Description
Book SynopsisBilly Joel has sold over 150 million records, produced thirty-three Top-40 hits, received six Grammy Awards, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fans celebrate him, critics deride him, and scholars have all but ignored him. This first-of-its-kind collection of essays on the music of Billy Joel offers close analysis and careful insight into the ways his work has impacted popular music during the last fifty years. Using a diversity of approaches, including those not traditionally found within popular musicological studies, this volume serves as a model for how any scholar can approach the study of popular music, regardless of their methodological leanings. These chapters interrogate how popular music frames personal and collective experiences, participates in the construction of history and culture, and invites us to reflect on its importance in our daily lives.
Trade ReviewUltimately, I leave the interpretation of my music to others. I’ve said all I can, in the music and in interviews. I’m flattered that the last few years have seen an increase in interest in my music on the part of musicologists and other scholars, seeking better understandings of my songs and their place in American history and culture. If that all continues, great. And the chapters in this book are a very good place to start. —from the Foreword by -- Billy Joel
A wide-ranging, affectionate look at the work of a pop master. This illuminating collection of essays offers diverse perspectives on Joel’s music and makes a compelling scholarly case for his legacy as one of rock’s great songwriters and performers.
-- Albin Zak, University at Albany
Following Bach, Beethoven and Brahms before him, Billy Joel is one of the supreme craftsmen of rock, but also a pioneer in original styling, sensitive songwriting, rich arranging and hard-rocking performing. In “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: Billy Joel and Popular Music Studies, we learn from many insightful and colorful perspectives—on topics from compositional detail to performance techniques and venues; comparisons against precursors and megastar contemporaries; co-renditions by cross-gender ASL interpreters; packaging, reception and legacy; and larger social and cultural contexts—how to fully appreciate Joel's intriguing body of work. Moreover, the writers have geared their presentations to the non-specialist reader, a great feat given the multileveled complexity of the lyrics, music and sonics of Joel's entire catalog, no aspect of which is neglected. The collection is topped-off with a penetrating discussion with The Man himself—Bravi!
-- Walter Everett, The University of Michigan
Table of ContentsForeword by Billy Joel
Introduction: “The Stranger”: Locating Billy Joel in Popular Music Studies
Ryan Raul Bañagale and Joshua S. Duchan
Part I: “Somewhere Along the Line”: Considering Tradition
Chapter One: From Liverpool to Hicksville: Sgt. Pepper Meets The Nylon Curtain
Joshua S. Duchan
Chapter Two: Movin’ Out on Thunder Road: Images of Ambition, Escape, and Authenticity in Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen
John J. Sheinbaum
Part II: “This Is the Time”: Performance Analysis
Chapter Three: Billy Joel, Piano Culture, and Rock’s Road Not Taken
Jonathan D. Bellman
Chapter Four: Form, Lyrics, and the “Short-Short-Long” Pattern in Billy Joel’s Music
Don Traut
Part III: “You’re My Home”: Imagined Locations
Chapter Five: “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’”: Billy Joel Signifies Folk
Morgan Jones
Chapter Six: “Nothing Rhymes With Bethlehem”: City Branding Schemes and the Strategic Deployment of Billy Joel’s “Allentown”
Sarah Messbauer
Part IV: “Stop in Nevada”: Live Performance
Chapter Seven: “She’s Got a Way”: Gendered and Physical Embodiment in Interpreting Billy Joel in American Sign Language
Elyse Marrero
Chapter Eight: Twenty-First-Century Patronage: The Road to Billy Joel’s Madison Square Garden Concert Residency
Stan Soocher
Part V: “Just the Way You Are”: Arranging Billy Joel, Arranging Ourselves
Chapter Nine: Scenes From a Music Museum: The Piano Man’s Notebooks in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jason Hanley and Kathryn Metz
Chapter Ten: Disavowing Billy Joel: Taste Shaming and “Schlock” Fandom
James Deaville
Chapter Eleven: My Lives: Greatest Hits and the Arranging of a Career
Ryan Raul Bañagale
Part VI: Transcript
Chapter Twelve: “Take the Phone Off the Hook”: A Public Interview with Billy Joel, interviewed by Ryan Raul Bañagale and Joshua S. Duchan
About the Editors and Contributors
Discography
