Well, let's just say that when you're a member of Joel's lighting crew and you decide to light the audience, random people get thrown out, and you do not want to be around Joel.
@@TheJollycoppers the audience was being lighted up by officials if they started dancing too much because it was during Soviet rule, this was his protest to that.
Fr though! Look up Monsters of Rock in Moscow 1991! It was a massive Rock/Thrash Metal festival that happened literally days after the fall of the Soviet Union. You could see 1.5 million head-banging Russians embracing the freedom of music in real time. Many of the soldiers at the event (still decked in Soviet-Era attire) even took off their uniforms and joined the crowd. Metal AF.
While performing "Sometimes a Fantasy," the audience kept getting attention from spotlights, which angered Joel as he felt it was making it harder to connect with them: The Soviet crowd, raised by decades of Iron Curtain austerity, stopped dancing and froze like deer in headlights when they were lit up, petrified that the security guards would crack down on them. Then the lights would go out again and they'd resume dancing. Lights off, dancing. Lights on, frozen stiff. This went on and on like a game of red light, green light, one-two-three. With each flick of the lights, the perfectionist Joel saw his hard earned connection fading away.[5] He yelled, "Stop lighting the audience!" He then trashed his instruments, overturning his piano and breaking his mic stand.[5] He later claimed that, "People like their privacy. They go to a concert to get that, to be in the dark and do their own thing."[3]
@@Holygiant this whole fantasy/supposition about Soviet crackdowns at a Billy Joel concert is pure conjecture and Joel himself was interviewed about this particular performance and it weren’t the case, according to him, so…
Some friends of mine saw him at a show in Nashville. This was when he was married to Christie Brinkley. A bunch of drunk guys were yelling "Say hi to Christie for me" and stuff like that. He came over to them, covered his mike and said "Tonight after the show I'm gonna be f*cking her, what are you guys gonna be doing"? Apparently they quieted down after that.
I see ur perspective in It, but what if he was feeling angry and decided to do that, taking control if the situation lol, and getting a hold or in touch with his emotions hehe. Does that make sense? 😂
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He had said he was getting mad because the first night the audience wasn’t responding to the music because they would be thrown out by security. The second night, everytime the lights were pointed on them they would just freeze so they wouldn’t be seen by security which was why he got pissed and asked them to stop because they were slowly beginning to be less excited everytime the lights were on and off of them.
This explains everything, especially after watching it again and listening to what he's shouting. Good for Billy, communist Russia was an authoritarian nightmare.
Dude is a CONSUMMATE performer, he knows what instruments he can destroy whilst still performing and keep going. The kick of the guy doing the keyboard solo is PRICELESS.
The way the guy with the keytar screwed the notes up after he kicked whatever he kicked really added to moment. I wish the camera caught everything. Then he just grabs that mic stand, and it’s like “wtf is he doing?” Is it still rock and roll to you? It better be. I wouldn’t piss this dude off.
Here is what VICE says of the incident: "The Soviet crowd, raised by decades of Iron Curtain austerity, stopped dancing and froze like deer in headlights when they were lit up, petrified that the security guards would crack down on them. Then the lights would go out again and they'd resume dancing. Lights off, dancing. Lights on, frozen stiff. This went on and on like a game of red light, green light, one-two-three. With each flick of the lights, the perfectionist Joel saw his hard-earned connection fading away. Mid-song, he started screaming at his crew to cut it out and, like a consummate professional, didn't even miss a beat as he barked orders between lyrics."
I can’t stop cracking up at this!! Especially him shouting out in line with the rhythm, as well as that guy with the Keytar who is just totally unphased by it all!
Even more humorous and entertaining than Axl,s meltdowns. Actually this reminds of a video from time ago where buddy is sitting in his cubicle and loses it on his computer. Smashes the crap out of everything and shoves it off his desk
Sadly Chirag Gupta missed a beat when playing capture the flag in the doawk movie when he got tackled even when the singer was telling him to never miss a fucking beat.
My first concert was Billy Joel in L.A. in 1990. He closed the top of the grand piano at some point and then started jumping on top of it....it was insane! But the boom that sound made throughout the arena was an incredible thunderous bass sound I'll never forget......
