy the world with amplification. It's just like the heavy

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Speaker 1: metal thing we heard Zeppelin. It blew our minds, Iron Butterfly,

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Speaker 1: I gotta divid, don't you know that? I Love you?

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Speaker 1: Went on and on and on. So when you get

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Speaker 1: to this point where you say, a couple of albums,

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Speaker 1: the hassles, and then when is it you? Well, like

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Speaker 1: the band's got someone was smaller and smaller until I

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Speaker 1: became a two man. And so when you and he

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Speaker 1: went off, until it was the two of you, until

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Speaker 1: it was just the two What did he play? He

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Speaker 1: played drums? I played Hammond Oregan wired directly through hand.

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Speaker 1: So we're getting closer to Lawrence welk. Now the more

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Speaker 1: we go, it's getting closer. You almost got the according

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Speaker 1: but it was louder. It was much louder. And we

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Speaker 1: got signed to Epic, and we were on Epic from

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Speaker 1: one album and it was a colossal failure. We played

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Speaker 1: one gig I think it was an Unas on the

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Speaker 1: West Side in Manhattan, and people went fleeing from the place.

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Speaker 1: We were so loud he could see blood coming out

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Speaker 1: of ears. Horrible. Thank god it didn't happen, because I

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Speaker 1: would have screamed myself out of the right, out of

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Speaker 1: the business. So after you nearly kill a room full

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Speaker 1: of people at onn what happened then that we broke

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Speaker 1: up and I decided I don't longer want to be

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Speaker 1: a rock and roll star. I got that out of

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Speaker 1: got that out of my system. I was about nineteen

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Speaker 1: or twenty. I want to write songs now coming up.

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Speaker 1: How this kid from Long Island adjusted to life in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, chicks coming and stuff from the beach, rubbing

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Speaker 1: your neck and shoulders while you're playing. Yeah, that's what

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Speaker 1: it looks like in the movies. And why even so

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Speaker 1: he was able to say goodbye to Hollywood. This is

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Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. This

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Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Billy Joel never set out to be a rock star.

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Speaker 1: He just wanted to write songs like this one. Baby,

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Speaker 1: all the lights are turned on you. Now you're in

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Speaker 1: the center of the stage. And sometimes he heard his

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Speaker 1: songs in a voice other than his own. Baby on

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Speaker 1: a lance attend on you. You're in the center of

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Speaker 1: the stage. Everything revolves on what you do. You're in

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Speaker 1: your prim coming. Did you send him that song to record?

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Speaker 1: I wanted him too, But Bob writes his own stuff.

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Speaker 1: He's not gonn do covers. He doesn't buy songs from

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Speaker 1: the people. No, he does not. But I no longer

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Speaker 1: wanted to be the guy on stage. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: be the guy behind the scenes. This just happened to

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Speaker 1: coincide with the era of the singers songwriter Harry Chape

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Speaker 1: and Jim Croce. James Taylor was huge at the time.

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Speaker 1: So the advice I got was, what do you want

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Speaker 1: people to hear these songs? Why don't you make your

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Speaker 1: own album? Okay, I got a record deal, Family Records,

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Speaker 1: This guy named already RiPP, perfect name, like I was

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Speaker 1: like Pinocchio. Yeah. I fell in with the you know,

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Speaker 1: Hydride Lidy an actor's life for me, for those people.

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Speaker 1: And I recorded an album in l A. I lived

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Speaker 1: in l A for a little while. They said, okay,

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Speaker 1: then you made the album. Now now you got an album,

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Speaker 1: you need to promote it. You need to go on

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Speaker 1: the road and play and promote the albums. Oh okay.

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Speaker 1: It's a kind of a strange way to be a songwriter.

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Speaker 1: But that's what other people were doing. You know, other

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Speaker 1: people be interested in my material. If I promoted it,

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Speaker 1: promote the album, you'll hear it. Well, the album was

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Speaker 1: mastered at the wrong speed. So a song like this,

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Speaker 1: She's got away about her, I don't know what it is,

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Speaker 1: but I know that I can't live without played like this,

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Speaker 1: She's got away. I don't know what it is, but

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Speaker 1: I know that I can't live without it. So if

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Speaker 1: you hear that recording, I sound like the Chipmunks, well

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Speaker 1: speed it up kind of. It's terrible. The album never

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Speaker 1: went anywhere. Nothing happened, and I went on the road.

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Speaker 1: I promoted it and never saw it in the stores.

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Speaker 1: But that was when I was me. That was just

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Speaker 1: Billy Joel. So when you when people buy that album,

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Speaker 1: there's album has been rereleased where it's not at that speed.

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Speaker 1: It's been remastered, but it's still there's something wrong with it.

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Speaker 1: It just doesn't sound. I would advise people don't buy it.

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Speaker 1: If you can steal it, steal it. So Cold Spring

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Speaker 1: Harper is the first album. It's you how many band

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Speaker 1: members guitar, bassed, drums, and there was some violins that

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Speaker 1: were put in by Auady ripping. You know, he was

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Speaker 1: trying to be Phil Specter. It got all glopped up.

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Speaker 1: It was supposed to be more of a folky recorded

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Speaker 1: that in l A, recorded it in l A. How

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Speaker 1: long were you in l A? Three years? What was

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Speaker 1: that like for you? Weird? Yeah? How I went there

378
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:25,040
Speaker 1: and I stayed on Santa Marca Boulevard. It's just dumpy.

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Speaker 1: A little place called the Tropicana Motel right there on

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Speaker 1: Santi the Duke's with the Duke's Duke's coffee shop. Maybe

381
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Speaker 1: the huge sandwiches for the poor. You have breakfast the Duke's.

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Speaker 1: It was great. You know a buck you could eat

383
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Speaker 1: like a king. The place was a dump, but the

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Speaker 1: postcards said the Tropic Canna and it had like a

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Speaker 1: palm tree on it. So I said postcards, all my friends,

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Speaker 1: I've made it here. I'm in Hollywood, coming together. Cat.

