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Billy Joel articles from the Newsday archives

[One of many Billy Joel stories in the Newsday archives, this article originally appeared in the July 27, 1987 edition.] 
 Although Billy Joel eventually had fans dancing on their seats and swarming up to the stage last night, the first hour of his opening show here must have left him feeling like the stranger of his album title, because that indeed is what he was to most of the 25,000 people in Moscow's Olympic complex. 
 He felt it necessary to introduce himself in Russian to the crowd. A joke about how most people in the United States don't understand Joel because of his New York accent didn't bring much of a chuckle when repeated in Russian by Joel's translator, Oleg Smirnoff.&nbsp; 
 It must have been eerie for Joel. His hit song "Just the Way You Are" received only scattered claps of recognition. While the audience seemed to like "Pressure," featured last week on a program about Joel on&nbsp;Soviet television, applause was brief and restrained.&nbsp; 
 Of course, it wasn't entirely an audience of rock 'n' roll animals at the first of three Joel performances in Moscow. A pin in the well-tailored suit of one man sitting in back of me identified him as a member of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal parliament.&nbsp; 
 "They can buy any ticket without waiting on line," said a Russian-speaking acquaintance, referring to Soviets of privilege. It was mostly tough luck for hundreds milling around the box office two hours before showtime.&nbsp; 
 "I'm going to try hard, with all my strength, to find someone with a ticket," said a 22-year-old named Igor.&nbsp; 
 Another young man who didn't give his first name said a scalper, "if he's a bad man," could get as much as 50 rubles ($80) for a 6-ruble ticket to the soldout show. 
 Another fan spoke of how "the music is of joy and peace and friendship to our cultures," and said that his friend wanted to know: "When comes to our country Alice Cooper?" 
 On stage, Joel slowly found ways to warm up the crowd. He dedicated a song to Vladmir Vysotzky, an anti-establishment folk singer, actor and writer who died in 1980. Joel, as thousands of Russians do every year, recently visited Vysotzky's grave.&nbsp; 
 "I was moved by the love and devotion people have for him," Joel said. The song was "Honesty" and some people seemed to recognize it. 
 A&nbsp;girl from the audience handed Joel a bouquet of roses. It was the first of many of such presentations through the evening, and slowly the mood of the show was starting to change.&nbsp; 
 After a stirring rendition of "My Life," Joel made a joke about the high, distant seats in the vast arena being in China, and there were quite a few titters. Comrade Joel should have known that in a classless society, the concept of good seats and bad seats should not exist. Particularly moving -- &nbsp;at least to an American in the concert audience -- were two songs from Joel's most political album, "The Nylon Curtain. " 
 He told the soviet audience that "Allentown" was about "young people living in the northeast of America whose lives are miserable because the steel factories are closing down. They want to leave, but they stay because they were brought up to believe that things were going to get better. " 
 Though there was plenty to read between the lines of that statement, the audience clearly responded to the firm, pounding beat. The people in one section were on their feet, clapping their hands to the beat. As Joel's wife, Christie Brinkley, shot the scene with a portable video camera, the enthusiasm of that sliver of the crowd was about to become contagious.&nbsp; 
 But first there was "Goodbye Saigon" one of Joel's most emotionally complex songs. It is filled with both support for Vietnam veterans and disgust for the war they fought.&nbsp; 
 There was an unmistakable poignance about being in Moscow and hearing Joel describe what happened to his friends who went to Vietnam as boys and came back as old men. The audience was impressed by the&nbsp;helicopter sound effects.&nbsp; 
 "Scary," my translator said when the song was over. Joel gave the "V" sign for peace. And many returned it.&nbsp; 
 The audience loved "Baby Grand," a song that Ray Charles sang with Joel on his most recent "The Bridge" album. Joel's perfect imitation of Charles made one think that perhaps Ray Charles' singing style has become a kind of international language.&nbsp; 
 Then it happened. Joel said: "You can stay next to the stage if you want. " In America, it's the oldest trick in the book. Here, it's a new idea. First five people rushed to the stage. Then 10. Then hundreds, many hundreds.&nbsp; 
 By the time Joel and band performed "A Matter of Trust," the audience lost most of its inhibitions. Almost everyone was standing, clapping, moving to the music, standing on chairs.&nbsp; 
 "Just like an American show," said one of the members of Brigade S, a popular Moscow rock group. Suddenly a Sunday night in Moscow was begining to feel like a Billy Joel concert at the Nassau Coliseum. In contrast with many past rock concerts in Moscow, authorities did not appear to insist that the audience remain seated and sedate. The Supreme Soviet member and his family left. But thousands of others were jumping up and down, shouting approval throughout rockers like "Sometimes a Fantasy," "You May Be Right" and "Uptown Girl. " 
 People&nbsp;waved red flags, American flags, T-shirts and posters. Things seemed to be getting out of control, and a few soldiers started moving toward the stage. But the soldiers took off their hats, clapped their hands over their heads, and started dancing like fraternity brothers at a toga party. 
 When Joel and band kicked into the Beatles "Back in the USSR" for an encore, you could have re-named the building Sputnik 87. We were ready to go into orbit. &nbsp;

