BOOKS
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"We Didn't Start the Fire": Billy Joel and Popular Music Studies
Editors, Joshua S. Duchan and Ryan Raul Bañagale For the Record: Lexington Studies in Rock and Popular Music (August 2020) This is a collection of scholarly essays and papers about Billy Joel's music. Professors Joshua S. Duchan and Ryan Raul Bañagale also contribute papers to this book. Duchan also wrote "Billy Joel: America's Piano Man" published in 2017. As this is an academic book, and the price is set by the publisher, it is expensive. |
"From Amazon.com: "Billy Joel has sold over 150 million records, produced thirty-three Top-40 hits, received six Grammy Awards, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fans celebrate him, critics deride him, and scholars have all but ignored him. This first-of-its-kind collection of essays offers close analysis and careful insight into the ways his work has impacted popular music during the last fifty years. Using diverse approaches, this volume serves as a model for how any scholar can approach the study of popular music. Ultimately, these chapters interrogate how popular music frames our experiences, constitutes our history and culture, and gains importance in our daily lives."
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Liberty - Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness
Liberty DeVitto, Foreword by Billy Joel Hudson Press (July 2020) From Hudson Press: "For thirty years, Liberty DeVitto was the driving force behind one of the biggest pop artists of all time. With his intense drive, endless creativity, and New York swagger, Liberty created the grooves for 13 |
See video about Liberty's book.
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platinum Billy Joel albums that have sold over 150 million copies, and wrote and performed the drum parts on 22 of Billy’s 23 top-40 hits and all of his 6 Grammy-winning recordings. He toured the world multiple times as one of the most well-known drummers of his era.
"The amazing success did not come without a price. This is Liberty’s story: a tale of an Italian-American kid who followed his dream and attained unimaginable success, only to see it crumble before his eyes, and ultimately experience a rebirth after passing through the fire of broken relationships, divorce, substance abuse, the death of a brother and a bandmate—and the pain of losing the persona the world knew as “Billy Joel’s drummer.”
"In this compelling memoir, Liberty takes you back to his immigrant roots and ultimate settling on Long Island, a place he recounts in warm detail. He then traces a musician’s journey: early childhood bands, a rise through the local club scene, wedding bands, building a career, his first tours, and then a juggernaut of success, excess, and stardom with Billy Joel.
The making of each of Billy’s albums is recounted in detail, with specific memories from the recording sessions of every song on every album from Turnstiles through Storm Front. Liberty then shares stories from the production and tour for River of Dreams and the end of his tenure with Billy.
"Liberty is a tale of following and fulfilling your dream, a love story of a drummer and his drum, and an inside look at the music and career of Billy Joel from the man who viewed it from the best seat in the house: the drum throne."
"The amazing success did not come without a price. This is Liberty’s story: a tale of an Italian-American kid who followed his dream and attained unimaginable success, only to see it crumble before his eyes, and ultimately experience a rebirth after passing through the fire of broken relationships, divorce, substance abuse, the death of a brother and a bandmate—and the pain of losing the persona the world knew as “Billy Joel’s drummer.”
"In this compelling memoir, Liberty takes you back to his immigrant roots and ultimate settling on Long Island, a place he recounts in warm detail. He then traces a musician’s journey: early childhood bands, a rise through the local club scene, wedding bands, building a career, his first tours, and then a juggernaut of success, excess, and stardom with Billy Joel.
The making of each of Billy’s albums is recounted in detail, with specific memories from the recording sessions of every song on every album from Turnstiles through Storm Front. Liberty then shares stories from the production and tour for River of Dreams and the end of his tenure with Billy.
"Liberty is a tale of following and fulfilling your dream, a love story of a drummer and his drum, and an inside look at the music and career of Billy Joel from the man who viewed it from the best seat in the house: the drum throne."
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Initmate Biographies - Billy Joel - The Untold Story of A Music Icon
Kappa Publishing (October 2017) This is not a book but a special edition magazine that was available in late 2017, in grocery stores and bookstores. While the subtitle claims it is the "untold" story of Billy Joel, it actually does not contain any new information that cannot be found in previous biographies. Still, it is a reasonably well-done overview of Billy's life and career containing information that most casual fans would not be aware of from mainstream media. The 96-page magazine consists primarily of large photos rather than text. Most of the photos are also nothing new, the same photos that are typically used on many websites. But again, overall, it is a good-looking and well-organized overview. |
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Billy Joel: America's Piano Man
Joshua S. Duchan Rowman & Littlefield (June 2017) This book by professor Joshua S. Duchan (Wayne State University) does an excellent job of exploring various themes in Billy's music through an examination of specific songs and events in Billy's life. Different chapters are devoted to major themes such as relationships, politics, and geography. |
See video about the book.