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Speaker 1: I'm having on what's on Santa Monica Boulevard for a dollar,

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Speaker 1: I mean to play in my song with a Chipmunk speed. Well,

389
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Speaker 1: if it's all going great, Yeah, if you're from Long Island,

390
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Speaker 1: you get a postcard pumped you the Tropic can It's

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Speaker 1: oh my god, he's made it because you and I

392
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Speaker 1: are from the same background. Yes, I mean from SAA.

393
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Speaker 1: Your friends you grew up with a propate like mine

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Speaker 1: where they probably get that post like like Joey, come here.

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Speaker 1: I got a postcard from Billy. He's the Tropicana here. Wow,

396
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Speaker 1: he's on the beach with girls like the beach boys.

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Speaker 1: He's driving cars. But I would make movies that coul

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Speaker 1: my friends be like, they say, let me ask you

399
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Speaker 1: a question. You do a love scene with it brought

400
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Speaker 1: the movie, Like do you ever get excited like yourself?

401
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:28,879
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? There's always a weird you know,

402
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 1: to make love to a woman in front of olden people?

403
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Speaker 1: Can you pick who you make out with? Yeah? Like

404
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,280
Speaker 1: do you enjoy that? It was it fun? You mean

405
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:36,840
Speaker 1: he groupies out there and I'm like, you know, it's

406
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:38,919
Speaker 1: not funn because it's a hundred and people staring at

407
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 1: you while you're doing it, Like, oh yeah, I forgot

408
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 1: about that. I forgot. We got those questions. What's it

409
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:44,280
Speaker 1: like in a student? I mean like a lot of

410
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 1: drugs and girls and stuff. No, you're actually in a factory.

411
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,399
Speaker 1: He's surrounded by equipment, and you know you don't have

412
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 1: like big fish thanks full of cocaine and everything, like

413
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 1: chicks coming and stuff from the beach rubbing your neck

414
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Speaker 1: and shoulders while you're playing. Yeah, that's what it looks

415
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 1: like in the movies. Did you movie stars some of

416
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Speaker 1: a musician? I'm every night you haven't been with who?

417
00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: All the big stars? Right? And a fish tankful of

418
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 1: blow when chicks and bikinis rubbing the shoulders right, And

419
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Speaker 1: that's what people think now when you did you did

420
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Speaker 1: Cold Spring Harbor? There, did you do the next album

421
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: out there? Actually I got a job after I did

422
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: the Cold Spring Harbor album. I dropped that aside. I

423
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:21,919
Speaker 1: had to get out of this horrible deal and I signed.

424
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 1: I signed away everything, copyrights, publishing, record royalties, everything, my

425
00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:28,800
Speaker 1: first child. I gave away at all. And I said

426
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:30,720
Speaker 1: that I gotta get out of this deal. And I

427
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,080
Speaker 1: hid in l A and I worked in a piano

428
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:35,200
Speaker 1: bar under the name Bill Morton. It's just down in

429
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: the Wilshire district. And it was no, it's not a

430
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: real bar town l A. Uh. You know, Long Island

431
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,360
Speaker 1: is a pub on every corner. It's a pub culture.

432
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: So when people close their eyes and they think of piano, man,

433
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: I think of a guy bending over a piano, and

434
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:51,199
Speaker 1: I think of a guy in a in a place

435
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,360
Speaker 1: on Long Island or in New York. But you recorded

436
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: that out of Los Angeles. I recorded in l A.

437
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 1: And that's where I worked. Some people think I did

438
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: it for years. I worked in this piano for six months.

439
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 1: I needed to make some money. I made Union scale,

440
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 1: I get tips. Mostly played, you know, Major seventh Chords

441
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 1: anything but but but how does piano man start that

442
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:31,159
Speaker 1: kind of thing? And that guy in the hotel a

443
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: lot love. They would request songs I didn't even know

444
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,479
Speaker 1: the song. Can you play what's that? Jogi carn Michael's

445
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 1: song startus? And I would go, sure you play mr.

446
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: And everybody was drinking pretty heavy because in an l

447
00:25:57,680 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: A bar, these were all people who lost it the

448
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 1: track losers. I just like drinking like fish and I

449
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 1: got free drinks. Oh my god. But so then you

450
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 1: do piano man, what's the next album after that? You do?

451
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 1: In l A? Uh? We did Piano Man in l A.

452
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: And there was an album that wasn't a hit album.

453
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 1: People perceived that to be a hit. It was not

454
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: a hit piano man. But this is back in the

455
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: early seventies. In those days they still had FM, progressive radio.

456
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: Dis jockeys could spend whatever they want. W L A R.

457
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:28,680
Speaker 1: Dennis McNamara him, I was a kid home. I was smoking,

458
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 1: you know what, leaning out the windows. So my mom

459
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 1: didn't know. And on the video we'd hear w L

460
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: I R this Dennis McNamara, Jackson Brown right, I listened

461
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: to this guy. He was my childhood Dennis McNamara. We

462
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,639
Speaker 1: grew up with these disc jockeys at night Allison Steven

463
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:46,639
Speaker 1: Allison the night Bird and Roscoe Zaccharly was Vin Skels,

464
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: and my favorite guy was Scott Muni coming at you,

465
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: Scott Muny, a little spooky tooth from from England. Spooky

466
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 1: tooth Scot Munick and at you right now. They played

467
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: whatever they wanted. They didn't have program directors, they didn't

468
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 1: have consultants, and people would call in. If they got

469
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,479
Speaker 1: enough requests, they would play a track. So piano Man

470
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 1: got requested all the time. It was a five five

471
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:14,239
Speaker 1: and a half minute record. I mean, he's not an

472
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 1: am hit an amount of time. It's too long, and

473
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 1: it was in three quarter time pop pop and it's

474
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: and it's not really lyrics. Dellimerates. John at the Bar

475
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: is a friend of mine. He gets my drinks for free.

