by Kevin Burton
Is it just that easy, like flipping a switch?
Guess we’ll find out Thursday, when Columbia Records drops the first new Billy Joel single in 17 years, a song called “Turn The Lights Back On.”
“In a press release from his label, Columbia Records, the song is said to contain the ‘hallmarks of his signature sound,’ with lyrics including the question: ‘Did I wait too long… to turn the lights back on?’” wrote Roisin O’Connor in The Independent.
“The track, which was produced by Freddy Wexler and written by him, Joel, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector, will also be accompanied by a lyric video shared to the Piano Man star’s official YouTube channel,” O’Conner wrote.
You can pre-order the song on Joel’s Facebook page.
I guess it’s fair to say Joel was a musical hero of mine back in the day, although when I got old enough to really hone in on his lyrics, I noticed he had some clunkers. But he’s still way up high on my list of favorite recording artists.
I will absolutely be checking out the new tune. The song is teased on his Facebook page. It appears to be a slow song.
So I got my wish for new Billy Joel music without even knowing it was a wish.
I already have my Billy Joel parenthesis, with My Life being the opener and Famous Last Words from his River of Dreams album, the closer. I won’t let the new song alter that equation.
That’s a lesson, not really learned but let’s say reinforced, when Paul McCartney and others released the final new Beatles record, Now And Then on Nov. 2. That song was welcomed with open ears but of course could never live up to the band’s earlier catalog.
I once saw a clip that I now can’t find, where Grace Slick from the Jefferson Airplane said older singers, millionaires on stage trying to sing the blues, look ridiculous, “including myself.” I found the quote paraphrased by a writer on iorr.org as “All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire.”
You paint yourself into a corner when you use the word “all” in a statement like that. Beyond that even, the statement isn’t true. The older artists don’t look stupid, at least to their fans.
I for one, am more interested in transporting myself back through time to when Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) and Big Shot were on the radio, to do much worrying about how Billy looks. To be cruel to the artist in that way is to be cruel t oneself. Nobody’s signing up for that. Time takes its toll on us all.
\ Something is different of course when you take Billy Joel from the 70s and compare it to Billy Joel in his 70s (he is now 74).
You wonder what he even has to say any more. In Shades of Grey, another song from River of Dreams, he sings “I’m old and tired of war.” You hear that and don’t expect any more angry-young-manish pronouncements from him.
Having aged along with the artists, I am much less interested now in the point of view of a musician, even a favorite musician.
I will be pleasantly surprised if “Turn The Lights Back On” the single comes to mean turn them on and leave them on because I have more to say. If so, I’ll be listening, curious at least.
The Columbia press release refers to the new song “ushering in the next chapter of his story,” so who knows?
But I’m not expecting that. I’m not expecting anything. I’m getting a musical letter from a long-lost friend. That’s good enough for me.
Page 7 