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From Amazon.com: "Despite his tremendous success, Billy Joel’s gifts as a composer and commentator on American life are long overdue for a thorough investigation. In Billy Joel: America’s Piano Man, music historian Joshua S. Duchan looks at the career and music of this remarkable singer-songwriter, exploring the unique ways Joel channels and transforms the cultural life of a changing America over four decades into bestselling song after song and album after album.
Billy Joel has not always enjoyed the acclaim of music critics, who have characterized his music as inauthentic and lacking a uniqueness of style. Duchan corrects this misunderstanding by exploring the depth and degree to which Joel’s songs engage with social, cultural, political, and economic issues. Organized by major themes and including original interviews with Joel himself, Duchan’s book delves into Joel’s endeavors as a musician, lyricist, and commentator on questions of geography and regionalism, politics, working- and middle-class culture, human relationships, and the history of music itself. Duchan draws on key songs from Joel’s career to explore each theme, from his folk-like lament for Long Island’s changing industry and lifestyle in “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’” to his emotional ode to Vietnam veterans in “Goodnight Saigon.”
Original interviews with Billy Joel blend with Duchan’s engaging analysis to provide readers of all backgrounds and ages a new look at these unforgettable songs. Music lovers and historians of both the academic and armchair variety will find this exploration of Joel’s work a rewarding adventure into America’s social, cultural, political, economic, and—above all—musical history."
Billy Joel has not always enjoyed the acclaim of music critics, who have characterized his music as inauthentic and lacking a uniqueness of style. Duchan corrects this misunderstanding by exploring the depth and degree to which Joel’s songs engage with social, cultural, political, and economic issues. Organized by major themes and including original interviews with Joel himself, Duchan’s book delves into Joel’s endeavors as a musician, lyricist, and commentator on questions of geography and regionalism, politics, working- and middle-class culture, human relationships, and the history of music itself. Duchan draws on key songs from Joel’s career to explore each theme, from his folk-like lament for Long Island’s changing industry and lifestyle in “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’” to his emotional ode to Vietnam veterans in “Goodnight Saigon.”
Original interviews with Billy Joel blend with Duchan’s engaging analysis to provide readers of all backgrounds and ages a new look at these unforgettable songs. Music lovers and historians of both the academic and armchair variety will find this exploration of Joel’s work a rewarding adventure into America’s social, cultural, political, economic, and—above all—musical history."
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Experiencing Billy Joel: A Listener's Companion
Thomas MacFarlane Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Sept. 2016) There are only two user reviews of this book on Amazon, one good and one bad, and one review on Goodreads.com which is not favorable. The book does not go over each song, but instead analyzes selected songs from each album in chronological order. Amazon.com: "Over the course of his career, Billy Joel has released a series of remarkable albums that together chart his journey as an artist from relative obscurity to international |
success. In Experiencing Billy Joel, musician and writer Thomas MacFarlane explores that musical journey, from Joel’s apprenticeship in the Long Island music scene to his experiences in both New York and Los Angeles writing and recording his own unique brand of piano rock and pop.
After achieving a certain degree of musical success in the late 1960s, Joel embarked on a career as a singer-songwriter in the early 1970s. Although his initial albums demonstrated a precocious mastery that helped establish him in the field, his full potential as a recording artist blossomed on The Stranger (1977), created under the guidance of legendary producer Phil Ramone. Subsequent releases explored a variety of musical styles and helped solidify Joel’s reputation as one of the most important pop composers of his era.
Experiencing Billy Joel explores each of Joel’s albums, laying out their appeal to musicians and non-musicians alike while also exploring the various production styles that have characterized Joel’s development in the studio. Along the way, MacFarlane reveals how Billy Joel’s recorded works as a whole serve as the foundation for a complex and enduring musical legacy."
After achieving a certain degree of musical success in the late 1960s, Joel embarked on a career as a singer-songwriter in the early 1970s. Although his initial albums demonstrated a precocious mastery that helped establish him in the field, his full potential as a recording artist blossomed on The Stranger (1977), created under the guidance of legendary producer Phil Ramone. Subsequent releases explored a variety of musical styles and helped solidify Joel’s reputation as one of the most important pop composers of his era.
