When he played the "classical" version of "The Longest Time" I was amazed and then he goes and says "and I'm not a good classical piano player anymore." Lol I wish I was half as good at him at the piano!
Well he was being honest and he was right. He had spent more than 20 years as a rock star at that point and knew his skills as a classical pianist had fallen off. He had just written which we now know 30 years later would be his last rock album. A few years later when he wrote his classical album he got a classical pianist to record it to give it the proper performance.
Most have even less melody than that. He’s underrating that melody, the fact that it’s memorable and you can immediately hum it is special. Most songs you just immediately forget.
I think he was just trying to point out the differences of songs written musically ‘longest time’ or songs written to be recorded ‘we didn’t start the fire’ I don’t think he meant the song was terrible just pointing out how when you write from that perspective you need to use everything to arrange it properly
I was from Highland Falls when he was living there with his first wife. I met him once and we talked for a while. What he never knew was that many of us kept our distance because we didn’t want to bother him. Turns out he was really lonely there. On the 4th of July he and his wife went up to Roe Park and square danced…they had a great time.
I live in Highland Falls, can you tell me exactly where Billy and his wife lived at the time? What street? What house? Some people say Main St. Others say Kings Rd.
When I met him when we were playing down in Fort Montgomery. I mentioned I heard Captain Jack that morning. He rolled his eyes I thought because I was talking to him about his music. I found out years later that no matter what song they played someone in the audience would yell out Captain Jack!! He was sick of the song and retired it for years. What saved the day was Round About started playing on the Juke Box. He went nuts and started telling me he loved those guys. No one remembers this but his mailbox was painted white with one word “Yes” painted with black cursive letters. Evidently he was a huge fan. I always wondered if he wrote Prelude/ Angry Young Man as a tribute to “Yes”
Both owners passed away one in December the other in March. Both gave me a tour as they were friends of the family. Billy’s wife Elizabeth invited us down to their home in ‘76 but we never stopped by.
@@timkbt Where was the house? was it on Main St. or Kings Rd? I'm a 59 year old musician and songwriter, I'm just so curious. It's kind of inspiring in a way. I would never bother anyone who lived there, just curious.
@@johnf.kennedy5387 Hey this is probably a long shot but do you still have a copy of that arrangement of "Jolene" around? I would love to learn it on piano.
Finally ...Billy Joel acknowledges "an important song for me", me too!! As a 12 year old in 1976! "Summer Highland Falls" from the album Turnstiles which was totally overshadowed by the commercial successes of the albums that followed. James was a close second at the time!
I remember my students in Korea really liked “Uptown Girl”. Once, I had to explain to a taxi 🚕 driver what “uptown” means. I told him “buja dongnae” to which he pointed to a ritzy area in Gumi where the civil servants and other municipal staff went to socialize , eat, and drink and said, “this… uptown.” 👍
As someone who plays a lot of pop, folk, rock, blues, etc. songs on the piano without singing along, I've become very aware of this. You sit down to play the melody and you realize there's nothing there, only lyrics. If I'm playing it and can hear them in my head, fine, but for everyone else who may not know the song, it's like hearing his example with Fire. Other ones the melody on its own shines forth and offers you room to play and develop it. Both have their place, of course...