476
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: He's quick with the joke of a lot. Have you

477
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: smoke with it? Some said he rather big, could be

478
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: one of the girl from Nantucket the Puppa. So it's

479
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 1: still limericks. And if anybody said this is gonna be

480
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:42,880
Speaker 1: a hit record. I tell him, right of their mind.

481
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 1: The next album comes out, Street Life Serenade. It's the

482
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,719
Speaker 1: sophomore jinks. I did not have enough time to write

483
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: new material after the Piano Man album came out. Piano

484
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: Man got made a lot of noise, got a lot

485
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,160
Speaker 1: of attention paid to it. Record company wanted another follow

486
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: up right away. Okay, new album now, but on the road.

487
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 1: I haven't a chance to write now, needing now. I

488
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 1: didn't have any material and you can hear it. So

489
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:05,520
Speaker 1: what do you do? What do you do when you

490
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: got nothing? What do you play? I had nothing. I

491
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,560
Speaker 1: was empty. I was running on empty. But there's not

492
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: nothing on the album. Where did that come from? Well?

493
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 1: I had one song that I thought, which was the Entertainer.

494
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 1: Which is that? Uh? Another folks song? I am the

495
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: entertain them, I know, just swear eyes done, not surenator.

496
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: I don't know a long haired band today. I am

497
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: your champion. I may won your hearts, but I know

498
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: in the game you're forgetting my name. I won't be

499
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: here and another year if I don't stay on the chart.

500
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: I wrote it on a guitar, actually, but that was it.

501
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 1: That was probably the one song that I had finished

502
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 1: and the boom in the studio. The clock is ticking.

503
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: So there's two instrumentals on that album, the root beer Rag,

504
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,480
Speaker 1: which is just the piano ragtime thing, and this uh

505
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: Air's's Western movie theme called the Mexican Connection. Because I

506
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: was living in l A. Was fascinated with westerns, bum

507
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: bum bums. What are the songs came off a street

508
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: Life that were nothing that We're memorable? Nothing, The egg

509
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 1: that We're pretty is the only one. Uh There was

510
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: a song about a hooker I was in love with.

511
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 1: I wanted her to leave her profession and be with me,

512
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: but she made too much money and I couldn't afford her.

513
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: It was called Roberta. What else was on that album? Souvenirs?

514
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: Next song a picture postcon a folded stub, a program,

515
00:29:51,680 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 1: the play full away the photograph ups of your and

516
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:11,960
Speaker 1: your moment? Doesn't it only like another fifteen seconds of it?

517
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: That was a nice song, but it was like this

518
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: short and other than that is the Mexican Connection, rut

519
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: beer Rag. It was okay, and you finished street life

520
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: and you're in l A. And then what do you do?

521
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: I finished street Life and it comes out and it goes,

522
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: you know, Pump dives right off the charts. The album

523
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: after that was Turnstiles. I moved back to New York.

524
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 1: I said, I'm going back to New York. Mid seventies,

525
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:34,600
Speaker 1: New York was in the dumps. They were gonna default

526
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 1: forward to New York dropped dead for to New York dropped.

527
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 1: I saw that headline and people in l A Were like,

528
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: ha ha, screw New York. We can't wait to New

529
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: York goes down to dumps. And I said, that was

530
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 1: down with that. If you're act going down the tubes,

531
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: I'm going back. I want to be there for this,

532
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 1: and I'm picturing this apocalypse. I actually wrote a song

533
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: called Miami seventeen, think about the year twenty seventeen. I'm

534
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: an old man. I'm telling my grandchildren I was there.

535
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 1: I saw the lights go out on Broadway. Seeing the

536
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: lights go out on Broadway, I saw the Empire state

537
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: later life went on beyond the Palaceades. We all bought

538
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: cadillacs and left there long ago. And I'm picturing I'm

539
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: I'm an old man in the year seventeen. I'm living

540
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 1: in Miami, which I'm closing in I'm kind of fulfilling

541
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 1: my own prophecy here so and the other song, which is,

542
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 1: some folks like to get away, take a holiday from

543
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: the neighborhood, have a flight to Miami Beach on the Hollywooo.

544
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: I'm taking a gray Hound on the Hudson River line.

545
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: I'm in the New York state of mind. We could

546
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:02,479
Speaker 1: do it like this, some oaks like get away, Tony,

547
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 1: come on, Chicken, a holiday from the neighborhood, a flight

548
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: to flight to Miami Beach, all the Hollywood. Yeah, I'm

549
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 1: taking the ghown huts and yeah, I'm in New York. Yeah.

550
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 1: And he'd recorded it, and that was I was hoping

551
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: other people would do that song. But I was back

552
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:40,120
Speaker 1: in New York. I was home. Are you glad you were?

553
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,040
Speaker 1: I was thrown so leaving l A, which just was

554
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: meant to be home. Say goodbye to Hollywood, right exactly,

555
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: you know, say goodbye to Hollywood. Thanks, it's been great,

556
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: but goodbye. After three years, it went sour on me.

557
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 1: And when I first moved out to the weather is

558
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:56,920
Speaker 1: great and all the chicks and the palm trees. After

559
00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: three years, everybody's full crap. Here, I'm a producer Prince

560
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 1: loved what you know. We all produced gas. We produced something.

561
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 1: When when you go back to New York, the where

562
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: do you go the city? I moved to Highland Falls,

563
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:12,760
Speaker 1: which is right up to Hudson. Why we weren't ready

564
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: to move Lockstock and Barrow was waiting the city. I

565
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: was married at the time. My first X one where

566
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: is she from? From sayaset? So she went out there

567
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: with you and came back. She went out there with

568
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,000
Speaker 1: me and came back with me. And this was Turnstiles

569
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: was recorded in New York. I produced it myself. Are

570
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: you glad you did? I'm I was glad I did

571
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,720
Speaker 1: at the time because I needed to use my own musicians.

