Latest news with #SusanLacy
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Billy Joel ‘And So It Goes' Directors on 'Vienna,' Nas and the One Legendary Artist Who Turned Down an Interview for the Doc
'Music saved my life,' Billy Joel admits in HBO's And So It Goes. 'It gave me a reason to live.' That stark, emotional admission sets the tone for the powerful two-part documentary premiering July 18 and 25, offering an intimate portrait of the six-time Grammy Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. Directed by Emmy winners Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, the film traces Joel's journey from his childhood in Long Island through his slow and steady rise as a hitmaker — ultimately revealing the 'heart and soul' behind decades of iconic songs. More from The Hollywood Reporter Alan Bergman, Oscar-Winning Lyricist, Dies at 99 With His New Album, Alex Warren Isn't Broken Anymore KCON L.A. Returns - How to Secure the Best Ticket Deals (and Stream the Festival Online for Free) 'Our abiding principle was to let the music lead so that people could understand what made this artist tick, and what went into his music, and to get a peek behind his process but also an understanding of how his real-life experiences fed his music and his lyrics,' Levin tells The Hollywood Reporter. Joel has written 121 songs, and the film includes 110 of them, Levin says. 'One of the things that we are really proud of is that the entire film is scored,' Lacy says. 'Including much of his classical music.' And So It Goes explores the forces that shaped Joel's artistry: his deep roots in classical music, the trauma of his father's family and their flight from Nazi Germany and the often volatile dynamics behind the scenes. Rare archival footage, home movies and candid interviews paint a fuller, more complicated picture of the Piano Man — brilliant, driven, combative, sometimes conflicted and ultimately enduring. The women closest to Joel in his life like ex-wife and former manager Elizabeth Weber, his daughter Alexa Ray Joel and his current wife Alexis Roderick opened up about the family man behind the spotlight, while legends like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and Don Henley reflect on Joel's legacy as a songwriter. Ahead of Part One's Friday release, Lacy and Levin spoke with THR about getting Joel to open up, exploring his influence on contemporary music and reframing his catalog. Billy Joel is famously private. How did you get him to trust you with his life story? Lacy: He actually said to me, 'it's not my film, it's yours. The only thing I ask is tell the truth. Just tell the truth.' And he came to the table with that, and I did about 10 very long interviews with him, and he delivered. I don't know that he was actually really ready at the beginning to tell his story, but he came to realize that we were making a very deep film, a very serious film, the one that was really going to explore his music and how it connected with his life. We were interested in his craft and his process and where his inspirations came from, and where his musical training came from. And, it wasn't a fly-by-night, drive-by portrait, as many people do. He recognized that this was serious, it was also going to be long. So at one point, he said to me, 'You going deep?' And I said, 'Yeah, and you know you're going to go deep too.' You brought on a lot of stars, the biggest names in music. What was the outreach process like? Were they immediately on board, or did it take persuasion? Lacy: I think musicians love Billy, and they recognize his genius. The only person who turned us down was Elton John. You had Nas in there, and Pink and Garth Brooks. Nas sampled 'Stiletto' in a song. How important was it to have artists from different generations and genres? Levin: We are always interested in how an artist permeates culture on different levels and in different generations. We were doing some research and I just came across the fact that Billy's music had been sampled a lot — and I'm not surprised because he's written a lot of great hooks, he's written some incredible melodies that are very hummable. We had the idea to interview Nas because he sampled Billy, and we thought maybe he would talk about Billy's music being sampled in rap — which he did talk about but didn't quite make it into the film. Instead, we discovered a really eloquent talker about Billy Joel's music. You focused on some of the critics — like Dave Marsh — who were negative about . Then you cut from that review to a funny comment from Bruce Springsteen. Was that intentional? Lacy: We actually wanted to interview some of the critics of Billy, and most of them turned us down. I guess they just didn't want to go on record for the definitive piece. But also, I think that a lot of the critics came around. I think it was hard for critics to understand Billy because he wasn't typically rock and roll. I mean, as Bruce says, he didn't have that 'rock-and-roll-y stuff.' You also addressed his psychology — his search in Vienna, discovering his father and his family history dating back to the Holocaust. How did that feed into 'Vienna?' Lacy: It speaks to that underlying rage, the thought that 'I would've liked to have known my family, they were wiped out in the Holocaust.' Many of them were in Auschwitz. He didn't know most of that. He had complicated feelings about going to Vienna because it was a seat of Nazism, but it was also the home of the composers he loved, and it's a city surrounded by music. I think people will not hear that song the same way again after they see