August 27, 2025

I promise - I’m going to get off of this topic - but one of the surprising details of the new Billy Joel documentary was how directly autobiographical most of his songs were.  I’ve always regarded his lyrics as mostly fictional, as a novelist might compose, or as I seem to.  But no…  “Big Shot” is actually him taking shots at his current wife; in fact, she’s the muse (I guess unsurprisingly) for so many of his earlier songs as well.  “Always a Woman”… I never really paid heavy attention to the words, but now they make much more sense.  The person he’s describing can be so difficult and demanding to everyone around her, but she’s “always a woman - to ME”…

Interesting…

Well, it got me thinking that perhaps many of my songs, even the early ones, were more autobiographical than either intended or I’d care to admit.  So here, I’ll do a blow-by-blow account of the 9 songs comprising my “first album”.  With the benefit of hindsight, maybe I’ll be able to surprise myself with an insight or two…

1)  “I Don’t Want to get Married” — Well, OK… it was 1986 and I’d recently split up with a long-time girlfriend, mainly due to that specific reason.  The chords, however, owe a lot to a Pete Townsend song I’d been listening to at the time.  (I like my song better…)

2)  “It Reminds Me of You” — Maybe pure novelization/poetry…  Perhaps with that same woman partly in mind…

3)  “The Park” — an actual poem I’d written in the UVM fiction course taken immediately before my move to Boston (taught by the future-superstar novelist Julia Alvarez!!).  No direct connection to my personal life whatsoever…

4)  “Billy” — Interesting… My last year in college my talented roommate had left lyrics by my Rhodes Piano encouraging some musical accompaniment.  They seemed so sad and introspective that I was moved to immediately compose the correlating music.  Later on he admitted his idea was for much more of a robust rock-and-roll sound.  (We both liked my version better.  And Ken Jaffe is named as co-writer of the track!)

5)  “She Wanted My Love” — OK, the same woman is responsible for the idea of someone seemingly only wanting something small and attainable, with the truth being she actually wantis everything you might imagine.  But the actual details listed here were likely completely made up.

6)  “I’m Gonna Go Back to School” — Hmmm… I guess that’s me, thinking exactly as I sometimes do, with the joke being that of course in real life I’m never even going to consider going back to school.  (I may have to see if I’m still able to remember these chords…)

7)  “Your Love” — OK, this one is simply me trying to write a song out of nowhere.  (And sometimes these end up being the ones most fun to play!)

8)  “Wake Up Time” - I was trying to be in a band when I moved to Boston and would occasionally write a bit of a rocker that I thought might work.  This one is an example.  We played it live - I think - once.  And the words still stand up, with perhaps a fleeting reference (in my head) to that same woman Kathy as well as that same guy Ken who wrote the words for “Billy”.  Otherwise, there’s no autobiography involved at all.

9)  “Goodbye, Philadelphia” — Well, the truth about this one is perhaps embarrassingly odd…  I was watching the last playoff game Dr. J (the great Julius Erving!) would ever play.  I believed the Sixers had enough talent to win another title - so many of the losses in prior years were so excruciatingly close.  Karma would be served if they were somehow able to treat him to a Championship in this, his final year.  But the game itself kept slipping away.  I found myself during the timeouts retreating to my piano to doodle over some sad chord changes.  And when they lost and the season was over, the words being sung turned into “Goodbye, Philadelphia”.  Of course, I then had to make up a story and flesh out the lyrics for what was turning into a nice song.  Thankfully I knew something about Broad Street being part of Philadelphia at the time…

So there you (or I) have it.  Not as much self-reflection as I now know comes from Mr. Joel.  But perhaps more than I’d have expected…

Well, I’ll make the entire Volume 1 available to hear in its entirety for any of you who may be interested.  Monthly newsletter recipients are aware of the first song being available - but those of you reading this blog now have access to a bit more.

And here’s a pic of that Tascam 4-track recorder.  Honestly, if it still worked I might never have gone on to GarageBand and Logic Pro!

Wish I still had the Rhodes Piano as well, honestly…

Which may well be my next song!!