The first point was hard to make in 1993, now is harder still with folks working directly into the DAW. I had the privilege to work with songwriters in the nineties who would create chords melody and lyrics spontaneously and all together before addressing instrumentation or production. Wonderful to watch them work
oh please, it has little to do with being "classically trained," which even Joel has rolled his eyes at - I shudder to think how many kids with talent gave up the piano who could've been good because their teachers insisted on "classically training" them to tears
@@youtubeuser3357 I didn't say classical training was required. I said the musicians of today don't learn their craft. Such as using auto-tune and sampling instead of learning how to sing and play their own instruments
@@hendrixprice2728 I said "such as using auto tune and sampling instead of learning to sing and play their own instruments." Obviously I did not mean every single musician other than Billy. I like way more different genres of music than most people
He's correct that if you can easily adapt a song to that idiom, you can tell you have a really well-structured melody that isn't dependent on the production/groove/singer for recognizability/uniqueness. We Didn't Start the Fire, on the other hand, has a solid progression but relies on the conceit/device of the "list-like" to legitimize how repetitive the melody is
Is that someone holding a guitar in the background cause it literally doesn't move...it's like Billy's so cool he's got dead people holding his instruments for him!!! Lol
*Had no idea what "Jolene" was. Thought it was a song I had never heard. But it never has been released!* 🤔 Billy Joel wrote a song called "Jolene" in the early 1980s, but it was never released. He has said that the song was originally a country song, but he eventually decided to turn it into "We Didn't Start the Fire." In an interview, Joel said that he played a snippet of the "Jolene" song in an interview, but he has never performed it live. There is no known recording of the song, and it is not available on any of his albums. The lyrics to the "Jolene" song are about a man who is worried that his wife is going to leave him for another woman named Jolene. The song is full of jealousy and insecurity, and it is a very different style from Joel's usual work. It is a shame that the "Jolene" song was never released, as it is a very well-written song. However, it is also understandable why Joel decided not to release it, as it is a very different style from his other work. If you are interested in hearing the "Jolene" song, there is a video on UA-cam of Joel playing a snippet of it in an interview. However, this is the only known recording of the song, and it is not available to listen to anywhere else.
What's funny is that Dolly Parton's "Jolene" is about a woman worried that her husband is going to leave her for another woman named Jolene. So basically Billy was doing the same idea, but from another perspective. I imagine it was probably from around the era that he was writing "An Innocent Man" because on that album he was purposefully writing songs that echoed the style of artists that influenced him, like "For the Longest Time" was a classic doo wop style song, and "Uptown Girl" was a Frankie Valli-style song, "Easy Money" was an Otis Redding style song, etc. So "Jolene" might have been his attempt at a classic country style song for that album.
@@keepinmahprivacy9754 Have never really heard a song about a wife leaving for another woman. Don't think any Billy Joel song even approaches this type of racy subject matter. It sounds like an interesting song with a pretty melody. Would love to hear it... Also bizarre how that pretty melody somehow got transformed into the rather monatonic boring melody of We Didn't Start The Fire. 🤔
Hot Take : The Original Version of WDSTF is better than the actual version. And I've only heard 30 seconds of it, that's how you know I enjoy it more, I know Billy would have done something great with that song. I just don't really like WDTSF as a song :/.
I like a few of his songs but decided it mostly wasn't my kind of thing, but I might have to give his stuff another try. I liked hearing him break it down in this video. He definitely seems to know what he is doing. I like We Didn't Start The Fire and I didn't know For The Longest Time was one of his songs. I still think Uptown Girl is naff and Piano Man is pants. That is just my personal opinion. I think I would probably like some of his songs and not others but that is okay.
I have the full version posted on my channel, its originally from a VHS tape but it's never been officially released digitally. ua-cam.com/video/asZrthvOpkg/v-deo.html
Typically you have to dumb-down the melody to be a pop song that an audience can quickly digest. The downside is that the artist has to perform that song the rest of their life. Pop songs are usually bouncy while other types of genres have more serious topics or have entirely different rhythms.
@@starexplorers1202 Complex melodies are quickly forgotten! The greatest composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) knew this. Actually the most difficult thing in the world is to come up with a simple melody that is original and memorable!
He has said that for a long time. He said if it were up to him he would never play it again, it some people like it. It like Jefferson starship and we built this city.
When he played the "classical" version of "The Longest Time" I was amazed and then he goes and says "and I'm not a good classical piano player anymore." Lol I wish I was half as good at him at the piano!
cellini051 thats trueeee
And now I want a record of The Longest Time as a classical piece. That's how no good he is.
Well he was being honest and he was right. He had spent more than 20 years as a rock star at that point and knew his skills as a classical pianist had fallen off. He had just written which we now know 30 years later would be his last rock album. A few years later when he wrote his classical album he got a classical pianist to record it to give it the proper performance.
This Time is a Beethoven Sonata
One of the few that could pull that let's redo our songs routine...lots of artists try it and it's just rebaking leftovers
want to hear a full classical version of for the longest time
Robo McLaren , check out his “My lives” album. It’s a demo of the longest time with different lyrics. I personally like it better.
