NO STRANGER TO STARDOM
Billy Joel gives Fenway fans what they want
You want irony, you got it: Three songs into his show last night, Billy Joel broke out “The Entertainer” — one of the funnier, and crankier, rants about pop stardom. According to the lyric, you won’t be here in another year if you don’t stay on the charts.
Joel of course has been off the charts for a couple of decades — he hasn’t even written a single song in a good 25 years. And he’s not only still here, he’s packing Fenway Park for the fourth summer in a row. “I got nothin’ new, just the same old [stuff],” he told the crowd, before joking about the bands who make you listen to their whole new album.
The song was right on one count, though: Joel is indeed an entertainer, and last night he came to play some hits, have some fun, and keep things fairly spontaneous. The set was dotted with casual banter and surprise cover tunes, from AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” (sung by a roadie) to Dion’s “Teenager in Love” to Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World.” Most of these were tossed away after a verse or two, but there was a fully fleshed-out version of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” complete with the psychedelic interludes and a spot-on John Lennon impression. Later he stuck a faithful cover of the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” into his own “River of Dreams,” a suitably dreamlike shift of gears.
He also did a handful of “fielder’s choices,” letting the audience vote with applause on the next tune. “All for Leyna” (probably the best deep cut on 1980’s “Glass Houses”) and the jazzy “Zanzibar” both won their rounds and were two of the night’s high points. Surprisingly, one of the options was “Just the Way You Are” — one of the few big hits that Joel seldom plays live anymore — but the audience nixed it in favor of “Vienna.”
The rest of the hits were saved for the homestretch, with the encore offering five rockers in a row (with another surprise, a piece of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll” during “You May Be Right.”) His band of session pros kept things sounding fresh, and Joel at 68 still has his singing voice largely intact. Only the set-closing “Piano Man” called for high notes he couldn’t quite get, though he still nailed the Frankie Valli-style falsetto on “Uptown Girl.” But if Joel comes back again next year, he really needs to give songwriting another try. After last night’s show, we’re betting he’s still got it.