Ambassador Joel subdued Soviet audience warms to performance by American

billy joel

BILLY JOEL

Billy Joel: It's a period of transition for the singer-songwriter

He loves the ocean

billy joel alexa cropped /

[One of many Billy Joel stories in the Newsday archives, this article originally appeared in the Aug. 10, 1993 edition.] 
 JOHN SEBASTIAN of the Lovin' Spoonful was all of 22 when he sang, "I think I've come to see myself at last. " 
 Billy Joel has taken twice as long to become sure of his own place in the creative world. In his third decade as a five-zillion-served pop composer and performer, the 44-year-old finally understands where he stands. Now confident rather than cocky, he seems remarkably comfortable&nbsp;and relaxed in the knowledge. 
 "I always found people who elevated themselves because they thought they were artists to be somewhat ridiculous and pretentious," he says during an interview Saturday. One is easily put in mind of Sting's haughty condescension, Paul Simon's world-beating appropriations or Bruce Springsteen's gold-plated populism.&nbsp; 
 America's real middle-class icon is a forthright suburbanite who has never striven to be placed above his audience or disclaim his beloved musical influences, a real-world nebbish whose stubby fingers put the Midas touch to instantly memorable songs. Without a trace of hubris, this superstar - who can attempt a Flaubert quote in one breath and compare musical sidemen to erstwhile Yankee utility infielder Fred Stanley in the next - says, "I've tried to stay away from the artsy-fartsy artiste aspect of it. Now I can see, at this age, I am an artist and very proud of it. I've come to understand that I don't need anybody else to tell me I'm good enough.&nbsp; 
 "You watch these award shows where all the artists are in one room hoping to win the tchotchke," he says, momentarily affecting an announcer's voice: "Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, The 25th Annual Tchotchke Awards.&nbsp; 
 "And here you've got Eric Clapton, Sting, Nirvana, Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, blah, blah, blah. This is a pretty power-packed room, therefore you get some major advertising dollars spent on the time. The producers of the show make the money. The artist who wins the tchotchke gets a tchotchke, which is worth about $5.98. The plaque falls off, but there we all are, wanting that tchotchke. We think it is going to legitimize what we do. It never does. " 
 Switching to the comic delivery of George Carlin, Joel continues. " `How many tchotchkes did you win?' `He's got three tchotchkes.' `Well, he's a five-time tchotchke winner.' `He's one of the living tchotchke legends. ' " 
 On "River of Dreams" (Columbia), his first album since 1989's triple-platinum "Storm Front," Long Island's living tchotchke legend takes philosophical stock of middle age and what's truly important in life. "The essence of the album is a loss of faith, a search for and understanding of how to deal with that, and a renewal of faith in substantial things: faith in love, faith in one's self, faith in the things that have always been there. " (For those keeping score, the word also appears in six of the 10 songs. ) 
 Although the album contains a compassionate, sweet lullaby to his 7-year-old daughter that, he says, answered her questions about what happens when you die, Joel rejects the suggestion that yesterday's angry young man has achieved serenity.&nbsp; 
 "I always assumed that when you got to this age, life would calm down, things would become boring and mundane. That I would start to vote... &nbsp;Republican. That when you got into your forties you were no longer in any way that crazy guy that you were when you were a teenager.&nbsp; 
 "I found that not to be the case. I am as crazy as I was when I was a teenager, and as wildly romantic, and as emotional. I just know more stuff. I have acquired some wisdom - not enough, I want more - and I don't get as angry about nickel and dime stuff. I get angry about bigger things now. " 
 One of the bigger things Joel is angry about now provides a central theme of the album. Having spent much of the prior week giving depositions in his four-year-old lawsuit against ex-manager and ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber, Joel - who at one point in the conversation changes chairs, explaining that the one he's in feels like a witness stand - acknowledges that "River of Dreams" partly concerns "the foolishness of the search for justice. There is no justice. There is no justice," he says emphatically. His voice is steely and bitter.&nbsp; 
 The depth of Joel's disillusionment surfaces in a musical hate letter, "The Great Wall of China," clearly aimed at his former associate, whom he accuses of mismanaging and misappropriating his money. "Your role was protective, your soul was too defective," he sings. Asked about the song's use of the Great Wall as an anything-is-possible metaphor, Joel notes that he played Cuba in 1979 and the USSR in 1987. "China is still one of the last exotic unknown places to people who live where I live. " 
 The stately and handsome "All About Soul" -- which began as "The Motorcycle Song," a fast number about "middle-aged dentists and insurance salesmen getting themselves in biker gear and buying Harleys" --&nbsp;bears some of the same frustration at venality, but mends the psychic wounds with love: "She comes to me at night and she tells me her&nbsp;desires / And she gives me all the love I need to keep my faith alive. " Through all the adversity, the love of a good woman - namely Joel's wife, Christie Brinkley, who painted the album's primitivist cover - comes to the rescue.&nbsp; 
