PBS had a 90 minutes special in which Billy got an award in Washington--some sort of Gershwin lifetime thing.
A lot of diff't performers came out and sang terrible versions of his songs. A Dixie Chick murdered "Goodnight, My Angel," which is a shame because it's such a great lullaby. Saw him play live after the "River of Dreams" album came out, and he said, "These next two songs were born together, so they have to live together." Then he played "Goodnight, My Angel" and "River of Dreams." I was curious if RoD would follow, but it didn't. John Formerly Cougar Melloncamp pretended to be Bob Dylan and sang "Allentown" as a barely intelligible protest song. JCM's done some good music; why he tried to be Dylan is beyond me. A few people I've never heard of sang badly. The only good one was Boyz 2 Men singing "For the Longest Time". Still not as good as Billy's version, but I liked it.
Then some old lady came out and talked about how she made the Broadway show "Movin' Out", and some people danced to "Shameless", which is a song I'd always liked, but she claimed it was about guys coming home from Vietnam and reintegrating themselves into society, which I totally missed. But I didn't watch that whole dance number, listening to the lyrics for what I'd never heard before, because it was teh dumb. Even reading the lyrics now, you have to be really artsy to try insist that meaning is in there. JMO, of course, but I'm right.
Then the Chief Warlock of the Gershwin Center, who seemed to be older than Nicolas Flamel, came out, along with several very high ranking politicians: Nancy Pelosi, a few other Congressmen whom I didn't recognize and Justice Sotamayor (sp?)! The justice spoke briefly. I zoomed through that part, and pressed play again when Billy had his award in hand and got to speak. He told a quick story of their trip to Russian in the 80s as the first rock concert to go over there. He said nothing of the shame of having to receive his award from politicians. Good for him.
Then he sat down and started playing.
I had to stop it at this point and go to sleep, but as it had been recording, I caught the ending where all the people who sang earlier came out and, accompanied by Kevin Spacey on harmonica, they all took a few lines of Piano Man (incl Spacey), and that didn't suck. More for the grandeaur than the quality of the singing.
I've always liked Billy Joel, but I never stopped to consider just how big a star he really is. I wonder, though, how much of all that he'd be willing to give up to get Christie Lee back. Not just because she just turned 60 and the media can't stop talking about how hot she still is, but because they were so great together.
A lot of diff't performers came out and sang terrible versions of his songs. A Dixie Chick murdered "Goodnight, My Angel," which is a shame because it's such a great lullaby. Saw him play live after the "River of Dreams" album came out, and he said, "These next two songs were born together, so they have to live together." Then he played "Goodnight, My Angel" and "River of Dreams." I was curious if RoD would follow, but it didn't. John Formerly Cougar Melloncamp pretended to be Bob Dylan and sang "Allentown" as a barely intelligible protest song. JCM's done some good music; why he tried to be Dylan is beyond me. A few people I've never heard of sang badly. The only good one was Boyz 2 Men singing "For the Longest Time". Still not as good as Billy's version, but I liked it.
Then some old lady came out and talked about how she made the Broadway show "Movin' Out", and some people danced to "Shameless", which is a song I'd always liked, but she claimed it was about guys coming home from Vietnam and reintegrating themselves into society, which I totally missed. But I didn't watch that whole dance number, listening to the lyrics for what I'd never heard before, because it was teh dumb. Even reading the lyrics now, you have to be really artsy to try insist that meaning is in there. JMO, of course, but I'm right.
Then the Chief Warlock of the Gershwin Center, who seemed to be older than Nicolas Flamel, came out, along with several very high ranking politicians: Nancy Pelosi, a few other Congressmen whom I didn't recognize and Justice Sotamayor (sp?)! The justice spoke briefly. I zoomed through that part, and pressed play again when Billy had his award in hand and got to speak. He told a quick story of their trip to Russian in the 80s as the first rock concert to go over there. He said nothing of the shame of having to receive his award from politicians. Good for him.
Then he sat down and started playing.
I had to stop it at this point and go to sleep, but as it had been recording, I caught the ending where all the people who sang earlier came out and, accompanied by Kevin Spacey on harmonica, they all took a few lines of Piano Man (incl Spacey), and that didn't suck. More for the grandeaur than the quality of the singing.
I've always liked Billy Joel, but I never stopped to consider just how big a star he really is. I wonder, though, how much of all that he'd be willing to give up to get Christie Lee back. Not just because she just turned 60 and the media can't stop talking about how hot she still is, but because they were so great together.
Spoiler - Christie Lee (Lyrics, not bikini shot):
Billy Joel
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