But he’s not a good classical pianist😂😂
@@connor3mm597 "The Prime of your Life" it is a rough demo
@@andrewwagner9901 My friend says Billy doesn't know you lmao and that your username is garbage.
I want the original version of "we didn't start the fire." Sounds like classic, amazing Joel.
sounds better than "fire" too
Agree 100%
God yes. He knows it too
It was nice
Master in the art of making music, and writing lyrics.
Piano Man. A piece of art. Poetry. Men analysis.
Super talented guy 🌴🎶🙏
I love how he says "its terrible" about the melody of We didnt start the fire, but that's how 99% of the current pop music vocal melodies sounds like.
Most have even less melody than that. He’s underrating that melody, the fact that it’s memorable and you can immediately hum it is special. Most songs you just immediately forget.
I think he was just trying to point out the differences of songs written musically ‘longest time’ or songs written to be recorded ‘we didn’t start the fire’ I don’t think he meant the song was terrible just pointing out how when you write from that perspective you need to use everything to arrange it properly
I was from Highland Falls when he was living there with his first wife. I met him once and we talked for a while. What he never knew was that many of us kept our distance because we didn’t want to bother him. Turns out he was really lonely there. On the 4th of July he and his wife went up to Roe Park and square danced…they had a great time.
Wow that’s really interesting
I live in Highland Falls, can you tell me exactly where Billy and his wife lived at the time? What street? What house? Some people say Main St. Others say Kings Rd.
When I met him when we were playing down in Fort Montgomery. I mentioned I heard Captain Jack that morning. He rolled his eyes I thought because I was talking to him about his music. I found out years later that no matter what song they played someone in the audience would yell out Captain Jack!! He was sick of the song and retired it for years.
What saved the day was Round About started playing on the Juke Box. He went nuts and started telling me he loved those guys. No one remembers this but his mailbox was painted white with one word “Yes” painted with black cursive letters. Evidently he was a huge fan. I always wondered if he wrote Prelude/ Angry Young Man as a tribute to “Yes”
Both owners passed away one in December the other in March. Both gave me a tour as they were friends of the family. Billy’s wife Elizabeth invited us down to their home in ‘76 but we never stopped by.
@@timkbt Where was the house? was it on Main St. or Kings Rd? I'm a 59 year old musician and songwriter, I'm just so curious. It's kind of inspiring in a way. I would never bother anyone who lived there, just curious.
Summer Highland Falls is a big favorite of mine. Such a beautifully written song.
Billy Joel certainly has contributed greatly to the Great America songbook!
Summer Highland Falls is such an amazing song.
Billy Joel is a musical genius. I have all his CDs. My favorite album of his is The Nylon Curtain.
Genius piano player.. funny.. and the voice is so natural like in real recordings..
Love the way he changes the country song to pop song we didn't start the fire.
It sounds like he adds dissonance and a drone to the same chords
Billy knows how to communicate whether by music or words.
Love the classical version of the Longest time
He would make a great teacher
I liked his country idea, it had great potential! I am interested to see what would have happened had he turned that into a full song.
I watched this I heard the song jolene learned the parts I heard by ear than I made my own arrangement to go with
@@johnf.kennedy5387 Hey this is probably a long shot but do you still have a copy of that arrangement of "Jolene" around? I would love to learn it on piano.
I don't have arragement, but I heard by ear and there are chords:
All are im major:
G
D
G
C
@@dawson4602if you have the original record or something like that, I can make the arrangement
Finally ...Billy Joel acknowledges "an important song for me", me too!! As a 12 year old in 1976! "Summer Highland Falls" from the album Turnstiles which was totally overshadowed by the commercial successes of the albums that followed. James was a close second at the time!
I really wish he made that original take on We Didn't Start The Fire. He could've made them both and it wouldn't have even been obvious.
I remember my students in Korea really liked “Uptown Girl”. Once, I had to explain to a taxi 🚕 driver what “uptown” means. I told him “buja dongnae” to which he pointed to a ritzy area in Gumi where the civil servants and other municipal staff went to socialize , eat, and drink and said, “this… uptown.” 👍
As someone who plays a lot of pop, folk, rock, blues, etc. songs on the piano without singing along, I've become very aware of this. You sit down to play the melody and you realize there's nothing there, only lyrics. If I'm playing it and can hear them in my head, fine, but for everyone else who may not know the song, it's like hearing his example with Fire. Other ones the melody on its own shines forth and offers you room to play and develop it. Both have their place, of course...