 The crucial line of the song (if not the entire album) provocatively announces, "Under the love is the stronger emotion. " What does Joel consider the underpinning of love? "The things that sustain love when you question love, when love alone isn't enough," he replies. "The basic inner something which I refer to as soul, the inner core: what you call on when the - - - really comes down. Soul is what each person has within before there is love, or even after there is love. " 
 On this introspective, personal record, besides venting his spleen and opening his heart, Joel allows himself a long-denied indulgence: to sing the blues, on "A Minor Variation," a song he compares stylistically to the Memphis soul sound of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. "Who the hell am I to complain? I'm supposed to have this phenomenal life. But I had the blues, and it felt good to actually say, `Some days I have to give right in to the blues. ' 
 "I was suicidal when I was 21. I checked myself into an observation ward; it was a great experience for me, because I saw people who had really incredible problems. When I got out of there I never looked back. I said I will never feel sorry for myself for another two seconds. This time, I happened to go, OK, I do have the blues, and I went on with it. " 
 The year it took to write and record "River of Dreams" began last summer, in a Southampton church where Joel had installed a temporary studio to cut two Elvis Presley tunes for the "Honeymoon in Vegas" soundtrack. When he needed to relocate, "I looked around in my neck of the woods - out in the East End [of Long Island] - and I went over to Shelter Island. In a boatyard, I found a lobster shed, where they used to store lobster traps, which was big enough and secluded enough. That became the Shelter Island studio.&nbsp; 
 "I was producing; we recorded half a dozen or more songs. My idea of production is non-production. I don't do any more than three takes when we're recording, 'cause I still wanna like the thing. " 
 Joel ultimately decided there was a "lot more that could be done" with the songs he had recorded. Enter producer-guitarist Danny Kortchmar, a New York-born veteran known for his Southern California work with James Taylor, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks and many others. Joel played Kortchmar the tapes from Shelter Island. "He listened to it and had some very, very strong ideas. " The two decided to re-record the songs.&nbsp; 
 One of Kortchmar's ideas was to get Leslie West, the Mountain guitarist whose first band, Long Island's own Vagrants, had a big local influence on Billy Joel's late-'60s outfit, the Hassles. Ironically, "Shades of Grey," the track which actually invokes West's signature American Cream sound, features guitarist Tommy Byrnes firing up the fuzzbox. "Cream would write songs about so many fantastic colors, use these bizarre colorful images," notes Joel. "I was talking about exactly the opposite: shades of gray. I thought this was a terrific chance to use the Cream arrangement as irony. " 
 "River of Dreams" was more or less created in the sequence it appears. "Each song got written in reaction to the song which came before it, and recorded likewise. Once I've gotten to a certain point, [an album] becomes its own entity, and I work towards the resolution, which is why I don't write that many more songs than are on the album. "Some artists write twenty, thirty songs and pick the best ones. What you hear is what I've written. [Although] there was a song, "You Picked a Real Bad Time," which didn't end up on the album but may end up&nbsp;on a B-side. " And, he admits, there was one total reject.&nbsp; 
 Joel describes the discarded number as "a dog. It was an art song called `The Winter Crossing' which I took out back and shot. It was really pretentious and stupid. " He played the doomed tune once for Danny&nbsp;Kortchmar and engineer Niko Bolas. "I'm watching Danny and Niko behind&nbsp;the console. I see their entire faces, and as the song goes along I see&nbsp;less of their faces. Now I only see up to their noses. Then, as I'm&nbsp;further into the song, I just see eyes -- very wide, open eyes. And I realize, as I'm singing it, that this really is a piece of - - - .&nbsp;And I stopped and I said, OK. I'm sorry. And that was it. " 
 With the album likely to follow its title track, already No. 28 in Billboard, up the charts, Joel is rehearsing for a tour to begin Sept. 10 in Portland, Maine. The New York dates, he says, will be in October at Madison Square Garden. (Word has it he will do six nights between Oct. 2 and 12. ) But he firmly denies rumors of a Central Park show. In addition, Billy Joel's work may finally reach another part of Manhattan. "I talked with Pete Townshend in Cleveland; we went for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hodgepodge thing. I have a great deal of respect for Townshend. He said, `Billy, you've got to write a Broadway musical. ' He was insisting that I do this. He said, `You're probably the guy best suited to do this in this day and age, to bring pop and the rock and roll sensibility into the musical theater. " 
 "I had been approached by other people about doing a Broadway musical, but when Pete Townshend told me that, it was the first time I really seriously have considered that I am going to do that. I intend to do it. " 
 For Billy the Man, at 44, the curtain also rises. &nbsp;