572
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: I didn't want to use session man. I didn't want

573
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: to use studio players. I want on my road band.

574
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: It was a long island band and we were doing

575
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,719
Speaker 1: great on the road. We weren't selling any records, but

576
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: the crowds were going crazy. We were blowing headliners off

577
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 1: the stage and Dooby Brothers everywhere we played the Beach Boys.

578
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: We would get better plus than the This is when

579
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 1: Turnstiles came out. Yes, but turns out no, Trench Styles

580
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 1: didn't sell anything. You gotta be kidding, No, no, no,

581
00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 1: hits New York. State of Mind is now perceived to

582
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: be a hit, But wasn't it say about Hollywood wasn't

583
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: a hit? None of the Ruggets. But I love all

584
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: those songs, not until the Stranger, which was the next album,

585
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,759
Speaker 1: and seventies and Off that Comes, how many HiT's four

586
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: which were just the Way you Are moving out only

587
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 1: the good Day Young and She's Always a Woman, so

588
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: she's always a woman, and just the way you Are

589
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: our love songs. Well, She's always a woman is a

590
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 1: love so not perceived. Remember I'm just saying, but they're

591
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,319
Speaker 1: very romantic songs. Well, i'd had romantic ballads before that,

592
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,719
Speaker 1: from the Cold Spring Harbor, She's Got Away, Piano man

593
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: if I only had the words to tell you You're

594
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:39,800
Speaker 1: my home and then turnstyles Summer Highland Falls, no thematic depression,

595
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:43,719
Speaker 1: but about a relationship. But I was writing ballads I've

596
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 1: loved these Days about a man and a woman, and

597
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 1: then the Stranger just the Way you Are, which is

598
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:52,720
Speaker 1: just a pure, out and out love song, She's Always

599
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: a Woman, which is kind of a double edged sword there.

600
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:58,120
Speaker 1: I had no idea it was such a big record

601
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 1: just the way you are became this mon stir like

602
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 1: the Beatles. Yeah, once after the Stranger. After the Stranger,

603
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: we started playing colosseums and arena's, the big, big rooms,

604
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:10,960
Speaker 1: and I went right back on the road again and

605
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: I started writing again. Um, you start writing for bigger rooms. Yes, yeah,

606
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 1: I had to be. I was aware. Now we're playing

607
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,000
Speaker 1: the big places and we got to write bigger songs.

608
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: I gotta have bigger numbers energy. You can't play to

609
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 1: a colosseum with a handful of ballots. You gotta knock

610
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: them out. It got bigger, It got rounder, fatter, fuller, fuller, faster,

611
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 1: you know, more high energy stuff, harder, faster, deeper, as

612
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:40,439
Speaker 1: they say in the adult film in His Dream. Yeah,

613
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 1: that was it. Pretty much went into the triple X.

614
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: You started going triple x. More Billy Joe raw, but uncensored.

615
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:56,640
Speaker 1: After the break, you're listening to Here's the Thing, and

616
00:35:56,719 --> 00:35:59,320
Speaker 1: you can hear more conversations, sing a song with me,

617
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 1: Chris and Okay, more singing with other artists, policymakers and performers.

618
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: I bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, fun take a

619
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 1: listen to earlier episodes at Here's the thing dot Org. Okay,

620
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:21,360
Speaker 1: that's enough. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's

621
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: the Thing Billy. Joel recorded five albums with a band

622
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 1: that consisted of the same four guys, Liberty de Vito, Russell, Javor's,

623
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,760
Speaker 1: Doug steg Meyer and Richie Kannada. Kannada left the band

624
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: in eight one. At that point, Joel was also ready

625
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 1: to try something new. I wanted to write my masterpiece,

626
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: my Sergeant Pepper as it were. Instead of writing from

627
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 1: the from the inside out, like having starting with the

628
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:51,239
Speaker 1: seed of a song, we started with sound ideas and

629
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 1: thoughts and studio techniques and we didn't really know what

630
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 1: we had until almost the final mix. What is this thing?

631
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 1: We're experimenting with stuff? And it was? It took a year.

632
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 1: Were you still producing? No? No, he was producing sil

633
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 1: Vermon who started a stranger NW. When when you have

634
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: someone like Ramon, what did he do for you? How

635
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: did he help you? Well? Phil Ramon he was a

636
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: child prodigy on the violin. He was from South Africa.

637
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 1: Actually he knew music and now he had years and

638
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 1: years in the trenches as an engineer. He he recorded

639
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 1: JFK speeches when you see the Marilyn Monroe thing, A

640
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:28,319
Speaker 1: mount of the Square God, Happy birthday, Mr. President. That's

641
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: Phil Ramon. He was the engineer on those things. I

642
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: mean he's when when with some amazing recordings, but never

643
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,399
Speaker 1: got credited as a producer. So I who's this guy?

644
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 1: Phil Remona keep Simon Ramone. Paul Simon used him as

645
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: an engineer, and I said, I want to use I

646
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 1: want to work with this guy because he looks like

647
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:44,799
Speaker 1: he knows what he do. He knows how to get

648
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: good sound, he knows how to deal with sonic things sonic.

649
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 1: And when he came in Boom, we knew we had

650
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,280
Speaker 1: a professional. Guy. Was like working with another great musician.

651
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 1: He knows how to play the studio like we know

652
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: how to play our instruments. Everything changed, The band just

653
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,760
Speaker 1: rose to the occasion. Uh. We were having a blast.