this film, when they see the connections to his history, to that city and his own connection to his father, or lack of connection to his father. In the film, Howard Stern says he thinks that the driving force in Billy's life was trying to connect with his father through music. I think Billy's story is way deeper psychologically than Billy wants to know. You structured the doc chronologically by album but slipped in emotional flashbacks. How did that work? Lacy: I didn't want to go completely linear. So that's why the childhood — the real childhood, the mother, the father, the abandonment, his mother's bipolar issue, all that — doesn't come in until he comes back to New York writing 'New York State of Mind.' I think once you start with the baby pictures, you kind of lose people. But by the time we got there, I think people would be interested in knowing that early childhood, and because it's so intrinsic to who Billy became. And the other thing that's really completely nonlinear was when he did The Nylon Curtain — when he began to write about things other than himself, about the steel mills closing and Vietnam vets. And even though it's traumatic, that's the moment where he walks out on stage wearing a yellow star. He never wanted to be particularly political, but that this was a bridge too far, and he had to begin to comment on it. And that takes us back to his ancestors' story. Have you talked to Billy since the revelation of his ? Lacy: I haven't spoken to him. He did write to me when he saw the film to express his feelings about it, which were very positive and very nice to thank me for 'connecting the dots of his life.' What do you want people to take away from watching? Levin: The takeaway for a fan is going to be a completely new lens on his catalog, and a revisiting of many of the songs and seeing them in a completely new way. The takeaway maybe for a non-fan is maybe to understand and appreciate who Billy is as a musician, even if you don't love his pop songs. That he's a really gifted musician who is influenced by so many different genres of music, and he followed his heart musically. They'll get a glimpse into why people connect with Billy so much, and why he's an enduring and important part of American musical history. Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Billy Joel Documentary Filmmakers on Exploring the Life and Music of the Piano Man
From the HBO documentary 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes.' There is a very touching moment near the end of Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a new two-part documentary about the famed musician that premieres on HBO this Friday. It shows Joel sitting behind his piano during his long-running 2014-2024 residency at New York's Madison Square Garden, about to perform his signature song 'Piano Man.' But just as he starts to hit the keys, the scene abruptly shifts to footage from 1973 of a 24-year-old Joel playing 'Piano Man' on his Columbia Records signing day. It's a fitting reverse bookend to an extraordinary life and career. 'I don't know what I would've been had I not been a musician,' Joel says in the film. 'I don't know where I would've been in this life if it had not been for the piano.' At a total of five hours, And So It Goes, directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, is truly the definitive documentary about Long Island's favorite son: from one of his earliest forays into music as a member of the mid-1960s group the Hassles; through his spectacular run as a hitmaker beginning in the late 1970s with such songs as 'Movin' Out,' 'Just the Way You Are,' 'My Life,' 'It's Still Rock and Roll to Me, 'Tell Her About It,' "We Didn't Start the Fire' and 'The River of Dreams'; to his present status as beloved pop culture icon who can still pack arenas. But the documentary, which previously screened at the Tribeca Film Festival last month, is not hagiography. It candidly addresses the challenging and difficult aspects of Joel's personal and professional life. Among them: his suicide attempt when he was a young man; his complicated relationship with his father, Howard; his near-fatal motorcycle accident in the early 1980s; and the breakup of his first three marriages, including his famous one to model Christie Brinkley. Billy Joel circa 1980. Through archival footage and, of course, his music, And So It Goes more than succeeds in addressing Joel's genius in tackling various musical genres and writing insightful yet relatable lyrics. In addition to Joel's participation, the documentary features interviews with his former and current bandmates and longtime associates; his ex-wives and current wife; and his family members, including his sister Judy and daughter Alexa. There's also commentary from such music luminaries as Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Sting, Pink and Nas. The arrival of the documentary is all the more poignant as Joel, 76, recently canceled his scheduled concert dates due to the health condition Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). In this interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, directors Lacy and Levin discuss the origins of the film, what they learned about Joel along the way, and what they wanted to convey to fans and viewers about the Piano Man. How did the film come about? Susan Lacy: Well, it's such a very long story. I had approached [working on a Billy Joel doc] a long time ago when I created this series called American Masters. That didn't go anywhere. Then, probably about five years ago, I started talking to his management. They