It turns out that the historic Billy Joel announcement was actually that he’s going to be doing a monthly concert at Madison Square Garden for the foreseeable future: at least four months, very possibly thirty or more. And here I was hoping that he’d reveal that Sgt. O’Leary, who at night becomes a bartender, is […]

posted 5 December 2013 in Tasty Bits. no comments yet

Twitter can be fun. Billy Joel is set to make a "historic announcement" next week. We speculate wildly: http://t.co/DgMN3ykxkC — Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 26, 2013 Brenda & Eddie: back together RT @RollingStone Billy Joel is set to make a "historic announcement" next week. http://t.co/jBVYLZrCV1 — rob sheffield (@robsheff) November 26, 2013 Sgt O'Leary trading […]

posted 27 November 2013 in Tasty Bits. 1 comment

Consider Billy Joel’s antimaterialistic #17 single “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” specifically Sergeant O’Leary, who is trading in his Chevy for a Cadillac-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack: And if he can’t drive with a broken back / At least he can polish the fenders Let’s leave aside the question of how Sergeant O’Leary is walking the beat or working as […]

posted 26 August 2013 in Tasty Bits. no comments yet

One of the pleasures of shuffle-play on an iPod is learning new things about old songs through your headphones. This happened to me recently with two songs: 1. Billy Joel, “Big Shot.” I had forgotten Billy Joel’s vocals in the first five seconds of “Big Shot,” which I would transcribe as, “Sssssshmt. Oooh.” It sounds […]

posted 7 December 2010 in Tasty Bits. 2 comments

I hadn’t heard Billy Joel’s “Pressure” in a long time: it hit #20 in 1982, but it doesn’t seem to have entered Joel’s canon of hits. So thank you, Sirius-XM ’80s channel. I thoroughly enjoyed the song this time around, even the throbbing synth sound (which sounds more dated than Joel’s ’50s pastiches on An […]

posted 14 September 2009 in Tasty Bits. 4 comments