Billy Joel: He's still keeping the faith

BJ aug 93 - cropped / mg

[One of many Billy Joel stories in the Newsday archives, this article originally appeared in the Dec. 26, 1995 edition.] 
THE ENGINE is warmed up and the web of docklines is cast off. Skipper William Martin Joel nudges the throttle and the 600-horsepower diesel pushes the Alexa out of its winter slip and into the lonely blue-green waters of Three Mile Harbor.&nbsp; 
There are no microphones or stacks of speakers in the cockpit, no grand piano in the cabin of the 36-foot fiberglass cruiser. But the scragglybearded skipper in a beat-up jacket and faded jeans looks as comfortable at the helm of the green craft with salmon and white trim as he does on a stage. Billy Joel isn't singing but he's in his element. The salt sea surges through the life and music of the rock superstar who "borrowed" other people's boats for joyrides when he was a kid and whose first vessel was an inner tube. Now he voyages on a custom-made&nbsp;boat that, like his song "The Downeaster Alexa," was created by Billy&nbsp;Joel and named after his 9-year-old daughter.&nbsp; 
"The Downeaster Alexa" - his paean to the fishermen of the East End - is the most seaworthy of Joel's songs, but the Piano Man has written and sung about the water on every one of his 16 albums, which have sold 51 million copies. The company he formed to administer his business affairs is called Maritime Music Inc. He still lives in the sprawling home on 15 acres by the Atlantic in Amagansett that he bought with his then-wife, model Christie Brinkley. And when the East End gets overwhelmed by summer day-trippers, he retreats - by boat - to a waterfront getaway on Martha's Vineyard.&nbsp; 
The salt sea is so important to the 46-year-old performer and songwriter that he says he can't compose out of sight of it. "Everywhere I've ever lived that I've written music, I've had a view of salt water - it has to be salt water. That's the real water. There are times when I'm writing and I'm at a loss, I can always sit and stare at this vast expanse and endless horizon and pull thoughts out of my subconscious because of being able to look at the water. It has some kind of primeval impact on me.&nbsp; 
"I think I use the sea and aspects of the sea - harbors, bays, waves, beaches - as metaphors in a lot of the lyrics that I write," Joel says. "`Storm Front' is kind of a metaphorical song about water. `River of Dreams' is about water. There's a song called `Lullaby' in which there's a verse devoted to the similarity with rocking a baby and the rocking of a boat out on the ocean. " 
Billy Joel has been rocking on the ocean for as long as he can remember. 
* * * 
The singer is in the two-story circular library of his Amagansett home, chronicling his romance with the sea as ocean breakers keep up a&nbsp;drumbeat on the dunes outside. The house could almost pass as a maritime&nbsp;museum. Two old wooden, commercial fishing boats -- &nbsp; Gael and Melissa&nbsp;J. -- are moored in the front lawn near a barn covered with wooden&nbsp;lobster floats. A large ship's helm is mounted on the oceanside patio.&nbsp; 
Almost every room -- &nbsp;Joel says he's lost count of how many there are -- has some nautical accent: paintings of ships, models of ships and lighthouses, anchors flanking the fireplace. Joel - who plans to market a 36-foot runabout of his own design that will be built on the East End -- &nbsp;has a room set aside for his nautical charts and boat design work. A baby grand piano and recording console sit in a corner alcove of the living room. That's where he writes his music. Across the room is another alcove with a desk overlooking the ocean. That's where he writes his lyrics.&nbsp; 
Although he grew up in landlocked Hicksville, Joel always felt close to the sea. When he was a child, his mother would drive Billy and his friends to Cold Spring Harbor or Bayville.&nbsp; 
"There were some people living in Hicksville who didn't realize they were living on an island at all. But I was always very much intrigued by the idea of living on an island. I wanted to get as much island living in my life as I could. So I would hitchhike to the North Shore where you have all these marvelous old harbors like Oyster Bay and&nbsp;Cold Spring Harbor. I really thought the Gold Coast was the most beautiful place on earth. I never thought I'd be living there. I fell in love with the water because of that area. " 
Throughout school, he sketched boats instead of doing classwork. His mother was a single parent and a boat wasn't in their budget. But as a teenager, Joel found a way to get out on the water. When he wasn't playing the piano, he biked to Oyster Bay and borrowed boats. Without telling the owners. 
"My first experiences on a boat was if there was a rowboat on a mooring, I would swim out, unclip it, take it for a little row and then bring it back," Joel recalls. "Powerboats I got into later on. Some of my more sophisticated friends knew how to start these things up and we would take those for a ride. We were very careful not to damage them. I never did get caught. " 
He looks out at the ocean and remembers his first vessel. "My first boat was an inner tube. I used to earn a living clamming. That was my first involvement with commercial fishing. I used to go to Oyster Bay, Huntington, Glen Cove with an inner tube and a basket and get clams. People don't know what good clams are supposed to taste like anymore. I even worked oystering back in the '60s in Oyster Bay on a dredge for a while in the winter and froze my butt off. " 
Music was the key to realizing Joel's dream of a boat of his own. In 1972, he was living in Hampton Bays. His first album, "Cold Spring Harbor," had just been released. The local star bought an 18-foot wooden&nbsp;whaling dory, but found it hard to row, so he added a used Evinrude&nbsp;engine that enabled him to fish, clam and explore the bays and harbors&nbsp;of the South Fork.&nbsp; 
Joel sold the dory after that summer and wound up in California playing in a piano bar under the name Bill Martin to escape an onerous recording contract - an experience that inspired his breakout album, "Piano Man," in 1973. Returning to Long Island, he rented a place onOyster Bay and stepped up to a 17-foot Boston Whaler.&nbsp; 
By the early 1980s, Joel's career was surging and he was right where he wanted to be - living on the waterfront in Lloyd Harbor with Christie Brinkley. He'd learned enough about powerboats to take his 20-foot Shamrock skiff from Lloyd Harbor to Martha's Vineyard with Brinkley and two friends. But the sea had a lot more to teach him. "Going there was fun; it was smooth as glass. We hit a storm on the way back and it took us the entire day just to get to Block Island. I learned a lot on that trip - how much more I should have prepared, how much more I should have known. I was really scared. I was responsible for these people. I didn't know where I was. It was hairy. It made a great adventure. I still love that about being on a boat. " 