I love We Didnt Start the Fire....
We want Billy to have lectures on-line
The first point was hard to make in 1993, now is harder still with folks working directly into the DAW. I had the privilege to work with songwriters in the nineties who would create chords melody and lyrics spontaneously and all together before addressing instrumentation or production. Wonderful to watch them work
man hes a funny guy
This is what the musicians of today lack. They did not learn their craft. This is why Billy and Elton are still around. Both are classically trained.
brendalg4 Yeah, just like The Beatles. All four were classically trained and that’s why they’re still around. Lol
oh please, it has little to do with being "classically trained," which even Joel has rolled his eyes at - I shudder to think how many kids with talent gave up the piano who could've been good because their teachers insisted on "classically training" them to tears
@@youtubeuser3357 I didn't say classical training was required. I said the musicians of today don't learn their craft.
Such as using auto-tune and sampling instead of learning how to sing and play their own instruments
@@brendalg4 I think you're being unreasonably and narrow-mindedly dismissive of other genres of music.
@@hendrixprice2728 I said "such as using auto tune and sampling instead of learning to sing and play their own instruments." Obviously I did not mean every single musician other than Billy.
I like way more different genres of music than most people
Cool to hear a live version of We Didn't Start the Fire without the slap-bass.. think it actually sounds better fingered.
That's what she said.
Agree. Everyone was still slapping away at that time.
Darn I was at Berklee 18/19 years too early!:-)
My word a masterpiece of art. Very intelligent Billy Joel and thumb up 👍
He truly is a maestro.
yes billy joel
Summer, Highland Falls...
Oh heck! It cut off right when he was going to discuss Summer, Highland Falls. Can anyone refer me to a video that has that part of this interview?
More of this please. 🎹🎶🎼🎵
Fantastic
AWWWWW I LOVE SUMMER HIGHLAND FALLS
This is great, thanks
Lively piano playing
Insight into a Master Songwriter.
U the best
He's correct that if you can easily adapt a song to that idiom, you can tell you have a really well-structured melody that isn't dependent on the production/groove/singer for recognizability/uniqueness. We Didn't Start the Fire, on the other hand, has a solid progression but relies on the conceit/device of the "list-like" to legitimize how repetitive the melody is
Is that someone holding a guitar in the background cause it literally doesn't move...it's like Billy's so cool he's got dead people holding his instruments for him!!! Lol
Very interesting. Thanks for posting. New subscriber.
i demand the rest
Miss Liberty Devitto with Billy
Time to do a newly rewritten version of We Didnt Start The Fire
A savant long Island punk. Amazing.
This man's used Kleenex contains masterpieces we'll never hear.
Yet rap is the most industry supported music in the world today.
That is sad.
@@gz9520 its all about money and industry.
@@WonsPhreely
Yah, it sure is not about talent anymore.
he never passes up an opportunity to shit on We Didn't Start the Fire
orignil version of we didnt start the fire
Christ bless you
*Had no idea what "Jolene" was. Thought it was a song I had never heard. But it never has been released!*
🤔
Billy Joel wrote a song called "Jolene" in the early 1980s, but it was never released. He has said that the song was originally a country song, but he eventually decided to turn it into "We Didn't Start the Fire."
In an interview, Joel said that he played a snippet of the "Jolene" song in an interview, but he has never performed it live. There is no known recording of the song, and it is not available on any of his albums.
The lyrics to the "Jolene" song are about a man who is worried that his wife is going to leave him for another woman named Jolene. The song is full of jealousy and insecurity, and it is a very different style from Joel's usual work.
It is a shame that the "Jolene" song was never released, as it is a very well-written song. However, it is also understandable why Joel decided not to release it, as it is a very different style from his other work.
If you are interested in hearing the "Jolene" song, there is a video on UA-cam of Joel playing a snippet of it in an interview. However, this is the only known recording of the song, and it is not available to listen to anywhere else.