weren't quite ready for that yet. They wanted to tie this to the end of the [Madison Square Garden] residency, and they didn't know when that was going to be. Then I got a call from Sony asking about it, and then that didn't go anywhere. And then I got a call from Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's company, Playtone, and they asked me if I wanted to make a film about Billy Joel. And I said, 'What's in the water here? It's destiny. I'm going to make a film about Billy Joel.' HBO got excited about it. They've worked with both me and Playtone for a long time. So it came together in the end very quickly. Billy, I think, was encouraged by his management to do this. They felt it was the right time, finally, for this film to happen. At the time, I don't think anybody knew that the residency was going to end. That happened midway along making this film. It was a long process because it's a long film. Was there one particular revelation or aspect of Joel that you didn't know about until you started working on this film? Billy Joel, circa 1962. Lacy: I did not know about his Jewish history and the Holocaust story. I really didn't know about the classical music element of it. And those two elements are something that we shared. My mother was a classical pianist. We shared a Holocaust story. Our fathers came [to America] in the same year from Germany as Jewish immigrants. Both became American soldiers and went back to Germany. So there was a lot of that. And the fact that he's so not like his public persona — all those things were big surprises to me. I think Jessica knew his catalog a lot better than I did. Jessica, what do you feel about what you discovered about Joel through this film? Jessica Levin: I learned a tremendous amount by working on this project, even as somebody who was really a deep catalog fan. When you're a fan of Billy Joel, you already feel like you know him because he's such a relatable guy and his lyrics are so universal. OAKLAND, UNITED STATES - APRIL 09: Billy Joel performing at the Oakland Coliseum on April 09 1990 ... More (Photo by Clayton Call/Redferns) You listen to the songs, and you're like, "This is for me," and you put on your headphones, and you get lost in it. In the process of making the film, I learned how deeply autobiographical the music was. And that really cast an entirely new light on the catalog and even the songs that I knew well — having the understanding of what Billy was going through at that time, very much ripped from the pages of his life. That's what's so remarkable about Billy. He can write a song about anything and turn it into this incredible universal piece of songwriting that connects with so many people. I would say one funny revelation is I really didn't know about the Attila years at all [Joel's hard rock band from 1969]. I just could not in my mind figure out how Billy went from loving Led Zeppelin to becoming who he was on [the 1977 breakthrough album] The Stranger. Billy Joel and Wife Elizabeth Weber (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) Part one of the documentary is particularly noteworthy for your interviews with Elizabeth Weber, Joel's first wife and former manager, who played a pivotal part in his career. It's not often discussed about until now. Lacy: It wasn't easy to get her to participate in this film, which is hard to believe because she's so good in the film. When she left Billy, she didn't mention his name for 40 years. Nobody even knew. I had to really convince her. She had been sort of maligned on social media a great deal. Nobody understood what she had done to make Billy Joel Billy Joel. It's really a feminist story in a lot of ways. We are two women who wanted to tell that story. So she was convinced to do it after many long conversations and dinners. And then we did four interviews. Levin: Billy trusted two women to tell his story. We are really proud of the way that we were able to unfold his inner emotional story side by side with the story of his artistic growth. I don't know what another two filmmakers would have done, but we knew that was important to us. He has a series of incredibly strong women who have been in his life: Elizabeth Weber, his mother and Christie Brinkley. Lacy: He has three daughters [Alexa, Della and Remy]. NEW YORK - APRIL 25: (L-R) Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray Joel and Billy Joel attend the premiere of ... More "Last Play At Shea" during the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival at the Tribeca Performing Arts Centre on April 25, 2010 in New York City. (Photo byfor Tribeca Film Festival) Los Angeles, CA - February 04: (L-R) Alexis Roderick, Della Rose Joel, Billy Joel, and Remy Anne ... More Joel arrive on the Red Carpet at the Arena in Los Angeles, CA, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Levin: And his current wife, Alexis, who's an absolute force of nature in and of herself. So I think it's really interesting that he said, "I'll trust you guys to tell." Obviously, it was based on a lot more than just the fact that we're women. I mean, Susan has an incredible track record, and we've been making films together for 25 years. So it's not like we're newbies. I do think it's interesting that he trusted women to tell his story. And we're really proud of that. We're also very proud of the fact that out of Billy's catalog of 121 songs, there are over 110 songs in this film. Lacy: It enabled us to basically score the film entirely with Billy's music, including the classical music and some instrumental variations based on melodies. To