This was Joel's love letter to New York after he spent years in Los Angeles, hating it, trying to further his career, before coming home. He played this with a wounded wing -- he left thumb was taped up. Amazing songwriter, singer, pianist and perfomer.
Don't know if he still is but he lived in Madison Square Gardens for years can't get much more New York than that great "entertainer song writer musician .
He was channelling Ray Charles here. Ray was Billy's favorite musician who he idolized. One of his most beautiful songs. He is an absolute wizard on the piano. The performance of this song is iconic. Everything about it works perfectly.
Yeah I always find his Live performances to be unnecessarily 'jazzed up' and make me want to hear the studio version badly. This is still entertaining because it's Billy, but I just really love the true radio hits I grew up listening to way more.
Joel wrote the song after returning to the East Coast from Los Angeles, where he had spent the previous three years. The inspiration for the song came from his pride in returning home to New York. Joel was literally "takin' a Greyhound [bus] on the Hudson River Line [route]" when the idea for the song came to him, and the song was written as soon as Joel arrived home [wikipedia]
The thing about great musicians is the ‘feel’ they have for the music. Many can play the same song but they don’t have that special something that cannot be copied.
I am not a jazz fan either and that sax solo got on my last nerve. Don't know if he did a good job or not but it sounded like he was just making stuff up as he went along to me. Haha I do, however, love Billy Joel.
That saxophonist did an amazing job! He WAS “making stuff up” - that’s what jazz men (and women) do - improvise! Create! Too bad it got on your last nerve. 😢