What's funny is that Dolly Parton's "Jolene" is about a woman worried that her husband is going to leave her for another woman named Jolene. So basically Billy was doing the same idea, but from another perspective. I imagine it was probably from around the era that he was writing "An Innocent Man" because on that album he was purposefully writing songs that echoed the style of artists that influenced him, like "For the Longest Time" was a classic doo wop style song, and "Uptown Girl" was a Frankie Valli-style song, "Easy Money" was an Otis Redding style song, etc. So "Jolene" might have been his attempt at a classic country style song for that album.
@@keepinmahprivacy9754 Have never really heard a song about a wife leaving for another woman. Don't think any Billy Joel song even approaches this type of racy subject matter. It sounds like an interesting song with a pretty melody. Would love to hear it... Also bizarre how that pretty melody somehow got transformed into the rather monatonic boring melody of We Didn't Start The Fire. 🤔
He should have written the song "Jolene" instead of "We Didn't Start the Fire."
please where is the classic song :( the original
TheAntholefou , His “My lives” album has the original demo of the longest time. It has another name. Check it out.
Hot Take : The Original Version of WDSTF is better than the actual version. And I've only heard 30 seconds of it, that's how you know I enjoy it more, I know Billy would have done something great with that song. I just don't really like WDTSF as a song :/.
Hi
Summer highland falls is great
Please activate the software 😂
His movement at 1:25 -1:27 Lol 😂 looks like a cartoon character.
Where is the full interview?
I like a few of his songs but decided it mostly wasn't my kind of thing, but I might have to give his stuff another try. I liked hearing him break it down in this video. He definitely seems to know what he is doing. I like We Didn't Start The Fire and I didn't know For The Longest Time was one of his songs. I still think Uptown Girl is naff and Piano Man is pants. That is just my personal opinion. I think I would probably like some of his songs and not others but that is okay.
He has dozens of great songs!
where is the full video of this?..
I have the full version posted on my channel, its originally from a VHS tape but it's never been officially released digitally. ua-cam.com/video/asZrthvOpkg/v-deo.html
What is the original video?
Its From the documentary Shades of Grey. I have the video here ua-cam.com/video/asZrthvOpkg/v-deo.htmlsi=Sudby9zXEsGiYwuo
0:25
Thanks man!!!
I didn't know he played guitar.
What show is this excerpt from?
When Google reccomends scores.
wat was the country song?
"Jolene (I'm an Ordinary Man)," found on Billy Joel Greatest Hits, Vol. XXVIII.
jfrey1 Yeah - due out with "Rocky XXVII!" But...why not consider developing "Jolene" into a full song as part of a new material-writing session? :-)
+jfrey1 Do you know where can I find that album?
It does not exist. I was foolin.
lol
that type in the middle really? why?
The live version of we didnt start the fire is NOT good
We Didn't Start The Fire is a rip off of a certain REM song.
We Didn’t Start The Fire was in my opinion one of his worst songs! Yet somehow it was a hit.
Stop lighting the audience!!! Stop it!!! Let me do my show, for Christ’s sake!!!
Typically you have to dumb-down the melody to be a pop song that an audience can quickly digest. The downside is that the artist has to perform that song the rest of their life. Pop songs are usually bouncy while other types of genres have more serious topics or have entirely different rhythms.
Not sure what dumbing-down the melody means! Every artist strives to create a memorable melody.
@@ricomajestic Simplicity vs. complexity.
@@starexplorers1202 Complex melodies are quickly forgotten! The greatest composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) knew this. Actually the most difficult thing in the world is to come up with a simple melody that is original and memorable!
@@ricomajestic Agreed, and that's why they wrote for the masses.
I'm not a good classical player.....ummmm what? I ruin chopsticks.
Glad he knows “We Didn’t Start The Fire” is a terrible piece of music.
He has said that for a long time.
He said if it were up to him he would never play it again, it some people like it. It like Jefferson starship and we built this city.
Pfft, what does Billy Joel know about melody? 🙄
There's always one...
@@CBC68 Sarcasm. Asking if Billy Joel knows melodies is like asking if McCartney knows songwriting.
@@aidanhickey9845 Hard to tell these days.
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a horrible song.
Musical genius. Enough said