Billy Joel: America's Piano Man (Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music Series on Rock, Pop, and Culture)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.26 (518 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B06XCYB86R |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 388 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-03-10 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Given its focus on music, Billy Joel: America's Piano Man is a welcomed addition to the books that have come before. (Library Journal)Joshua S. VERDICT A must-read analysis of the work of one our most popular performers. (Jeff Schock, director of the Billy Joel Archives) . Duchan has written a passionate study of the Piano Man's music and lyrics, decoding the artist's songwriting process in a smart analysis that investigates cultural context and the language of song. Duchan takes a middle-ground approach to analyzing the work of one of America’s most recognizable musicians of the past five decades. The writing style is fluid and the research solid, providing much insight into Joel. This book is much more than a biography. This approach works very well, especially at tracing the musician’s development over the course of his career and in providing context for some of his best-known and finest s
"More than just a biography" according to C. What a great book! Easy to read, full of really interesting information, I learned a lot about Billy Joel's songs. This book definitely goes beyond mere biography, but digs into the details of the music (without using technical language only music professors would understand) and what was going on in the world at the time the songs were written. The author even spoke with Billy directly, incorporating his words into the book for a fresh perspective on the songs. Billy must have liked it too, since on the back cover he calls this book "the most comprehensive and accurate ana
Duchan is a musicologist specializing in American popular music. Joshua S. He currently teaches courses on music history and ethnomusicology at Wayne State University, and he is author of Powerful Voices: The Musical and Social World of Collegiate A Cappella (2012).
Duchan draws on key songs from Joel’s career to explore each theme, from his folk-like lament for Long Island’s changing industry and lifestyle in “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’” to his emotional ode to Vietnam veterans in “Goodnight Saigon.”Original interviews with Billy Joel blend with Duchan’s engaging analysis to provide readers of all backgrounds and ages a new look at these unforgettable songs. Duchan looks at the career and music of this remarkable singer-songwriter, exploring the unique ways Joel channels and transforms the cultural life of a changing America over four decades into bestselling song after song and album after album.Billy Joel has not always enjoyed the acclaim of music critics, who have characterized his music as inauthentic and lacking a uniqueness of style. In Billy Joel: Amer