If it hadn't been for star-struck boaters, Billy Joel would still be living in Lloyd Neck. "I had a house I loved that was literally right on the water. Boats used to pass by and wave and it didn't bother me until Christie moved in and then we got saturated with boats that would sit just offshore and videotape us as we walked outside. We couldn't use the swimming pool. One morning I woke up and I looked out of my bedroom&nbsp;on the second floor and there was a cabin cruiser and a guy on the&nbsp;flying bridge with binoculars looking almost directly into my bed. I said to Christie, `We have to move. '" They moved to Amagansett in 1986 after their daughter was born.&nbsp; 
Over the years that followed, boat sizes grew along with record sales. The vessels along the way included a 33-foot cruiser named Sea Miner he used to fish offshore and a custom-built, 38-foot sport fishing boat named Sea Major. "Then I wanted a bigger boat. It's the disease. " The result was a 46-footer - "a real ego boat" with a tower and a flying bridge - he named Alexa Ray after his daughter. But his life got busier and he switched to smaller and simpler vessels like the Alexa that he could run by himself. Joel and Peter Needham, an owner of Coecles Harbor Marina on Shelter Island, patterned the Alexa on a swordfishing boat.&nbsp; 
Their latest collaboration will be called the Shelter Island 38 Runabout. "I wanted a boat that would go from point A to point B quick and I didn't want to have a Cigarette boat and make a lot of noise," says Joel, who selected Massachusetts marine architect Doug Zurn to do&nbsp;the final design. "It will cruise at 40 knots. " The hulls will be fabricated in Maine and the rest of the boat will be fitted out by Coecles Harbor Marina. The final price is expected to be between $200,000 and $300,000 when the first of the dozen or so boats they expect to build is ready next summer.&nbsp; 
Joel goes boating several days a week throughout the year when he's not touring or recording. He likes to shop and explore along the New England coast. "On Alexa I can cruise at 25 knots. I can reach Martha's Vineyard in a little more than two and one half hours. " 
He could be Long Island's boating ambassador. "If I don't get out, I consider it a bad week. I like to take people out just to cruise the area. Gardiners Bay, the Peconics and the North Fork are some of the most beautiful areas in America. You can see so much more from a boat than you can from land. " 
With Brinkley now living in New York, Joel gets to see his daughter at least every other weekend. "She loves the water," he says. Alexa spends a lot of time on her namesake. So does artist Carolyn Beegan, whom Joel has been dating for more than a year. "She's a fair-weather sailor," says Joel, who likes it when the weather gets rough. There's one thing he doesn't do so much anymore. "I don't go fishing as much as I used to since I got involved with the baymen," he says. "I don't want to compete with them for recreation. " 
Joel's involvement with the East End baymen has been widely publicized - especially after he was arrested with them three years ago at a protest over striped bass fishing regulations. He has donated almost $200,000 to their medical needs and legal battles. And he wrote "The Downeaster Alexa" about them. I was a bayman like my father was before Can't make a living as a bayman anymore There ain't much future for a man who works the sea But there ain't no island left for islanders like me "The farmers are pretty much gone already," Billy Joel says. "By the end of the century, the commercial fishermen will be pretty much gone. When they're gone, the economy will be pretty much completely tourist-based and then it's just another T-shirt area and the wintertime community will dry up. "I'm always looking for the Long Island of my childhood. There's only a little bit of it left out here on the East End. If that disappears, I really don't know that it is my Long Island anymore. Maybe it's a Long Island that I can't adapt to." * * * Standing by the small steering wheel, Joel idles the Alexa past a marina where a half dozen commercial fishing boats are tied up. "That's all that's left of the commercial fleet in East Hampton," he says. "It's a shame. " 
He leaves the Three Mile Harbor entrance jetty behind and accelerates across Gardiners Bay toward Shelter Island to get an update on his boat-building project. "I'm a believer in hometown boosterism," he says.&nbsp; 
Joel, who wears boat shoes but is sockless despite the cold, peers happily through the windshield. There's not another craft in sight. "That's what I like about this time of year. " The boat rolls slightly in the one-foot chop. "She can do 32 knots, which for a lobster boat is pretty damn fast. It's also very seaworthy. " 
The Alexa, which has the classic lines of a commercial lobsterboat, is sturdily outfitted and hardly overflows with gadgets. The only indications of its owner's fame are plaques presented in appreciation by the U.S. Navy for Joel's performances at bases in the Philippines and another from the East Hampton Town Baymen's Association. The Alexa looks nothing like the toy of a millionaire celebrity. It disappoints fans who expect him to be cruising on something as big as the QE2. "It always happens: I'll pull into Edgartown or some other harbor and people will say, `Where's your mega-yacht? ' " 
While the cabin cruiser may be unassuming, it's name is well-known - "The Downeaster Alexa" was released as a single in 1990. And Joel learned last summer that there is a downside to being a celebrity boater. "I keep the boat in Montauk. I made the mistake of putting the name of the boat on a number of items that I left in the cockpit - some life rings and other lifesaving equipment. I took the boat out one day with my daughter and I realized the equipment had been taken. That really made me angry. Anybody who knows anything about boats should know&nbsp;that you don't mess with somebody's lifesaving equipment. Now I move the&nbsp;boat around, I have to have people keep an eye on it more and lock&nbsp;things away. " 
He steers through the entrance inlet into Coecles Harbor on Shelter Island and swerves around the sandbars without the need of the navigation buoys that have been removed for the winter. "You've got to watch out for the sandbar. It sticks way out," Joel says. As he pulls into Coecles Harbor Marina, workers are removing moorings for the winter. "That reminds me of a song called `Famous Last&nbsp;Words' on the last album. There's a line `They're pulling all the moorings up and gathering at the American Legion. ' I use fall as a metaphor for middle age. "There's a tradition that the day after Labor Day when the summer people leave the locals will gather on the lawn of the American Legion Hall and wave goodbye somewhat facetiously. " 
Joel -- who says he was burned out after a two-year concert tour -- joined the crowd at the Legion Hall in Amagansett for the first time this fall. Then he went right back to the sea. And to writing music -- something he can't do when he's on the road.&nbsp; 
"I always find it replenishing to get out on the water," says William Martin Joel. &nbsp;

