A lot of people I know saw Billy Joel play here at the stadium this past weekend and it reminded me of the time I saw him live at the Bijou Café, a small jazz club, in downtown Philly in 1973. He looked like the picture here. I was home on leave and my friend John insisted we go see this guy with a big hit on WMMR called Captain Jack. I had spent most of the last several years overseas and had never heard of Billy Joel but then again not many people outside Philly or Long Island probably had heard him. His album Piano Man had just been released and the title track single would not hit the charts until the spring of 1974. The Bijou was a very small venue and it was a good show with him introducing that new album. This weekend he didn’t play Captain Jack. Apparently these days he only plays that song in Philly when he performs for those fans that helped make him a star.
Also around that time in late 1973 some of my friends saw Billy Joel perform at the Shubert Theater on Broad Street opening up for the Doobie Brothers. Now, that being said... I was never a big fan of Billy Joel other than maybe that brief time in the early 1970's. There have been a few songs here and there in his catalog that I find alright but overall I never really cared for his stuff and a few of his hits I found awful. I only have one compilation album of his in my collection and I think I've probably only used maybe three of his songs on any of my mixes,
"It's still Billy Joel to me"
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