Experiencing Billy Joel explores each of Joel’s albums, laying out their appeal to musicians and non-musicians alike while also exploring the various production styles that have characterized Joel’s development in the studio. Along the way, MacFarlane reveals how Billy Joel’s recorded works as a whole serve as the foundation for a complex and enduring musical legacy."
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Billy and The Joels - The American rock star and his German family story (eBook) (October 2015)
Steffan Radlmaier, Foreword by Billy Joel This is an e-book which I think was originally published in German. It traces the story of Billy Joel's family, from his father's side, beginning with Billy's paternal grandfather Karl Anson Joel. Also, see the documentary The Joel Files about Joel's family and the other German family that took his family's business and fortune |
From Amazon.com: "In the 1920s, Karl Amson Joel and his wife Meta founded a mail-order linen goods company in Nuremberg, Germany. The business flourished, and it could have turned out to be a picture-book success story, were it not for the coming to power of Adolf Hitler. To escape the Nazis, the Jewish couple and their son Helmut fled first to Berlin and then on to Switzerland. The linen goods company was snapped up by department-store 'king' Josef Neckermann at basement price. A further hazardous journey then took the Joels to Cuba and, finally, to New York. Helmut married a young girl from Brooklyn and, in 1949, she gave birth to their son William Martin, known as 'Billy'. When the marriage fell apart, Helmut returned alone to Germany, re-married and had a second son, Alexander, now an internationally sought-after conductor. Billy Joel is one of the most successful solo artists in the world of international pop music, having sold over 100 million albums. His daughter Alexa Ray has also carved out a career for herself in music.
"In order to write this extensive biography, Steffen Radlmaier not only researched archives and analyzed specialist literature and interviews, over a period of many years he also conducted personal interviews with numerous family members, acquaintances and contemporary witnesses. He visited Billy Joel and his daughter in New York in the autumn of 2008.."
"In order to write this extensive biography, Steffen Radlmaier not only researched archives and analyzed specialist literature and interviews, over a period of many years he also conducted personal interviews with numerous family members, acquaintances and contemporary witnesses. He visited Billy Joel and his daughter in New York in the autumn of 2008.."
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Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography
Fred Schruers Crown Publishing (October 2014) This is the definitive biography of Billy Joel, and well overdue. After "The Book of Joel: A Memoir" was cancelled (see bel0w), author Fred Schruers found another publisher. See this article. His new biography, simply titled "Billy Joel," was published in October 2014. It is a great read and the first authorized biography of Billy Joel in that it had the active participation of Billy Joel at least in Schruers' initial work, below. |
Interview with Fred Schruers, author of Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography.
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Even though I have read several Billy Joel biographies and countless articles about him, this book still captivated my interest. I knew what was going to happen, but was still interested in how it would turn out. Schruers also does a good job of deftly integrating stories about Billy's personal and professional life with Billy's songs, without using that tool as a crutch. The initial chapter on the Joel family history (prior to Billy being born) and their trials and tribulations in Nazi Germany is fascinating if you are a history buff like me, but I can see how others might find it a bit dense. One wishes there were more interviews with Billy's former bandmates and ex-wives and girlfriends, but that does not detract from this excellent book. It will no doubt become the definitive biography of Billy Joel. |
According to Amazon. com: "In Billy Joel, acclaimed music journalist Fred Schruers draws upon more than one hundred hours of exclusive interviews with Joel to present an unprecedented look at the life, career, and legacy of the pint-sized kid from Long Island who became a rock icon. Exhibiting unparalleled intimate knowledge, Schruers chronicles Joel’s rise to the top of the charts, from his working-class origins in Levittown and early days spent in boxing rings and sweaty clubs to his monumental success in the seventies and eighties . . . "
The paperback edition of the book came out in November 2015, just in time for Christmas. It was right on time.
The paperback edition of the book came out in November 2015, just in time for Christmas. It was right on time.
