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March 7, 2011

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The Piano Man will be bringing the news, good and bad, this summer.

[Edited 3/31/11 15:27pm]

Identity said:

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March 7, 2011

Link

The Piano Man will be bringing the news, good and bad, this summer.

HarperCollins announced details about Billy Joel's The Book of Joel, coming out June 14.

The memoir will take fans on an "emotional ride" from the writing of such favorites as "Just the Way You Are" and "New York State of Mind" to his broken marriage to Christie Brinkley and his struggles with depression and substance abuse.

Joel's editor at HarperCollins, David Hirshey, said in a statement that "there is a lot in this book that he has never revealed before."

HarperCollins also released the cover photograph, a moody close-up of Joel taken in the 1990s.

the 2cd/dvd is out tomorrow of his Shea Stadium closing concert. This book should be a good one, Billy had alot of issues early on, of course his well known suicide attempt, getting ripped off twice, being SONY's biggest artist for a long time, and also his retirement from POP music, one thing about Billy whether u dig him or not, he stuck to his word back in 1993 after River Of Dreams, about never doing another POP album, i dont think anyone yet has stuck to their "retirement" like he has.

yes i will be getting this....thought there was deluxe versions of the albums coming out this year as well ?

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I wonder if there's a chapter apologising for the autotune national anthem indecent?

he tried to commit suicide? i actually was not aware of that. wow...

^

He attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of shoe polish. I vividly remember reading that in an interview he gave Rolling Stone several years back.

He did a great, long interview with Howard Stern where he talked about a lot of his songs. He'll probably be on again and talk about the book, which I know look forward to. Interesting, though, since Howard and Joel are friends, Stern of course avoided the "car problems" Joel famously had a few years ago.

I hope the autobiography goes deeply into his songwriting techniques. The Nylon Curtain and The Stranger are held in high regard by fans and critics alike, and I would love it if he would enlighten readers as to how he conceived the material. Glass Houses is one of my gulity pleasures.

Lame as Billy can be at times, he is a smart and talented guy, and I imagine his book would be quite readable.

There's something McCartneyesque about several of his 80s mid-tempo ballads. "Through The Long Night" from Glass Houses is a perfect example with its layered harmonies and pensive lyric anchored by piano. Great stuff!

Identity said:

^

He attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of shoe polish. I vividly remember reading that in an interview he gave Rolling Stone several years back.

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yes in his early 20s when his career wasnt really going anywhere...he stupidly tried to kill himself with a bottle of polish ?....

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he said all that happened was that he had a bad bout of farting and polished all the furniture in his flat...

Billy perhaps, to me, had one of the greatest strings of top notch albums, from the Stranger all the way through Nylon Curtain, were top notch stuff, and you cant slight "An Innocent Man" because it was one of the biggest albums he had, plus, it was a "concept" album straight through. But things like The Stranger, Glass Houses, 52nd Street thats just pure perfection

I highly recommend renting the "Last Play at Shea" DVD if you are a New Yorker, Billy Joel fan or baseball fan. There's 3 stories going on at once. Alec Baldwin did some of the narration.

He talked about how he took his best friend's wife in the documentary (and they reconnected and been best friends ever since), so it's going to be a pretty candid book.

If you're interested about the songwriting process and all that, he posted some of his "Questions and Answers" on his website, plus if you find his appearance on "Inside the Actors Studio".

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Billy Joel Cancels Memoir

March 31

[Edited 3/31/11 15:27pm]

Identity said:

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Billy Joel Cancels Memoir

March 31

The Piano Man has pulled out of his plans to publish a memoir.

HarperCollins said on Thursday that Billy Joel’s memoir, The Book of Joel, had been written by Fred Schruers, edited and was ready to hit shelves in June when the singer backed out of his contract this week.

Joel is expected to return the portion of the advance that he has already received to HarperCollins, which acquired the book in 2008 for $3 million.

Joel told the Associated Press in a statement that writing the book made him realize that he was “not all that interested in talking about the past.”

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[Edited 3/31/11 15:27pm]

That's a waste of money.

I think it came down to:

-Keith Richards bio was more interesting.

-There wasn't much debauchery going on backstage at his shows. He just drank a lot.

-There was a lot of dirt dug up in "Last Play At Shea"

-He had little interest in writing this book about a year ago. First he was going to write it, then someone else was going to write it and he would talk over the phone with the writer. It's possible the book was finished and he just thought there wasn't much there he felt was worth reading about.