Celebrities

Billy Joel's romance with the sea

BJ boat cropped

[One of many Billy Joel stories in the Newsday archives, this article originally appeared in the Aug. 13, 2006 edition.] 
Unlike his dozen Madison Square Garden dates earlier this year, Billy Joel's appearance on stage Friday night wasn't sold-out. That's because there were no tickets sold for the evening of piano at Heckscher Park in Huntington, New York. The headline soloist? That was Richard Joo, a British-Korean virtuoso and composer playing "The Classical Music of Billy Joel." 
During the second half of the free concert, Joel unexpectedly strolled onto the Harry Chapin Rainbow Stage. He had hand-picked Joo to arrange and record his classical pieces for "Fantasies &amp; Delusions," an album that topped the Billboard charts for 18 weeks in 2001. Several of the pieces were performed by Joo during the show. 
Joel quickly tried to let the audience know that Joo, although impressing the crowd, deserved better than the baby grand piano in the center of the stage. 
"I'm known for my philanthropy," Joel told the crowd, ticking off a few small organizations, "and I'm going to buy them a new piano." Then he smiled about his gift for the Huntington Arts Council. "I guess I'm on the hook for this now." 
Diana Cherryholmes, executive director of the co-sponsoring arts council, was surprised by Joel's announcement. "I didn't know anything about it," she said. 
After introducing a medley of Joo's arrangements, Joel interspersed amusing commentary during a romantic song, explaining his thoughts while writing the music about love won and lost. 
Joel then thrilled the crowd of about 300 when he walked across the stage and sat on a stool behind a small electronic keyboard facing Joo, who has toured with Joel. 
"Here he is, the great composer Billy Joel, the "Piano Man" - he lets me play this baby grand while he just plays that little keyboard," Joo said. "I am humbled." 
After a classical duet, Joel's poignant rendition of "Baby Grand" was a big hit with the audience, which included Joel's mother, Rosalind, and John Lennon's son Sean. 
Joel and Joo had discreetly rehearsed and performed sound checks during the afternoon. "It was a well-guarded secret," said an arts council spokesman. 
In the 41 years that the arts council has been coordinating free summer entertainment, this is the first time Joel has performed at Heckscher, Cherryholmes said. "We didn't know until today that he would play here," she said. "We had been talking about it." 
And after the concert, so was everyone else.

