STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Billy Joel,  “Piano Man” Life-Long Depression: He Says He “Used Booze as Medication Following 9/11 Attacks.”

My retort: ”Honesty is such a lovely word…”  Let’s Get Real “Piano Man!”  This is the time for “Honesty”….9/11  REALLY MADE YOU AN INVETERATE DRUG ADDICT and ALCOHOLIC?

To me “That’s A New York State of Mind”----“Captain Jack”!
  I am a great fan of Rock’n Roll.   I grew up in the streets of NYC’s Harlem and I played all the radio hits that I could consume secretly  because  I was supposed to be practicing classical music.

Roll Over-Beethoven!!!

  It was Allan Freed,  Murray-the K, and “Jock-A-Mo” and many other famous DJs who helped to steer me away from the “Baby Grand” toward the sounds and rhythms of “Prelude/Angry Young Man”.

  Clearly,   Billy Joel was one of the great musicians to whom I listened,  danced and spent the few coins I had to attend several of his concerts.   He is a great American singer, songwriter and performer!

No one can take away his brilliant accomplishments—not even “The Entertainer”  himself,  recounting the tragedies and foibles of “The Entertainer” and “My Life.”

 

In songs,  he has all the right to denote,  sing,  scream,  and create all the fiction he may want to do because  after all he is “The Entertainer” and can create any “Invention in C minor”.

  But when it comes to the consequences of the tragedy of 9/11,  this becomes a matter where an “Innocent Man” like me “I Go To Extremes.”   “Don’t ask me Why” but I will tell you…

“Big Shot”,   can you really believe that “Pressure” from 9/11 made you,  Piano Man, an ‘alky”?:

“I started with Dewars White Label Scotch and then, when I really got heavy into it, it was vodka.  Vodka is a hard-core alky drink.   I could take it in shots or I could just mix it with something.” 

Billy Joel then goes on in the NY Times interview to reveal:

“….I drank during the divorce or something.”

  “Or something”… let me,  the “Innocent Man” try to examine why the “Piano Man” had a major problem with “Honesty”.    Unfortunately,  9/11 was not the cause of your Drug Addiction and Alcoholic problems because in that event  “Only The Good Die Young.”  

So your own troubled past is what made you “Just The Way You Are”.

  “And So It Goes”…let’s get some scenes of the “Piano Man” from his “Lullabye”  to the “Uptown Girl” and see if “[I]You may be right”… “Please Don’t Ask Me Why”.

Here is “My Life” of “The Entertainer”:

---Father Helmuth Joel,  a German Jew and Mother,  English Jewess,  Rosalind Nyman--both escape Nazi Holocaust.   That’s a milestone for Holocaust guilt,  a major precursor  for Jews who have survived the Holocaust.   It’s often seen in survivors who feel guilty.  

---Evidence for above,  ”You May Be Right,” observations:

In 1970,   Billy Joel left a suicide note which inspired the lyrics to “Tomorrow Is Today”,  and attempted to commit suicide by drinking furniture polish,  saying later,  ”I drank furniture polish.  It looked tastier than bleach.”    His drummer assistant, Jon Small,   rushed him to the hospital.   Joel checked into Meadowbrook Hospital.   “The Piano Man” was inspired to write “You’re Only Human”[Second Wind] as a message to help prevent teen suicide.

 --in 2002, Joel entered Silver Hill Hospital,  a substance abuse and psychiatric center in New Canaan, Conn.

--In March 2005,  he was admitted to the Betty Ford Center where he was treated for alcohol abuse.

 -January 7, 2006, “The Entertainer” had not released or wrote  new song in 13 years.    Creative Exhaustion— “The Longest Time” and “Lullabye” to music creativity.

 - The failure of success led “The Piano Man” to become furious and depressed.

 

The success of his piano-driven ballads like “The Way You Are”,  “She’s Always A Woman” and “Honesty”  led some critics label the “The Entertainer” as a balladeer and soft rocker.   Joel found these labels unfair and insulting.

But’s that’s “Just The Way You Are” !

--But of course,  It’s his series of famous marriages and subsequent divorces that reeked havoc on his life –more significantly than 9/11 for certain.

--On March 24, 1985, Joel married Christie Brinkley.   This was the second of three marriages but its the one that lead to the most lyrical and poignantly personal of all of his compositions—“UPTOWN GIRL”.

  I had not heard a better song in “The Longest Time” until he wrote , “Leave  A Tender Moment Alone” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.

I pay my tribute to a music genius by imploring him to take it easy on himself and learn to enjoy your past successes and perhaps pass on your magical talents through teaching future generations of musicians…

  Because….”It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”…so don’t let the “Pressure” get to you.

Don’t forget “Piano Man”  that there will always be an “Allentown“ somewhere so that you and the Boss, Springsteen, have to decry it in your lyrics.

  Ars Longa, vita Brevis…

  Art is long.  Life is short!!!