Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man

By Hank Bordowitz

Book Overview

Supremely successful; volatile, creative; a craftsman, a genius; self-aware and self-destructive, singer-songwriter Billy Joel's life reads like a popular novel. This book takes an in-depth look at "the piano man," starting with his middle-class Long Island, NY childhood, and his years as a gang member and a working musician. With his breakthrough 1973 album Piano Man, Joel's story becomes one of unstoppable success. Bordowitz covers those heady days, as well as the turbulent business dealings and bad advice that have colored his career. The book explores his big moments - including his inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his shift from popular to classical composition, his move to Broadway, and it also examines his personal struggles with broken marriage and substance abuse. Based on numerous interviews, this biography gives a detailed picture of this deeply troubled man and his music. Includes 24 pages of black-and-white photos.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823082504
• ISBN13: 9780823082506
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Billboard Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

This didn't read like a tabloid

Billy Joel is a very humorous person. This did not come across in this book, but one can't expect everything. The book was very well researched and read very easily. It also did a very good job documenting the hard experience that was necessary for Joel to become the rock star that he is. (This is a signficant contrast to many rock stars that are created as an afterthought-- usually by some marketing executive.) It was worth every penny of the second hand purchase price-- and worth rereading every now and then.

Until the Real Thing Comes Along...This'll Have to Do

This biography of Billy Joel is the best one I've ever seen of Billy. It's also the only one I've ever seen. Bordowitz has put together a decent, though not definitive, look at Billy Joel's career by splicing together interviews with ex-associates of BJ's, articles from other magazines, and a few of BJ's TV interviews. To say that the sources are thin would be an understatement. Bordowitz also makes a few glaring chronological errors that should've been edited out. He refers to 1981 as the end of the Reagan Years in the White House, when really it was just the beginning. He also refers to Axl Rose as an early 1980's contemporary of Billy's. For all of this book's faults it's still interesting. It is a quick read and will tide over fans of Billy Joel until the autobiography comes out. That'll probably happen when Billy is ready to get married a 4th time. Maybe in three years.

There Is NOT a Better Billy Book

I find myself scratching my head at the reviews who say there is "nothing new" here. I've been a devout Billy Joel fanatic all my life, and there is a LOT of new info here. One thing that stands out is Billy's attempted suicide: Billy always kind of laughed the incident off, saying he "just went around farting furniture polish. I'd sit on the chair and polish the furniture." The Borowitz book reveals that (a) Billy was admitted to the hospital in a coma; (b) he did not admit himself into a mental health facility (as he long suggested) but was admitted by the authorities; (c) he did not get himself sprung (again, as Billy has suggested) but had to get his then-manager Irwin Mazur to pose as a psychologist(!) to get him out. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not to call into question the fans who say they already knew this stuff--but unless you're Billy's sister, you did NOT know all of this. And yes, band members, former managers, and family members were contacted for this book, and many of them--for a change--apparently talked. As of this writing, this is by far the most detailed Billy bio out there.