Billy Joel Drops In On Town Concert

Billy Joel drops in on town concert

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 [One of many Billy Joel stories in the Newsday archives, this article originally appeared in the July 13, 2008 edition.]
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Billy Joel doesn't pause after hearing how tickets to his upcoming Shea Stadium shows - "The Last Play at Shea" - were being resold online for several thousand dollars apiece, with some being priced at nearly $100,000. 
"Yeah, I can tell you right now, I'm not worth that," he says, calling from his Sag Harbor home. "Maybe if The Beatles could somehow get back together or if Jimi Hendrix came back from the dead, I would pay $1,000. But if you pay that much for me, you're not going to be happy. I'm not worth more than the face value of the ticket. " 
There are, of course, many who would disagree with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, the Grammy winner whose name hangs in the rafters of Madison Square Garden commemorating his record-setting 12-show sold-out run there, the Tony Award winner whose greatest hits album is one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Coincidentally, many of those disagreeing may also have been shut out of Joel's shows at Shea Wednesday and Friday, because the 55,000 tickets for each historic concert sold out in record-setting time - in 48 minutes for the first show, then 46 for the second.&nbsp; 
 It's all about the music 
He could easily have charged twice or three times the $95 ticket price and still packed the place. But true to his Hicksville roots - the same sensibilities that have had him recently pairing his working-class anthems "Allentown" and "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" in concert - Joel insisted on keeping prices affordable and he has been working overtime to make the Shea Stadium shows special for everyone involved. "We don't have a lot of blowup balloons or floating pigs or laser lights going on," Joel says. "We're hoping to make music the basis of what the show is going to be. It's all about the music. I'm fairly static onstage. I'm locked into a piano. I can't be jumping around like Mick Jagger or Bono running all over the place. And even if I could, at my age, I can't run like I used to. Hopefully, the music will speak to that. " 
Joel wants the show to sound bigger than normal, so he has added a string section, a larger horn section and backing singers to his usual band. He has also lined up some special guests to help out, though he doesn't want to spoil the surprises just yet. (One rumor that he does shoot down is that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will perform together at the shows. At this point, both have other commitments, Joel says, adding, "That doesn't mean we won't be doing some Beatles songs, though. ") 
As his nod to The Beatles proves, Joel understands that the concerts will be part of Shea's storied musical history. "It's the end of an era at Shea," he says. "I'm going to do some songs I haven't done in a long time. " Joel says he has had the bulk of the set list mapped out for a while. "There are certain songs you have to do," he says. "'Piano Man' - you have to do. 'Scenes From an Italian Restaurant' - absolutely. 'My Life' - some of the bigger hits. ... Keeping in mind the New York theme and the era that Shea Stadium existed and the songs that would represent that, a nod to summer and baseball and the hometown crowd - you mix all of those in and you pretty much come up with the theme of the show. The backbone of the show will be some songs that are, I suppose, iconic in a way. And last minute, you never know. People tend to show up at gigs like this. We don't know who might show up, who will be there and want to play. We have to leave room for that as well. " 
Considering Joel has scored 33 Top 40 hits in his career, as well as dozens of album cuts that are often just as recognizable, some of his hits will get left out, though not for the reasons some people think. "I was hoping to get Frankie Valli to sing 'Uptown Girl,' but I couldn't get that to happen," Joel says. "Now, I don't even know if I'm going to do that song. I can't even hit the notes. When I first recorded the song, the reason I did it is because I figured this is the last time I'm going to be able to hit these notes. I think I was about 34 years old at the time. I said, 'OK, I'm going to kiss goodbye all these notes on this album,' not knowing that I was going to have to keep doing these songs for another 20-some odd years. For 'Uptown Girl,' I was at the extreme edge of my register. I was actually straining to hit the notes at the time. So now, it just destroys me for the rest of the show. People think that I don't do that song because of some kind of animosity toward my ex-wife. It has nothing to do with that. It's just a pain in the ass to sing. It's as simple as that. " 
 His game plan 
Joel says the process behind the Shea concerts has been completely different from the other two concerts in his New York stadium hat trick - a feat that no other artist will ever be able to lay claim to since both Shea and Yankee stadiums will come tumbling down this year. "I think the set list for Yankee Stadium we just looked at as just another gig," he says. "There were so many other things going on with that show. We were the only act they ever really let play there and then there was the whole parking situation. It was a lot more daunting logistically than Shea has been. " 
Bob Buchmann, WAXQ/ 104.3 FM's program director, says Joel's Yankee Stadium show in 1990 was a thrill because the team and its history is so ingrained in Joel's music. "The thing I remember most is he played all of his tunes that referenced the Yankees and the place just exploded," he says. "I think the excitement is greater this time ... because it benchmarks the last time music will ever be played in the Mets' home. The Mets obviously wanted to close in style, with a world-class superstar. Who better than a guy who happens to live 20 miles away? 'From The Beatles to Billy' has a great ring to it. " 
Joel is looking at the Shea shows in terms of his career differently as well. Last week, he saw the release of the 30th anniversary edition of his breakthrough album, "The Stranger," and this week, he gets another example of how far he has come in his career.&nbsp; 
"I did actually play at Shea Stadium in 1965 when it was brand new, so it's really an interesting dynamic here," Joel says, laughing. "We played at the World's Fair at the New York State Pavilion in 1965. We came in second. I was in a band called the Lost Souls - somebody's still got this trophy somewhere. It was one of those battle of the bands things and we were the Hicksville band. There was another band called The Pumpkins and they won. We were really crushed because we thought we were better than them. " 
Joel says he sees symbolism in being chosen to play the final concert at Shea.&nbsp; 
"The subtext there is that it's the end of an era," he says. "Shea Stadium has gone from new to needing to be torn down within my lifetime and the thought is also 'When are they gonna replace me? '" 
Joel says his daughter, Alexa Ray, recently asked him why he still works so hard. "I said, 'Because I can,'" he says. "This is what I started out wanting to do. People always ask about why I'm not writing and recording new pop songs. Well, for me, I didn't start out as a recording artist. It's not a lot of fun for me in the studio. Writing is certainly not a lot of fun. But playing in a band is a gas. " 
Joel says the Shea shows are part of his "final chapter. " ("What else is there to do?" he asks, laughing. "Fly over New York State, play in the airplane and charge everyone a dollar? ")&nbsp; 
But when he's asked if there are things he still wants to do, again, he doesn't pause before he rattles off a list. "There are plenty of things," he says. "I'd like to see Istanbul. And China. I'd like to catch a giant tuna and a swordfish. In terms of my career, though, I don't know what else I could do, but something will probably present itself. Who knows? " 
&nbsp; 
'THE LAST PLAY AT SHEA' LINE-UP 
Billy Joel plays Shea Stadium, 123-01 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Friday. The show is sold out, but if last-minute tickets become available, they will be sold through 507tixx.com or 718-507-8499.&nbsp; 
Q104.3 FM will be broadcasting updates live from the concert Wednesday. Following the concert, the station will broadcast a special highlighting the release of the 30th-anniversary edition of Joel's breakthrough album "The Stranger. " The show will include concert footage from Joel's 1977 Nassau Coliseum concert. &nbsp;

