Billy Joel is presenting an encore presentation of his concert film, Live At Shea Stadium, on Saturday night (June 6th) at 8 pm ET on his official Facebook page. The concert film, which was culled from Billy's venue closing gigs on July 16th, and 18th, 2008, includes guest appearances by Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Garth Brooks, Roger Daltrey, and John Mellencamp.
We asked Billy if he sees any similarity between ball players and musicians: “Absolutely. You can't swing for the stands every time. Once in a while, you gotta take a pitch. It's similar to writing. You can't have a great season every season. It's just not natural — it'd be unnatural. You'd burn out. Look, when you go into a slump, the best thing is not to swing for the stands, you try to connect with the ball and it happens with musicians as it happens with athletes. There's a lot of similarities. The height of a musician's career in age is about the height of an athlete's career — it's somewhere between the ages of 18 and 35 (that) are your peak years.”
Although born in the Bronx, Billy told us that like many New Yorkers, as a kid he actually followed the Brooklyn Dodgers: “I started out as a Brooklyn Dodger fan. And the Dodgers moved, I think it was '57 or '58, and really cheesed me off. So I didn't just switch teams, I switched leagues, and I jumped to the Yankees.”
The tracklisting to Billy Joel: Live At Shea Stadium – The Concert is: “Prelude/Angry Young Man,” “My Life,” “Summer, Highland Falls,” “Everybody Loves You Now,” “Zanzibar,” “New York State Of Mind” (with Tony Bennett), “Allentown,” “The Ballad Of Billy The Kid,” “She's Always A Woman,” “Goodnight Saigon,” “Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway),” “Shameless” (with Garth Brooks), “This Is The Time” (with John Mayer), “Keeping The Faith,” “Captain Jack,” “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel),” “The River Of Dreams/A Hard Day's Night,” “We Didn't Start The Fire,” “You May Be Right,” “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” “Only The Good Die Young,” “I Saw Her Standing There” (with Paul McCartney), “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” “Piano Man,” and “Let It Be” (with Paul McCartney).
The DVD features three bonus tracks: “My Generation” (Roger Daltrey), “Walk This Way” (with Steven Tyler), and “Pink Houses” (with John Mellencamp).