654
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,360
Speaker 1: So like a great producer. Very often in films, like

655
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: anywhere anything, any creative enterprise, I find the people that

656
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: are the most successful and talented producers are the ones who,

657
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:13,000
Speaker 1: although they may not be able to do it themselves,

658
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: they know what you need to do. They cut to

659
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 1: what the synergy should be. They know what the dynamics

660
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 1: should be in the studio because he come to you

661
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 1: and go, don't do that doesn't work, and you listen

662
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:23,839
Speaker 1: to him. I would listen to him, and we tried

663
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: his wife, We tried his way, his mutual respect. When

664
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: we did just the way you are. Originally, the drumma

665
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 1: was playing it like a cha cha don't go change

666
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:48,359
Speaker 1: when too. We hated it, hated drummer, couldn't figure out

667
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 1: what to play. Phil actually told play it back with

668
00:38:51,120 --> 00:39:00,880
Speaker 1: samba boom boom bop, boom boom, and it worked. It

669
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 1: was like a backwards sign up. What are we doing?

670
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 1: We didn't know what we're doing, but Phil was right.

671
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 1: I came in with the idea of playing only the good.

672
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:12,000
Speaker 1: Diana is a reggae come out do, let me wait,

673
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 1: let us stop. Much Liberty throws his sticks at me,

674
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 1: because why are you doing Because closest you've been to

675
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:24,720
Speaker 1: Jamaica as queens, what are you doing is changing trains

676
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,439
Speaker 1: to go down to see for change that Jamaica, Change

677
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 1: that Jamaica, the train to spe On. That's it. He said,

678
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 1: I'm not playing this, I'm not playing what are we

679
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: gonna do it? So Phil came up with this shuffle

680
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 1: against straight forwards and the gas are going banana banana,

681
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: bob banana, and we're playing and it worked. It was

682
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,479
Speaker 1: like j two things jammed into each other and Phil

683
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 1: knows how to do that. And when we would get

684
00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:57,759
Speaker 1: tired and we get discouraged, he says, just stay, stay

685
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,200
Speaker 1: a little long, try one more. All right, take a break,

686
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 1: let's have some Chinese. Okay, go back in the post.

687
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:06,439
Speaker 1: Chinese food takes were always good. I don't know why

688
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 1: that was that MSG man, it gets right into the fingertips.

689
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: It worked, but he could wear Mozart would have been

690
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 1: if they had MSG back then. Oh wow, he did

691
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:18,279
Speaker 1: pretty good. He did. He went as far as you

692
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 1: could go without MSG. I yes, And then you do

693
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,439
Speaker 1: Nylon Curtain. That's eight two eight two was the Nylon

694
00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: and you said you wanted to be your Sergeant Pepper

695
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:28,319
Speaker 1: and what was it? It was. It's my favorite album

696
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 1: because I could hear all the work that went into it,

697
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 1: all the textures, all the layers. It's a song that

698
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: you're particularly fond of. From that, it's very obscure. Don't

699
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 1: get excited, don't say well, nobody noticed, nothing was. It

700
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 1: was committed discreetly it was handled so needly, and it

701
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:07,040
Speaker 1: shouldn't surprise you out Oh, you know, break all the records,

702
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,640
Speaker 1: but the cassettes. I'd be lying in the fact on

703
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 1: you that I had no regrets. There was so many mistakes,

704
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,920
Speaker 1: but what a difference it makes, and now it shouldn't

705
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:25,400
Speaker 1: surprise you at all. No hits. Allentown was kind of

706
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,359
Speaker 1: a hit off. That album didn't really sell a lot

707
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,719
Speaker 1: of records. What did you do after Nylon Curtain? Um?

708
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:36,960
Speaker 1: After the Nylon Curtain? Because it was such an intensive labor,

709
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:41,320
Speaker 1: the Nylon Curtain something very dense and very complex. I

710
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: wanted to do something simple and dumb and happy, and

711
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:47,120
Speaker 1: I did an Innocent Man, which is really an homage

712
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: to all the music of my teenage years. Frankie Valley

713
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:53,279
Speaker 1: in the Four Seasons was Uptown Girl, and that was

714
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:55,839
Speaker 1: a hit that was a big hig It was a joke.

715
00:41:56,520 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 1: It was gen girl trying to second. She been living

716
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,839
Speaker 1: in her up town world app but she never had

717
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 1: a backstreet guy and he had this impossibly highway Ever

718
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 1: told her why I'm gonna track you? And I realized

719
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:28,160
Speaker 1: something like remember the song rag Doll Ye, And then

720
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:32,320
Speaker 1: the first was I love you just the way you

721
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: are is that where I heard that before, just the

722
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:38,600
Speaker 1: way you were? And then there was a song. Um,

723
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,320
Speaker 1: I was trying to do little Antonine Imperials. Didn't not

724
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:47,319
Speaker 1: say shoot up? I wasn't ready for romance, shoop shoot up?

725
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: Didn't we promise we would only be friends? And so

726
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 1: we danced, though it was only a slow dance. I

727
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 1: start a breaking. My promise is right there, and you'll

728
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:08,359
Speaker 1: recognize the chorus because it goes like this, This night

729
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:19,879
Speaker 1: is my It's only you, and night to my road

730
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 1: is a long time away. This night can last for it,

731
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: which is the pathetique by Beethoven. And I gave I

732
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:41,960
Speaker 1: gave credit and back at l V Beethoven. So so

733
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:45,560
Speaker 1: Bill he's co writing with somebody LV Beto Beethoven for

734
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:47,880
Speaker 1: Coming Out. But that was a fun album. I just

735
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,399
Speaker 1: I had met Christie. I had just gotten divorced from

736
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: X one, and here I am meeting Whitney Houston when

737
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:58,719
Speaker 1: she was a model. El mcpheerson, I'm dating her. I'm

738
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:02,000
Speaker 1: dating Christie Brinkley. This is fantastic. I feel like I'm

739
00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:06,120
Speaker 1: sixteen years old again, going we girls. It's all going great,

740
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 1: and I'm a rock star. I got a pad the

741
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: old sand Maritz on Central Park Sunday, which is now

742
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:13,880
Speaker 1: that I think the rich Carlton. So this music was

743
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:16,359
Speaker 1: me being a teenager, roll over again, falling in love,

744
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:18,719
Speaker 1: having romance and all that great stuff. So why did

745
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: you get married? I don't know you're asking me exactly?