"The Soviet crowd, raised by decades of Iron Curtain austerity, stopped dancing and froze like deer in headlights when they were lit up, petrified that the security guards would crack down on them. Then the lights would go out again and they'd resume dancing. Lights off, dancing. Lights on, frozen stiff. This went on and on like a game of red light, green light, one-two-three. With each flick of the lights, the perfectionist Joel saw his hard earned connection fading away. Mid-song, he started screaming at his crew to cut it out and, like a consummate professional, didn't even miss a beat as he barked orders between lyrics." - Dan Ozzi Vice
@@drewmathews7555 redistribution of wealth is stealing what isn't yours under the guise of the legal system and a mask of twisted morality. The wealth angle is the candy they use to bait people to buy into an ideology which comes with its own overbearing nature that always involves censorship.
@@huntergrant6520 People just want what many countries in europe have, social democracy. Communism is something completely different. First thing is about worker rights like paid sick leave, social benefits like universal healthcare and the other thing is about not having private businesses and no free choice of what you study or work.
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Billy Joel is the one of the very few performers who can simultaneously perform, scream, smash the stage, and STILL not miss a beat. Like him or hate him, that's talent. Plain and simple.
I love how he doesn't just rant into the mic. He only uses the vocal pauses to scream in his normal voice and fuck shit up while not missing any of his lines. Hahaha! 🤣
LMFAO 😂😂😂😂 This is freaking hilarious! I love how the band continues to keep playing. Billy Joel keeps singing lyrics in between yelling and going ape shit crazy 🤣
If you listen to his Town Hall with Howard Stern he says in it that the film crew was trying to document everything and kept lighting the audience. He wanted them to turn it off but the light conductors were Russian and couldn’t understand him.
The lighting crew was his...all English speaking Americans... In the documentary that came out he says that when he screamed " stop lighting the audience" his crew thought he said " stop fighting the audience" and were confused...all miscommunication within his road crew and he overreacted...threw a tantrum...but hey that's rock and roll!
@@brad6420 "Stop lighting the audience..Let me do my show for christsakes!!" On the Russian Concert LP that was released, there's a bit of gibberish, nonsense sounding talk/scream after one of the songs (can't remember which one)...when you played it backwards it was a recording of him saying that line during the "tantrum"....only included on the LP though. A Little fun fact.
Lol...if they couldn't understand the American words "Lights Off" they probably should have had a translator on hand...there's no excuse for that bullshit. Did he really have to learn "Lights Off" in Russian for them to get the point? Cmon now
apparently he's kicking off the grand piano instead of the guy playing it, but 0:37 is the most hilarious, outrageous moment of this for me...the guy looks like he slides right off in a cartoonish way from Billy Joel's kick, and with that sound cutting off at the same time... x'D
Axl Rose had these kinds of meltdowns to fight the audience and had to pause or cancel shows. Not only is Billy Joel's meltdown about fighting FOR the audience but does it while giving a kickass performance and not missing a beat. . Love or hate his music (personally I love it), he's a true professional and loves his crowd. Even the band knee his devotion to putting on a great show as they kept going without flinching.
This was in the Soviet Union. When they would light up the audience dancing, the audience would stop or they would get thrown out by security. They were so backwards then. Idk what the meltdown was about though.
@@NoOne-kr4jc they were not throwing people out. It was a new era in the USSR. But, people were still a bit spooked from the old era. So, when the lights came on, they felt a bit uneasy. Rock music was banned for a while, but Gobachev and his wife loved rock (esp. The Beatles). Dancing to rock was all good at this time.
If you see the entire concert you'll notice that most of the audience is wearing jeans and t-shirts, just like any western concert goers. But every so often you'll see a couple of guys wearing what, I presume, the authorities think people in the US and Europe wear to these shows. In other words, a shirt, tie and a sports jacket. These men are noticeable by two facts: 1. They aren't joining in with the spirit of the concert, and 2. They seem to be spending as much time looking at the audience as they do the performance.
Lyrics: When am I gonna take control get a hold of my emotions STOP LIGHTING THE AUDIENCE Why does it always seem to hit me in the middle of the night STOP IT Told me there's a number I can always dial LET ME DO MY SHOW FOR CHRIST SAKE It's just a fantasy (Woah) It's not the real thing (Woah) Sometimes a fantasy (Oh oh oh) Is all you need [Flip over piano, break mic stand] Sure it would be better if I had you here to hold me [Break mike stand again] Better baby but believe me it's the next best thing
