Piano Man

This weekend I went to see Billy Joel play live at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London.

Early on in the set, he announced that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that he had no new songs to play. The good news was that this meant he would play all his greatest hits. Cue a loud cheer from the festival crowd.

And what an impressive roster of hits he has. I associated him most with easy listening, FM station-friendly ballads like Just the Way You Are and She’s Always a Woman. His set showed, however, a very much wider range of musical influences.

He’s in piano jazz territory with New York State of Mind, gospel in River of Dreams, and a capella with a hint of doo wop on The Longest Time.

His rock n roll side is there to see on We Didn’t Start the Fire and It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me. Then there are simply great pop songs like An Innocent Man, My Life, Tell Her About It and Movin’ Out.

It was clear that his backing band are very able musicians, and I liked the fact that, unselfishly, he gave over space to them to showcase their talents. This was unexpected and helped keep the set fresh. In the middle section of River of Dreams, the percussionist took centre stage for some powerful lead vocals as they segued into River Deep, Mountain High, Later in the set, the guitarist sang Nessun Dorma, with Billy accompanying him on the piano. The encore included a rousing version of A Hard Day’s Night.

Possibly the greatest reception came for Piano Man, his song about the hopes and fears of a set of characters in a New York bar, told from the view of the resident pianist. The whole of Hyde Park joined in the singalong chorus. Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers came on to help sing Uptown Girl, which must be a contender for the perfect pop song (and which I am adding to the ADK Playlist).

On one of the hottest days of the year, Billy Joel played all these hits and more, carrying on for 2 hours as the sun slowly set over London. Now in his mid-70s, I do not know if he will perform on these shores again, but if not, this was a special and memorable way to bow out.