746
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: Is that a part of your makeup? Which is married? Family?

747
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,920
Speaker 1: Was marriage the right thing to do? I was madly

748
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:32,200
Speaker 1: in love and when William loves you, marry him. That's it.

749
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 1: That's how I feel. But I still feel like I

750
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:37,839
Speaker 1: can be madly in love and not be married. Yes,

751
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:40,320
Speaker 1: but I was married three times. When did you go

752
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 1: to Russia? And how did that happen? Well, we played

753
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 1: in Cuba in nineteen seventy nine, played the Karl Marx

754
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: Theater in Havana, and everybody gets up on stage, the

755
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:56,279
Speaker 1: other American artists Steven Still's Viva Evolution, Viva Fidel, Chris

756
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 1: Kristofferson Viva Revolution, Riva. The only's talking in Spanish. I

757
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,279
Speaker 1: get up on stage him in the last act. You know,

758
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:10,759
Speaker 1: it's a big shot and they don't want to hit

759
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:12,920
Speaker 1: even we hit his crap all the time. We want

760
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:16,239
Speaker 1: to hit big shot. I said, we got something going here.

761
00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:18,680
Speaker 1: We're being subversive with rock and roll. This is what

762
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,800
Speaker 1: I love. How did that feel to you? What was

763
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,279
Speaker 1: the first place you played a big concert at when

764
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:28,359
Speaker 1: you were a star. You're a big music star, you're

765
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 1: one of the biggest music stars ever, and you go

766
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:34,040
Speaker 1: to a foreign country and you realize music just transcends

767
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:35,600
Speaker 1: all of it. To Germany, I think it was in

768
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: Frankfurt here seventy seven. I played in England and the

769
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:43,439
Speaker 1: English they're kind of fickle. They like you for about

770
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 1: a month and then you're yesterday's papers. Oh we like that,

771
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,839
Speaker 1: Billy joe Ll, Billy joe Ll. But Germany we had

772
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 1: a couple of and the Germans went berserk lot. They

773
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 1: don't have seats. You're getting a standing ovation when you

774
00:45:56,280 --> 00:46:00,359
Speaker 1: walk on the stage. Billy, Billy, I'm thinking, they don't

775
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 1: know what they did to my family. Yeah, Billy, but

776
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:09,319
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, so this is how Adolf felt, ripping at

777
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 1: my hands and tearing my clothes. This is great. The

778
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 1: trip to Russia in eighties seven? Was that your first

779
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 1: time there? First time? Everyone? How was that? How do

780
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:17,920
Speaker 1: they take to it? Was the first time they had

781
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 1: ever had a major act from the West America. People

782
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:22,880
Speaker 1: have gone there before, but played with small p A

783
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: systems in little private rooms. We played at the Lenin Stadium,

784
00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 1: the Olympic Stadium, and we brought a Western p A system,

785
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 1: same with past and we'd use at Madison Square Garden.

786
00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:34,279
Speaker 1: You know, the helicopters come in at the beginning of

787
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: good Nights and they're looking around for the helicopters, and

788
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:39,000
Speaker 1: then the hard rock is hitting and the drums and

789
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,360
Speaker 1: they started going berserk. There were security guards going around

790
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: giving people sedatives because they thought they were having fits.

791
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: The Cold War ended for me right then. This is

792
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 1: still when it was. The Reagan was calling with the

793
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 1: Evil Empire, and we're not gonna have a war with

794
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 1: these people. They can't even get toilet paper, right, you know,

795
00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:58,839
Speaker 1: we're not gonna have afore, We're not gonna fight with them.

796
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 1: I don't want to fight them. They dont They love

797
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 1: us everywhere I went Viva America, Live America. This is

798
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 1: great co war randed. I was thrilled that went the

799
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,720
Speaker 1: way it did. Let me ask you a question. You're funny.

800
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: Everything it takes to be an actor. You could have done.

801
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 1: You never wanted to do that. Never. I never was

802
00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:17,600
Speaker 1: comfortable in front of a camera. Really, I became a

803
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: musician because I never felt I was photogenic. I was

804
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 1: never happy with how I looked. I was very comfortable

805
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 1: in the studio. I'm very comfortable far away on a stage.

806
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:31,360
Speaker 1: Whenever there was a camera, it kind of destroyed what

807
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 1: I was trying to create. It took away the imagination

808
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:37,399
Speaker 1: you could. I could look however I want. I could

809
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,080
Speaker 1: look like Carrie Grint. But I saw it reduced to

810
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: an image. I went, no, no, no, no, no no,

811
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 1: that's not a way to look at that guy. Well,

812
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:45,960
Speaker 1: I always say acting is what you do when you

813
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 1: have no musical ability. If I could do what you do,

814
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:50,839
Speaker 1: I would never do what I That's what actors said

815
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:55,320
Speaker 1: that I would never, ever, ever, ever waste five minutes

816
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:56,840
Speaker 1: of doing what I do if I could do with you.

817
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:59,360
Speaker 1: That's a lot of actors which is so good at

818
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:02,799
Speaker 1: what you do. If I could do what you do. Music, music,

819
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 1: it is saying if I could play, if I could

820
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:06,920
Speaker 1: write a film or a television program, you have to

821
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:09,400
Speaker 1: make an appointment with that and watch that. May me

822
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: listen to music while you're jogging, while you're at the gym,

823
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:14,399
Speaker 1: while you're making love, while you're having dinner, while you're

824
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:16,879
Speaker 1: in the car. It can be the soundtrack to your

825
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:20,120
Speaker 1: life all day long, if you wanted in church anywhere.