Baby Grand slam

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[One of many Billy Joel stories in the Newsday archives, this article originally appeared in the July 19, 2008 edition.] 
 The final concert at Shea Stadium nearly ended as the first show there began in 1965, with Paul McCartney singing "I Saw Her Standing There" and a deafening roar from a stunned, capacity crowd. 
 The final song also went to McCartney, with "Let It Be. " 
 The concert drew an all-star cast of guests together, for "The Last Play at Shea" for more than three sweltering hours Friday night, with Joel capping the evening by singing "Piano Man" backed by 63,000 fans. Joel ended the concert era at Shea Stadium with a nod to the past and a celebration of his present, as the uncertain future looms like the newly built walls of Citi Field behind his stage set. 
 "This stadium opened up to play baseball in the year 1964 and that was the first year I joined up in a band," he said. "They're gonna tear this house down but I want to thank you for letting me keep doing this job. It's the best job. " 
 And Joel did it well, shining brighter than usual with his expanded backing band and guests including The Who's Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks, Tony Bennett and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, who seemed to bring out the best of him. 
 Joel dug deep into his vocal reserve to match Brooks on "Shameless. " When Bennett came on stage for a stunning "New York State of Mind," Joel's entire demeanor changed, as both singers strived to hit grand notes with their own unique phrasing. 
 And in honor of Roger Daltrey doing "My Generation," he smashed a guitar. 
 Joel stretched to pull out a register-stretching version of his doo-wop tribute, "This Night," which he dedicated to Little Anthony and The Imperials. "This song had a lot of high notes and I am 59," he added. "That's the last time I'll do that one. ... I hope it was wonderful. " 
 These "Last Play at Shea" concerts were his parties, but Joel was careful to make Shea Stadium's history and his beloved New York as the guests of honor - in the way he tucked a bit of "Spanish Harlem" into "An Innocent Man" or the way he wore a badge from the jacket Ringo Starr wore when he played the first concert at Shea in 1965 or by inviting members of New York's Finest and Bravest, alongside the military to sing the chorus of "Goodnight Saigon. " 
 "Yes, we will all go down together," they sang to an enormous ovation. It's a powerful message, one that sits at the core of much of Joel's catalog and one that seems to bond him to his fans. 
 It's why the singalongs on "She's Always a Woman" or "Captain Jack" or "My Life" are as passionate as any in music. 
 And "Piano Man? " Fuggedaboutit. 
 "Billy Joel represents the common man," said Eric Roth, 46, who sat at a piano at his wedding in Massapequa 16 years ago and played the lesser-known Joel song, "You're My Home. " Friday night he and his wife, still devoted fans, were sitting on the field at Shea. 
 Staff writer Dave Marcus contributed to this story.

Joel closes on high note With late visit from Paul McCartney

Joel closes on high note with late visit from Paul McCartney

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