Billy Joel: America's Piano Man

Description

Despite his tremendous success, Billy Joel's gifts as a composer and commentator on American life are long overdue for a thorough investigation. In Billy Joel: America's Piano Man, music historian Joshua S. Duchan looks at the career and music of this remarkable singer-songwriter, exploring the unique ways Joel channels and transforms the cultural life of a changing America over four decades into bestselling song after song and album after album. Billy Joel has not always enjoyed the acclaim of music critics, who have characterized his music as inauthentic and lacking a uniqueness of style. Duchan corrects this misunderstanding by exploring the depth and degree to which Joel's songs engage with social, cultural, political, and economic issues. Organized by major themes and including original interviews with Joel himself, Duchan's book delves into Joel's endeavors as a musician, lyricist, and commentator on questions of geography and regionalism, politics, working- and... Chapter 1: "Somewhere Along the Line": Biography and InfluencesChapter 2: "New York State of Mind": Geography, Places, and SpacesChapter 3: "Where's the Orchestra?": Domestic and International PoliticsChapter 4: "Pressure": Living in American CultureChapter 5: "She's Always A Woman": Relationships and GenderChapter 6: "The Entertainer": Stylistic Authenticity and the Entertainment IndustryChapter 7: "This Is the Time": A Historically Conscious ComposerChapter 8: "And So It Goes": The Lasting Significance of Billy JoelFurther ReadingFurther Listening