826
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,320
Speaker 1: Music is everywhere, Music is everything, and acting is, like

827
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 1: I said, what you do when you have no musical talents.

828
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 1: So you got divorced the second time? Yes, and got

829
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:33,080
Speaker 1: remarried and divorced a third time. And when you have

830
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: these things happened, do you write songs about that? No?

831
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,560
Speaker 1: I stopped writing songs about it when I got divorced

832
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:43,200
Speaker 1: the second time. That was ye, actually ninety four. The

833
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:47,360
Speaker 1: divorce happened, the album River Dreams came out, and I realized,

834
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm spinning out the story of my

835
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 1: life to all these strangers. I'm kind of sick and

836
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 1: tired everybody knowing my personal life and how I feel

837
00:48:54,040 --> 00:48:56,320
Speaker 1: about one and that one. Did you resent that? I

838
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 1: didn't resent it. I just decided to clam up. I

839
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 1: feel like I have given away pieces of myself, maybe

840
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 1: something I should have given to the relationship. I gave

841
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 1: to the work. It's all consuming. If you're gonna do

842
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,160
Speaker 1: it right, you have to jump in with both of you.

843
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: Do it a hundred percent music will do. That was

844
00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:14,480
Speaker 1: a very harsh mistress music, you have to do it

845
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 1: all the way. And maybe I didn't do things I

846
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:18,480
Speaker 1: should have done, or maybe I didn't take care of

847
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,640
Speaker 1: business the way I should have. Think here because the

848
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,640
Speaker 1: music and so I stopped writing songs about my personal relationships,

849
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:27,760
Speaker 1: but I kept writing music. And after the third marriage

850
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:31,360
Speaker 1: didn't work, I tried marriage. It's you know, three times.

851
00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: I tried three times. I never gave up on it.

852
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 1: I just realized that this just doesn't I don't know,

853
00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:41,560
Speaker 1: it doesn't work. People don't appreciate how it's like to

854
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:44,839
Speaker 1: have a relationship in this business that works. You gotta

855
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: be really lucky, man, It's got to be. It's so

856
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:49,720
Speaker 1: much luck, you know, because, like you said, the career

857
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:52,200
Speaker 1: is the mistress and you're out there working like like

858
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:54,280
Speaker 1: I would look at my ex wife or ex girlfriends

859
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 1: and I think, what would the alternative be? You want

860
00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: me to have no options and no work and I'm

861
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:01,439
Speaker 1: staying home all the time. Yeah, But on the other hand,

862
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:03,719
Speaker 1: how much of you are they getting? If you're in

863
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 1: a part, you take on the role. It doesn't come

864
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:08,279
Speaker 1: off at five o'clock in the afternoon. And work. Most

865
00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:11,280
Speaker 1: people leave their jobs. You have to be that character

866
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:14,600
Speaker 1: through the whole project. Now when I'm writing, I mean,

867
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 1: I've got to stay in harness. I've got to be

868
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:20,400
Speaker 1: that songwriter guy. I'm preoccupied. Maybe I should change that

869
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,279
Speaker 1: to a B flat. You know that quarterback, don't. I'm

870
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,359
Speaker 1: obsessed with it. I wonder how much of me they're

871
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,120
Speaker 1: not getting because of that. I don't know if you

872
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:30,839
Speaker 1: if you were like that when you're doing a part.

873
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:34,600
Speaker 1: I find that in film it's different because film you

874
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: don't really have a chance unless you work with a

875
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:41,239
Speaker 1: tremendously intense group of people. Now, when I've done play

876
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:43,279
Speaker 1: is it's different. When you do it. Well, you can

877
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:45,680
Speaker 1: sit back and you light up a cigarette. You're like, well, well, well,

878
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: well we nail that way. I just just write it

879
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:51,359
Speaker 1: down in the books. You really feel some satisfaction. Yeah,

880
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:54,120
Speaker 1: you feel that way when you perform. When we perform,

881
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: we got to do a show. Do a show. Do

882
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 1: you come off stage after a show and you sit

883
00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:00,040
Speaker 1: there and go, well, there it is. But that was

884
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 1: a good and gentlemen, Billy Joe. They'll be talking about

885
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,520
Speaker 1: this for a while for a few days. But we

886
00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 1: also know when We Stuck, We Come Over were terrible.

887
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,600
Speaker 1: Don't remember that one right? Right? Why did they applaud

888
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 1: you know? Last play at Shay Yeah? Do you think

889
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:19,879
Speaker 1: he did well? Yeah? That was good. They were both

890
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:22,719
Speaker 1: good shows. That the double last Double Player show we

891
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:28,040
Speaker 1: did the two nights. Yes, that was exhilarating the hometown crowd,

892
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:31,600
Speaker 1: and it's just it was exhilarating. And we were on

893
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:33,919
Speaker 1: stage with three and a half hours and I didn't

894
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:36,719
Speaker 1: realize how hot it was, and it was sweating. I'm

895
00:51:36,719 --> 00:51:40,080
Speaker 1: watching the movie of me. Somebody give that guy a towel.

896
00:51:40,920 --> 00:51:43,760
Speaker 1: I was. He's like soaking luck, he's so wet and slimy.

897
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:46,320
Speaker 1: Wipe him off. We're having such a good time. We

898
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:48,239
Speaker 1: walked off, and for weeks after they were kind of

899
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:52,160
Speaker 1: amping from it. New York loves you, I know, I know,

900
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 1: and I love New York. That's why I live here.