underscore what Jessica was saying about trusting women, he trusted a woman to manage him. He was accused of misogyny in some of his songs. And Elizabeth said, "I'm proof that that's not the case." I mean, nobody else was hiring women to manage rock bands at the time, and he trusted her to do that. Levin: And he poured out their entire story of their relationship in songs, from 'Just the Way You Are' and 'She's Got a Way' to 'Stiletto.' NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 25: Billy Joel performs onstage during the last show of his residency at ... More Madison Square Garden on July 25, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by) What did you want to tell viewers and fans who will be watching this documentary about Joel's life and career? Lacy: From the very beginning, this film has got to satisfy the fans. But it also has to satisfy and provide revelations and surprises to people who were like, "Why Billy Joel?" And as I began to explore his music and read about him, I realized that there was a very, very deep and complex and interesting person beneath the public persona of this funny, straightforward kind of guy — that there were deep wells of emotion and vulnerability inside that man. So the idea was to understand the origins of these songs, which is Billy's way of expressing himself and dealing with his own history. And because of the sort of everyman aspect that he gives the impression of, he's telling everybody's story in a certain way. That's why everybody relates to him. But there's so much more beneath the surface of Billy than what people think about Billy. That was really the aim. And also to really delve into his musicality — he's a musical savant. And to understand where these songs came from, what inspired him, how he composed them, how much he drew on the wells of many different musical genres from Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, the American songbook, jazz, the oldies, and classical music — all of which is imbued in his albums, which reflect the various changes in his own life and what he was experiencing. So it was a big, complex task. And it's a Shakespearean tale of love, loss and woe. Billy Joel: And So It Goes, directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, premieres on HBO, Friday, July 18, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘He told us to just tell the truth' – behind a revealing Billy Joel documentary
In 2011, singer-songwriter and pop legend Billy Joel returned a multimillion-dollar advance paid on a memoir to his would-be publisher, HarperCollins. He had apparently co-written an autobiographical book as planned, but ultimately decided that he didn't want to publish it. 'It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past,' he said at the time, 'and that the best expression of my life … has been and remains my music.' Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part feature documentary premiering this week on HBO, feels like an attempt to stay true to that same basic ethos while not shying away from Joel's public and private life over the years. The five-hour project tells Joel's story, but does so by prioritizing his music, in content and in form. 'He has 121 songs in his catalog and we used over 110,' said Jessica Levin, who directed the film with Susan Lacy, describing just how many Joel tunes wound up somewhere in the movie. It's tempting to study the credits and figure out the unlucky 10 that didn't make the cut, but in effect it's all here. There are also a few non-Joel compositions in the film, but the vast majority of the music is his, including some adaptations of his melodies into subtle underscore. 'It was a goal of ours to use it as score, not just throw it in,' said Levin. 'It's a testament to the depth and breadth of his catalog that we were able to do that.' More immediately noticeable, And So It Goes follows Joel's discography with more discipline than a lot of music docs, which tend to lose track of later-period records to focus on more personal ups and downs. This confers a sense of importance on his albums full of working-class story songs, accessible ballads and style-shifting pop. Maybe owing to Joel's mid-90s retirement from writing pop music, the film gives every album its due, while branching out from his career timeline to delve into more personal stories. Material about his heritage, for example, comes later in the film, rather at the beginning; the narrative more or less begins with him playing music as a young man. At the same time, Joel himself is a part of the movie, despite his previous reluctance to talk about his life. He sat with Lacy for 10 interviews, with nothing off limits. 'He said: 'Just tell the truth,'' said Lacy, who has plenty of experience profiling artists as the creator of the PBS series American Masters; her past HBO projects have gone deep on Steven Spielberg and Jane Fonda. There are still some subjects where it seems like Joel must have stayed, if not mum, perhaps reluctant or uninterested. Whether or not he has resolved his longstanding problems with alcohol, for example, isn't discussed directly, and a song he released just last year, co-written with a lesser-known songwriter, goes entirely unmentioned. (His more recent health problems came after the interviews.) But there is insight through a deep dive into Joel's catalog. 'Once you've seen this film, you'll never hear Vienna the same way again,' Lacy said of the song that's become a concert favorite, and that the movie reveals as really about Joel's mostly absent father. 