Billy Joel: And So It Goes

If not for an email from MDK reader Barbara A., I would have slept on this one: HBO’s two-part documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes.

It was produced with the subject’s cooperation; Joel talks on camera a lot, looking back both ruefully and triumphantly, and he’s a great storyteller. But it nonetheless is candid about Joel’s life, personality, and foibles. It also illuminates his songwriting process and places his music in the context of the times and his contemporaries—many of whom also appear and have interesting things to say. At one point in the first episode, it’s mentioned that despite his huge stardom, Joel’s music was not loved by fans of punk and new wave music, which finally explained to me my own vague embarrassment at liking it so much.

If I’m making it sound studious and boring, it isn’t! There’s a lot about his personal life, which was daily fodder for the New York tabloids in the 1980s and beyond; you couldn’t not know about his messy exploits at the time. The telling is honest but not sensational. Yeah, he did that, and that and that, but it’s all humanized by the compassion that comes (hopefully) from living.

The big news for me was his first wife Elizabeth Weber’s huge role in his success, a fascinating tale that is told in great detail. Knowing this will completely change your understanding of the lyrics of Joel’s early hit songs—in one way or another, they were all about Elizabeth, things that really happened, feelings that were really felt.  And if you’re over here with me on Team Women Never Get Fair Credit, you’ll love this story.

Another surprise was to learn that Joel’s mostly estranged father was a German-Jewish refugee of World War II. What happened to his family is a complicated, painful story, that helps explain the complicated, painful youth of Billy Joel.  His musical flourishing is nothing short of miraculous against this background. As a kid, he didn’t even know what had happened to his German grandparents, uncles, and aunts, but he surely sensed it.

And So It Goes is five hours that’s well worth watching, if only to let the music wash over you, and realize again how good it is. I also recommend Linda Holmes’s review.