28 AMERICANWAY
JULY 1 2009
“Don’texpectmuch,”Joelcautionsmoments
before he takes the stage at San Antonio’s
AT&TCenter for sound check. “We usually
don’t doour own stuff
[
at sound check
]
.We
like tomesswith the sound guys.”He grins
throughhis thingraybeard.
Joel decides to alter tonight’s set list be-
cause of a scratchy throat — perhaps find
something a little easier to get through.He
tells his band maybe they should drop a
song. For amoment, he toys with the idea
of ditching “Scenes from an ItalianRestau-
rant,” one of the many standards from his
songbook. “How many Italian restaurants
they got in SanAntonio, anyway?” he asks.
The band, which consists of Yankee pros,
a Texas guitar slinger, and an Australian
bassist, laughs.
Butdropping thatpiecewouldbeuncon-
scionable, like Bruce Springsteen erasing
“Thunder Road” from a concert or Frank
Sinatraoptingout of “MyWay.” So they set-
tle instead on cutting “Don’t AskMeWhy”
from 1980’s
GlassHouses
anddecide toadd
thedeeper cut “TheBalladofBilly theKid,”
the last song on side one of 1973’s
Piano
Man
. It’s an Aaron Copland–soaked cow-
boy epic of a song that Joel wrote when he
wasall of24—beforehe’deverhada single
hit — in which the entertainer imagines
himself as the legendary outlaw. Joel sings
to an empty arena, giving it nearlyhis all to
the thousandsof empty seats.
“
Froma town
known as Oyster Bay, Long Island/Rode a
boywitha six-pack inhishand.”
The band kicks in with the attendant
bursts of celebratory horn flourishes and
rock-opera blasts, while Joel adds the trills
of aWildWest saloon solo. Then comes the
big finish: “And his daring life of crime/
Made him a legend in his time/East and
west of theRioGrande.”
It’s appropriate he chooses “The Ballad
of Billy the Kid” for many reasons on this
night, and chief among them is it allows
Joelanopportunity tooffer theSanAntonio
crowdhis spot-onJohnWayne imitationas
he recites amonologue from the 1960 film
TheAlamo
.After the soundcheck, Joel asks
Carl Fischer, his trumpet player, to get on-
line and learn, as quickly as he can, com-
poser Dimitri Tiomkin’s immortal main
theme from themovie. Joel figures the San
Antonio audience will get a kick out of it,
but it likewise amuses and satisfies him.
He’d love to one day score amovie himself
— only, well, no one’s ever asked. Besides,
he demurs, “I don’t really know how to or-
chestrate. I’mnot skilledat it. Ihaven’t had
any experience.”
Oncehe’s throughwith soundcheck, Joel
relaxes in his dressing roomwith his tour-
ing companion, Sabrina, a five-year-old
pug, snuggledupnext tohimandbreathing
loudly. Joel, who’s written asmany top hits
and pop gems as any of the most prolific
singer-songwriters who emerged during
the1970s, is talkingaboutwhyheno longer
writes the kind of music that will pack the
audience in tonight and every other night
remainingonhis andSirElton’s journey.
“I’m too interested in thecomposingpro-
cess now to go back and learn how to do
all that stuff I should have learned when I
was younger,” says Joel, whohadwanted to
write the music for the movie
The Perfect
Storm
but then the producers “got a re-
ally
good
guy” to do it. “I should’ve gone to
music school and should’ve graduatedhigh
school, but I didn’t. I went on to be a rock
star, and that’s what I’ve been doing for a
good, long time.”
Beinga rock star is actuallyhispart-time
jobnow. It’s been years since itwashis full-
time gig— since 1993, to be specific, when
Joel floatedup the
River ofDreams
andde-
cidednot to return. That album’s last song,
“Famous Last Words,” provided enough
clues to reveal that the entertainer was
throughwithbeing just another serenader:
“And these are the last words I have to say/
It’s alwayshard to saygoodbye/But now it’s
¬t’ss¬xo’clockonasaturday,
an hour till the
cro wd shuffles
in, and Bill y Joel, clad in khaki shor ts , a
plain gra y tee, and a t an Ball c ap, is exa ctl y as you’d expect
him t o Be after
all these years: sitting
in front
of a piano ,
quick with a Joke. t here are a Bout tw o hours
until Joel
and his t our ma te, s ir e l t on John , will stride
out onst a ge
— Joel t o the strains
of “yankee doodle
dand y,” s ir e l t on
t o “g o d s a v e t he que en” — a nd Ba ng o ut a n a s s o r t ment o f
adul t -contemporar
y pop f a v orites , something
they’ve
done
t ogether off
and on for
the p ast 15 years .