'I knew, no matter how many times he said it wasn't about his father, it was about his father, and I finally got him to admit it in the last interview,' Lacy said. Levin added: 'That song is kind of a sleeper hit. It was not a hit when it came out on [Joel's commercial smash] The Stranger; it was just a catalog song. And over the years it became more and more resonant with people. That he's talented enough to write a song like that, that's actually about something else but has this incredible universal appeal, is really something to behold.' Managing to highlight deeper cuts such as Vienna and the title song (which, Lacy said, she didn't realize was Joel's favorite of his when she chose the title) is especially impressive given the sheer percentage of Joel's songs that have made the US top 40 chart. With 33 such entries, more than a quarter of his total output as a solo artist has been a hit single. That's contributed to his reputation in some corners as a classic panderer, rather than a more considered album artist. That's less prevalent in today's more poptimistic environment, but shifting historical perception about Joel's work was still a goal for And So It Goes. Lacy described the film-makers' intent as 'to make a film that would satisfy and appeal to the fans, but also the people who would say 'why Billy Joel?'' At the movie's best, Lacy and Levin seem like they're able to fit into both categories, even if they're not as skeptical as the latter. They both obviously love and respect Joel's music, but they're able to communicate the 'why' of his work through the observations of others. In fact, some of the doc's best observations come not from Joel but his ex-wife Elizabeth Weber, who also served as his manager early on. 'In the beginning, she didn't want to talk about the songs,' Lacy said, characterizing her as more focused on the business side that she was so involved in, and perhaps reluctant to say more after a long silence about all matters Joel. But eventually she did speak on the many songs seemingly written about her, whether the wedding staple Just the Way You Are or the spikier Stiletto (which she says, if anything, describes Joel more accurately). That song was also sampled by rapper Nas in his song Disciple, which is why he was originally contacted to join figures such as Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen. 'We started to pursue Nas because Billy's music has been sampled a lot in rap. But he started to speak about the other songs and how his father loved New York State of Mind, and we ended up getting rid of the rap [material],' Levin said, including Nas's more in-depth appreciation instead. 'He brought a poetry to it,' Lacy said. Though other observers and artists such as Pink (who knows Joel personally) discuss Joel's retirement from songwriting, as does Joel himself, it feels more like an event from the past than a present-day condition, even as hints of more songs or a new album fail to materialize. The documentary's ultimate ellipsis is the open question of whether he might write and record in a serious way again someday, and continue that increasingly respected discography. Lacy and Levin would love to hear more from him, too. But they understand why it remains an open question. 'That's a survival mechanism,' Levin said. 'He does live in the moment.' And So It Goes: Billy Joel premieres on HBO on 18 July with the second installment on 25 July
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
How to watch 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes' documentary online from anywhere — release date, TV channels
Currently smashing records with his residency at New York's Madison Square Garden, Billy Joel takes time out to collaborate with filmmakers on a life-spanning 2- part retrospective documentary "Billy Joel: And So It Goes". It's four hours in total but then, now on his fourth wife, he has packed a substantial amount into his 76 years... Here's how you can watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" online around the world and from anywhere with a VPN "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" Part One premieres on HBO on Friday, July 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT with Part Two a week later on Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. It will also be available to stream on Max. • U.S. — HBO/Max• CAN — HBO/Crave• AUS — HBO Max/Foxtel Now• Watch anywhere — try NordVPN risk-free And it's not all sanitized. There are plenty of warts in this "warts and all" documentary but that was always how a singer-songwriter famed for his honesty was going to have it. As the Emmy-winning filmmakers Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin have confirmed, "He just told us to tell the truth." That truth includes incredible success over decades with all-time classics such as "Piano Man", "Just The Way You Are" and "Always A Woman To Me" but also three divorces, a motorcycle accident that threatened to curtail his ability at the piano and the traumatising discovery of how the holocaust affected his family. So to find out how to catch the full story read on and discover how you can watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" online with all the streaming details you need below. "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" Part One premieres on HBO on Friday, July 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT with Part Two a week later on Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. It will also be available to stream on Max. If you don't have access to HBO, the best way to watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" online is via its Max platform. Max prices start at $9.99/month if you don't mind ads, going to $16.99/month for ad-free and $20.99/month if you want the option to watch content on up to four devices and in 4K. For even better value, you can pay for a whole year upfront and effectively get 12 months for the price of 10 on any of its tiers. HBO can also be added to OTT streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. Traveling outside the States? You'll need to use a VPN to unblock Max when abroad. We recommend NordVPN. Max is no. 1 on our best streaming services list for its vast, high-quality library, including all of HBO's prestige series like "Game of Thrones", "The Last of Us" and "Succession", plus recent offerings among the best Max shows such as "House of the Dragon", "True Detective: Night Country" and "The White Lotus". If you're traveling overseas and "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" isn't airing where you're currently located, that doesn't mean you have to miss the show while you're away from home. With the right VPN (virtual private network), you can stream the show from wherever you are. We've evaluated many options, and the best VPN you can get right now is NordVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. You can try it risk-free for 30 days if you take advantage of NordVPN's no-quibble money-back guarantee. NordVPN deal: FREE $50 / £50 Amazon gift card Boasting lightning fast speeds, great features, streaming power, and class-leading security, NordVPN is our #1 VPN. ✅ FREE Amazon gift card worth up to $50/£50✅ 4 months extra FREE!✅ 76% off usual price Use Nord to unblock Max and watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" with our exclusive deal. Using a VPN is incredibly simple. 1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, NordVPN is our favorite. 2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance, if you're visiting the U.K. and want to view a U.S. service, you'd select a U.S. server from the location list. 3. Sit back and enjoy the show. Head to your streaming service app — so Max, for example — and watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" online from wherever you are in the world. You can watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" in Canada on HBO and the Crave streaming service. Part One goes out on Friday, July 18 at 8 p.m. ET with Part Two a week later on Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m. ET. See our full episode guide at the bottom of this page for details. Crave subscriptions start at $9.99/month for its Basic plan (720p video, includes ads) all the way up to $22/month for Premium (ad-free, 4K, downloadable shows). Those on vacation away from Canada will need one of the best VPNs to log in back home to use Crave as it will be geo-blocked when not at home. We recommend NordVPN. Unfortunately there is no release date for "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" in the U.K. but that is almost certain to change very soon and the most likely destinations are Sky Atlantic and NOW TV. Not a Sky subscriber? Plans currently start from £31/month. Alternatively, Sky Atlantic content is also available to watch with a flexible Now Entertainment Membership. Prices usually start from £9.99/month, though a special offer is currently allowing new subscribers to sign up for £6.99/month. Those on vacation away from the U.K. will need a good streaming VPN to log in back home to use Sky Go or Now as they will be geo-blocked when not at home. Aussies can watch "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" on HBO Max in Australia with Part One released on Saturday, 19 July and Part Two a week later on Saturday 26 July. HBO Max in Australia costs $9.99/month (Basic with Ads Plan, prepaid annually) or is available with a Foxtel Now subscription. For Aussies abroad who want to use their usual domestic streaming service we recommend using NordVPN. Susan Lacy (Director and producer): 'For those who think they know Joel's story, as well as those who are not as familiar, I believe this two-part film is both a revelation and a surprise. I was drawn to his story as someone who knew little at the outset, and was astounded at how autobiographical his songs are and how complex his story is. We are gratified that Bill trusted us with his story, which we have told as honestly as possible, diving into territory which has not been explored before.' We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘He said ‘just tell the truth'': behind a revealing Billy Joel documentary
In 2011, singer-songwriter and pop legend Billy Joel returned a multimillion-dollar advance paid on a memoir to his would-be publisher, HarperCollins. He had apparently co-written an autobiographical book as planned, but ultimately decided that he didn't want to publish it. 'It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past,' he said at the time, 'and that the best expression of my life … has been and remains my music.' Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part feature documentary premiering this week on HBO, feels like an attempt to stay true to that same basic ethos while not shying away from Joel's public and private life over the years. The five-hour project tells Joel's story, but does so by prioritizing his music, in content and in form. 