From our pal and boss Kevin Amorim:
The man at the piano was no stranger to the 63,000 people at Shea Stadium last night.
It was fitting that Billy Joel – our Billy from the block on Meeting Lane in Hicksville – got the call to play Shea's final concerts. He put on an amazing show at the home of the Amazins'.
"This is where New York meets Long Island," he said of the soon-to-be demolished stadium. "Yeah, Queens is the City, but geographically, it's Long Island."
A few numbers later, the kid from Long Island and the king of Queens traded verses. As Joel, dressed in black, finished the first verse of "New York State of Mind," he looked up, "Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Bennett." The roar of the audience almost did the work of the wrecking ball and brought the house down when Bennett crooned "I'm in New York state of mind."
If you haven't already guessed, Joel's set played to the hometown crowd – how could it not? These are the songs of our youth, no matter how old you are: "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Allentown," "Don't Ask Me Why."
He had some fun with "My Life," twinkling out a short rendition of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" at the beginning of what would become the theme for "Bosom Buddies." This show was not a drag, not even when John Mayer came out with his guitar to assist on "This is the Time."
The special guests kept coming out of the bullpen. Don Henley joined in for a version of "Boys of Summer" and later, John Mellencamp showed up for his hit "Pink Houses."
Toward the end of the regular set, Joel meshed "A Hard Day's Night" into "River of Dreams," a nod to the Beatles who first played Shea in 1965 and 1966. He revisited the Fab Four in his encore.
Although he was tethered to his piano -- except for "An Innocent Man" -- Billy was not idle. He was also busy introducing some of the homegrown talent on the stage in centerfield, including Baldwin's Carl Fischer on trumpet and flugelhorn and Tommy Byrnes a guitarist from Oceanside.
Didn't get tickets to these shows? You can still experience some of the magic in the just-announced feature-length docu-concert "Last Play at Shea," with footage from last night's and tomorrow's shows. It's scheduled for release next year, the first year without Shea.
SETLIST: The National Anthem / Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) / Yankee Doodle Dandy/My Life / The Entertainer / Zanzibar / Allentown / Ballad of Billy the Kid / New York State of Mind (w/Tony Bennett) / Big Man on Mulberry Street / Root Beer Rag / Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) / Goodnight Saigon / Don’t Ask Me Why / This Is the Time (w/John Mayer) / Keeping the Faith / The Downeaster ‘Alexa’ / Stand By Me/An Innocent Man / Boys of Summer (w/Don Henley) / She’s Always a Woman / Captain Jack / Lullaby / River of Dreams/A Hard Day’s Night / Pink Houses (w/John Mellencamp) / We Didn’t Start the Fire / It’s Still Rock ‘n’ Roll to Me / You May Be Right // ENCORES: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant / Only the Good Die Young / She Loves You / Take Me Out to the Ball Game / Piano Man
PHOTO: Billy Joel at Shea Stadium by Bruce Gilbert for Newsday
Comments (1)
FYI: He played one more song after Piano Man---Souvenir.