Billy Joel - And So It Goes

 

If you are a fan of the music of Billy Joel, and honestly, who isn't, I cannot recommend to you highly enough the documentary film about the singer now showing on HBO Max.  It is presented in two parts, each about two and a half hours long, and it tells everything about Billy Joel, and it tells the story in many different layers, from his growing up in Hicksville, Long Island, NY, and complicated family life, his not graduating from high school, how he kicked it around in various bands as a teenager, his career as a solo performer singer/songwriter, how he got ripped off by his management, his four marriages, his problems with alcohol.  Nothing is left out or  glossed over, but what always comes through is the absolutely amazing talent of the man.

Joel's grandparents escaped Europe as Hitler's genocidal programs were sweeping through Germany and central Europe. His father was a classical pianist who left the family when Billy was 7 years old, an act with which Joel was never quite able to come to terms.  It was only as he was older and successful that he was able to track his father down in Vienna and discover that he had a half-brother.  I am skimming over this spect of the film, but it is remarkable.  (That half-brother is a classical symphony conductor in Austria.  Talk about music being in the genes.)

Joel speaks on camera throughout the movie, and is frank and honest about all aspects of his life.  This is great, of course, but the cast of characters who pop up throughout the movie talking about Joel and his talent and influence is positively eye-popping.  Jackson Brown, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and even Itzhak Perlman, for God's sake.  Their testimonies to Billy Joel just makes your jaw drop.  Example:  McCartney tells us this - "People often ask me Is there a song out there that you wish that you would have written, and I tell them 'Just The Way You Are'."

I am constantly amazed at the genius of musical superstars.  Time and again throughout the movie, Joel will tell the story about how an idea came to him while he was driving somewhere, and that by the time he reaches his destination, he can sit at a piano and produce a song that becomes a classic.  How these people can do that  is so far beyond my grasp as to be positively unimaginable.

Best of all, though, beyond everything else the film contains clips of Billy Joel singing and performing all of those songs that have become the music of our lives.  I consider myself fortunate to have seen Billy Joel live twice in my life.  The first time was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in 1986 or -87.  The second time was in August 2022 at PNC Park (read The Piano Man In Concert) in what was truly one of the greatest concert experiences that I have ever had.

As I reread what I have just written about this movie, I can tell you that this write up is hardly doing "And So It Goes" justice.  If you don't have HBO Max available to you, find a friend who does and see this documentary film.  You will not be disappointed.

A full Four Stars from The Grandstander.