'He has 121 songs in his catalog and we used over 110,' said Jessica Levin, who directed the film with Susan Lacy, describing just how many Joel tunes wound up somewhere in the movie. It's tempting to study the credits and figure out the unlucky 10 that didn't make the cut, but in effect it's all here. There are also a few non-Joel compositions in the film, but the vast majority of the music is his, including some adaptations of his melodies into subtle underscore. 'It was a goal of ours to use it as score, not just throw it in,' said Levin. 'It's a testament to the depth and breadth of his catalog that we were able to do that.' More immediately noticeable, And So It Goes follows Joel's discography with more discipline than a lot of music docs, which tend to lose track of later-period records to focus on more personal ups and downs. This confers a sense of importance on his albums full of working-class story songs, accessible ballads and style-shifting pop. Maybe owing to Joel's mid-90s retirement from writing pop music, the film gives every album its due, while branching out from his career timeline to delve into more personal stories. Material about his heritage, for example, comes later in the film, rather at the beginning; the narrative more or less begins with him playing music as a young man. At the same time, Joel himself is a part of the movie, despite his previous reluctance to talk about his life. He sat with Lacy for 10 interviews, with nothing off limits. 'He said: 'Just tell the truth,'' said Lacy, who has plenty of experience profiling artists as the creator of the PBS series American Masters; her past HBO projects have gone deep on Steven Spielberg and Jane Fonda. There are still some subjects where it seems like Joel must have stayed, if not mum, perhaps reluctant or uninterested. Whether or not he has resolved his longstanding problems with alcohol, for example, isn't discussed directly, and a song he released just last year, co-written with a lesser-known songwriter, goes entirely unmentioned. (His more recent health problems came after the interviews.) But there is insight through a deep dive into Joel's catalog. 'Once you've seen this film, you'll never hear Vienna the same way again,' Lacy said of the song that's become a concert favorite, and that the movie reveals as really about Joel's mostly absent father. 'I knew, no matter how many times he said it wasn't about his father, it was about his father, and I finally got him to admit it in the last interview,' Lacy said. Levin added: 'That song is kind of a sleeper hit. It was not a hit when it came out on [Joel's commercial smash] The Stranger; it was just a catalog song. And over the years it became more and more resonant with people. That he's talented enough to write a song like that, that's actually about something else but has this incredible universal appeal, is really something to behold.' Managing to highlight deeper cuts such as Vienna and the title song (which, Lacy said, she didn't realize was Joel's favorite of his when she chose the title) is especially impressive given the sheer percentage of Joel's songs that have made the US top 40 chart. With 33 such entries, more than a quarter of his total output as a solo artist has been a hit single. That's contributed to his reputation in some corners as a classic panderer, rather than a more considered album artist. That's less prevalent in today's more poptimistic environment, but shifting historical perception about Joel's work was still a goal for And So It Goes. Lacy described the film-makers' intent as 'to make a film that would satisfy and appeal to the fans, but also the people who would say 'why Billy Joel?'' At the movie's best, Lacy and Levin seem like they're able to fit into both categories, even if they're not as skeptical as the latter. They both obviously love and respect Joel's music, but they're able to communicate the 'why' of his work through the observations of others. In fact, some of the doc's best observations come not from Joel but his ex-wife Elizabeth Weber, who also served as his manager early on. 'In the beginning, she didn't want to talk about the songs,' Lacy said, characterizing her as more focused on the business side that she was so involved in, and perhaps reluctant to say more after a long silence about all matters Joel. But eventually she did speak on the many songs seemingly written about her, whether the wedding staple Just the Way You Are or the spikier Stiletto (which she says, if anything, describes Joel more accurately). That song was also sampled by rapper Nas in his song Disciple, which is why he was originally contacted to join figures such as Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen. 'We started to pursue Nas because Billy's music has been sampled a lot in rap. But he started to speak about the other songs and how his father loved New York State of Mind, and we ended up getting rid of the rap [material],' Levin said, including Nas's more in-depth appreciation instead. 'He brought a poetry to it,' Lacy said. Though other observers and artists such as Pink (who knows Joel personally) discuss Joel's retirement from songwriting, as does Joel himself, it feels more like an event from the past than a present-day condition, even as hints of more songs or a new album fail to materialize. The documentary's ultimate ellipsis is the open question of whether he might write and record in a serious way again someday, and continue that increasingly respected discography. Lacy and Levin would love to hear more from him, too. But they understand why it remains an open question. 'That's a survival mechanism,' Levin said. 'He does live in the moment.' And So It Goes: Billy Joel premieres on HBO on 18 July with the second installment on 25 July