901
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:56,839
Speaker 1: But I put away the recording part of my career,

902
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:01,560
Speaker 1: and I put away for the time being. Performed what's

903
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 1: that music? That's my telephone? Yeah? Yeah, the theme from

904
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:09,359
Speaker 1: the Godfather. Is your ring tone on your phone? Yes,

905
00:52:09,480 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 1: that's amazing. Well, like I got to think about what

906
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:12,879
Speaker 1: my ring toe to get the guys on the road

907
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:18,240
Speaker 1: called me godfather. Why do you come to me, Sarah

908
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 1: Bonna Sara? When have I haven't done respect? You'll never

909
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 1: invite me the house for a couple off. Do you

910
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:35,000
Speaker 1: appreciate who you are? People who love you, they adore you.

911
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:39,440
Speaker 1: You are so talented, you are so like it makes

912
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,560
Speaker 1: me want to choke up. How talented you are? Do

913
00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:44,279
Speaker 1: you know who you are? I know I have a

914
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,479
Speaker 1: talent from music. I don't think I'm all that good.

915
00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:51,360
Speaker 1: I think I have a good perspective on it. I

916
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 1: can separate the star stuff from the musician stuff. The

917
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,279
Speaker 1: music is really impy. Have to stay separate there. Well,

918
00:52:59,360 --> 00:53:02,680
Speaker 1: one is a job and one is a life. The

919
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:04,600
Speaker 1: job thing I can take off at five o'clock and

920
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:07,240
Speaker 1: after another rock star thing, I go, I go shopping.

921
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:09,400
Speaker 1: I cook my own food, I washed the dishes, I

922
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 1: take out the garbage. I know who that guy is.

923
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 1: And the music is has nothing to do with money

924
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 1: or career or it's just part of me. It's like love, music,

925
00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:24,560
Speaker 1: love food, friendship, my daughter and all these great things.

926
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,920
Speaker 1: How's your daughter? She's great? Um? You know. I know

927
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,680
Speaker 1: how to take the job hat off and just kind

928
00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 1: of be a normal It took a long time to

929
00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:37,440
Speaker 1: separate them out. Okay, I can be a musician and

930
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 1: not be a rock star. You know, I'm still trying

931
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:42,799
Speaker 1: to convince people I'm not a rock star, and then though,

932
00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:45,879
Speaker 1: yes you are, you are a rock star. You okay, fine,

933
00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:47,719
Speaker 1: But a lot of that is it has a job

934
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 1: aspect to it. I worked very hard at what and

935
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:53,839
Speaker 1: writing because that's my deepest love. I think that's really

936
00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:56,200
Speaker 1: where I belong. The rock star thing I've never really

937
00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:57,800
Speaker 1: been comfortable with because I don't think I look like

938
00:53:57,880 --> 00:53:59,880
Speaker 1: a rock star. I didn't really set out to be

939
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 1: a rock star. I became a rock star serendipitously. You

940
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 1: became a rock star in spite of yourself, in spite

941
00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:11,239
Speaker 1: of myself. As as much as you try to kill it. Yeah,

942
00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,320
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't put that camera too close to me, exactly.

943
00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: I don't want to make a good video. Let make

944
00:54:16,360 --> 00:54:18,120
Speaker 1: a bad video. I don't want to be in a

945
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:20,600
Speaker 1: photo session. I hate taking pictures. I don't want to

946
00:54:20,640 --> 00:54:22,040
Speaker 1: go to this opening. I don't want to go to

947
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,520
Speaker 1: that schmooze fest. I just didn't do any of that stuff.

948
00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:28,279
Speaker 1: But I'm comfortable with it now. Do me a favor.

949
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,080
Speaker 1: What's a song that you think yourself? You know, I

950
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 1: really still enjoy hearing that song. It doesn't have to

951
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:36,479
Speaker 1: be a hit. What's one you just like that you haven't,

952
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 1: But do you really really like this? Really? I've been

953
00:54:38,719 --> 00:54:41,920
Speaker 1: doing masterclasses at colleges and I get to play all

954
00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:44,600
Speaker 1: these obscure songs. Played one the other night, and I said,

955
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:48,600
Speaker 1: that's a really good song. It is no rhyme, not

956
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:50,719
Speaker 1: till the very end is when rhyme comes, but the

957
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:54,279
Speaker 1: lyrics work. It's from the Nylon curtain, and it's called

958
00:54:54,320 --> 00:55:13,279
Speaker 1: Where's the Orchestra? Where the orchestra? Wasn't this supposed to

959
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 1: be a musical? Here I am in the balcony. How

960
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:29,360
Speaker 1: the hell could I have missed the overture? I love

961
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:43,400
Speaker 1: the scenery, even though I have so loudly know I

962
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: did all Billy Joel says he doesn't look back on

963
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:52,160
Speaker 1: his life that much. Last year, he decided not to

964
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:55,840
Speaker 1: publish his long awaited memoir, entitled The Book of Joel.

965
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,040
Speaker 1: He said, instead of quote, the best expression of my

966
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 1: life and it's up and downs, has been and remains

967
00:56:02,560 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 1: my music unquote. Lines for an extended version of my

968
00:56:08,160 --> 00:56:11,880
Speaker 1: interview with Billy Joel, listen to our podcast and Here's

969
00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:15,800
Speaker 1: the Thing dot Org. This is Alec Baldwin. Here's the

970
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,960
Speaker 1: Thing is produced by Emily Botin and Kathy Russo, with

971
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:23,720
Speaker 1: support from Jim Briggs, Brian Cosgrove, ed Herbstman, Melanie Hoops

972
00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:32,440
Speaker 1: and Monica Hopkins. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening

973
00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:56,879
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing. You're the King. Thank you, No really,

974
00:56:57,000 --> 00:56:59,040
Speaker 1: you're the King man. Thank you, Thank you for coming.

975
00:56:59,200 --> 00:56:59,439
Speaker 1: Thanks