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The Book of Joel: A Memoir (June 14, 2011)
Billy Joel & Fred Schruers Publication of this book was cancelled. It was originally planned to come out June 14, 2011. Amazon.com description: "This soul-searching chronicle offers fans an unprecedented glimpse into the heart and soul of one of the world’s best entertainers . . . here the beloved songwriter offers a serious and reflective memoir of his life from early hard times to top-of-the-world successes, including the ups and downs of romance (and his marriage to Christie Brinkley), insights about fatherhood, and reflections on both the joys and the burdens of superstardom. . . . " |
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The Words and Music of Billy Joel
Ken Bielen The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection (July 31, 2011) This book sounds very good, but there are no Amazon reviews. The imprint Praeger has published a series a these books that include a biography, song lyrics, and commentary, for several other artists including Tom Waits, Carole King, Sting, Bob Marley, Ice Cube, Paul Simon, and others. The KISS version has not come out yet. From Amazon.com: "The Words and Music of Billy Joel examines this influential musician's songs in detail, exploring the meaning of the lyrics and placing Joel's artistry in a regional and cultural context. Covering work that ranges from Joel's recordings with the Lost Souls to his classical compositions, the book focuses on the dozen studio albums of popular music released between 1971 and 1993. A bibliographic essay is included, as are both a discography and a filmography. There is also a special focus on the interpretation of Joel's songs by other recording artists."
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Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man
Hank Bordowitz (Revised and Updated 2011) (originally published 2005) This book was originally released in 2005, and an updated version was released in April 2011. The new version is shown to the left, the earlier version is below it. That's right, they use the older photo for the newer version. This is a reasonably good biography of Billy Joel by music writer Hank Bordowitz. Much of the information in the book is largely derived from other written sources (with the notable exception of Bruce Getile) but it is still a well-organized and written summary of Billy's life and music. It reads well and quickly, and is relatively well-balanced, neither overly praising Billy nor condemning him. I like this book better than the Mark Bego biography (below) though both are pretty much comparable in terms of factual information. Neither, however, have any direct interviews with Billy Joel like the Fred Schruers book that came out in 2014 and is the definitive biography on Joel, see above.
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Billy Joel; The Biography
Mark Bego Thunder's Mouth Press (2007) This is a decent biography about Billy Joel albeit there are no direct interviews with Billy, and several long passages where former band members vent about Billy with no description of Billy's side of the story. Bego has churned out biographies of many musicians, but this one suffers from not interviewing Billy Joel himself. Again, Bego does interview former Billy Joel bandmates and sheds light on the breakup of the band after 1987. |
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I Go To Extremes: The Billy Joel Story
Bill Smith Robson Books (2007) I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it has some interesting tidbits about Billy's early years that the other books lack; on the other hand, it has some very awkward writing and cringe-inducing phrases and metaphors. The book does not seem to have been edited carefully. Here is a review of the book that points out its many flaws, often quite humorously. |
While it has some interesting photos I had not seen before, it also has one photo that purports to be a photo of The Hassles prior to Billy joining the group, but it's just a photo where Billy is cropped out of the view. Originally, I believe the book was only available in the UK though the writer is apparently from Long Island and involved in the fishing industry. He knows Billy Joel through that connection. But as the review of the book states "[u]nfortunately, being a tuna fisherman of non-litigious temperament is not necessarily the ideal qualification for writing a book, or indeed for writing anything at all." If you are a casual Billy Joel fan, I would not recommend this book, but if you are a fanatic or collector, then it may be worth it.
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Billy Joel: From Hicksville to Hitsville
Jeff Tamarkin This is a short picture biography of Billy Joel. It is actually a decent overview of Billy's career up until 1984, just before he released Greatest Hits I and II. It doesn't go into too much detail, but it's good for the average teen fan, which seems to be the target audience. The books neglects to mention The Nylon Curtain entirely, which is an odd oversight. |
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Billy Joel: An Illustrated Biography
Debbie Geller & Tom Hibbert McGraw-Hill Paperbacks (1985) This is photo biography of Billy Joel that is well-done and gives a good overview of his career up until that time. It contains many quotes from Billy from various sources. It contains a good mix of rare and iconic photos of Billy. There is another cover of this book for the Australian version |
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Billy Joel: A Personal File
Peter Gambaccini (1979) From eBay: This is a large paperback book BILLY JOEL - A PERSONAL FILE by Peter Gambaccini. The book is loaded with photos and is in VERY GOOD condition, with a some wear on the cover. |
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Billy Joel
Peter Gambaccini Jove Publications (1979) For a while, this small paperback was the only biography of Billy Joel published which was more than just a summary overview of his career. This book actually gives a fairly insightful discussion of each of Billy's songs through 52nd Street, and provides a reasonably entertaining depiction of his life. It's not an in-depth biography, but a good read. It also has some nice photos of Billy and Elizabeth Joel. I still have an old dog-eared copy of it that I read a million times as a young teen. |
OTHER BOOKS
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