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New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Billy Joel: And So It Goes:' 5 Takeaways From the Film's Conclusion
The second part of the sprawling documentary 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes' ends before the musician's recent announcement that he has the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus. That is to say, if you're looking for an update on Joel's health, the film by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, which HBO aired on Friday night (and is streaming on HBO Max), does not provide one. But Joel, in a podcast interview with Bill Maher earlier this week, is seen playing the piano. 'It's not fixed,' he said of his condition, but it's 'being worked on,' and he assured fans: 'I feel good.' 'They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I'm feeling,' he added, likening the sensation to being on a boat with poor balance. While the first half of the film, which premiered in June at the Tribeca Festival, focused on the little-told story of how Joel's relationship with his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, shaped the early days of his career, the second covers more familiar territory. Starting with the production of 'The Nylon Curtain' in 1982, it chronicles his much discussed marriages to Christie Brinkley and Katie Lee Biegel, his well-documented struggles with alcohol, the betrayal of his manager Frank Weber, his decision to retire from the road and eventual return to live performance following the '12-12-12' benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy relief. And still, the nearly two-and-a-half-hour exploration of his life and career makes time to delve into his complicated relationship with his father, Howard, as well as his retreat from producing new pop music and the influence of classical compositions on his work. Here are five takeaways. The Holocaust looms large in Joel's family history. Joel's Jewish identity comes into play heavily during the second part of the documentary, specifically with regard to his fraught relationship with his father, Howard Joel. He describes how in his mid-20s he discovered that his paternal grandfather, Karl Joel, had a textile factory in Nuremberg. The family lived next to the park where the Nuremberg rallies were held and Joel speculates about the trauma his father must have endured watching those unfold as a young Jewish boy. Joel's grandfather was targeted by Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer and was forced to sell his business, though he was never paid. The Joels escaped Germany over the Swiss border and the factory was ultimately used to manufacture the striped uniforms for prisoners in concentration camps. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Geek Tyrant
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Trailer for HBO's BILLY JOEL: AND SO IT GOES - "A Raw, Candid Look at a Music Icon" — GeekTyrant
HBO Max has dropped the trailer for Billy Joel: And So It Goe s , a two-part documentary that promises a deeply personal and unfiltered look into the life of one of music's most enduring icons. Directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, the doc pulls from a treasure trove of never-before-seen footage unreleased performances, home videos, and behind-the-scenes clips that have remained under wraps until now. The film is 'crafted around in-depth, exclusive interviews with Billy Joel, illuminating all the key moments that forged his character and the events and muses that inspired his music for more than six decades. 'Exploring revelatory new territory and enriched by dynamic video & performance clips from his musical oeuvre, many never before seen, it's a window into his process and chronicles his monumental successes, while diving into the hidden complexities of his life. 'From his childhood on Long Island, shaped by the absence of his father, to his first bands, the women he loved, and colleagues & collaborators who both supported & betrayed him, Joel's decades of songwriting mirror his rich, complicated autobiography. 'Sharing origin stories about chart hits like 'Just the Way You Are,' an ode to his first love, and 'Uptown Girl,' famously about second wife Christie Brinkley, the film points to the close symbiosis between his life and art, revealing truth in the music that transformed his career, sculpted his legacy, and saved his life.' The film will explore the messiness behind the melodies and showing just how closely his life and lyrics intertwine. Directed by Lacy (who also helmed Spielberg and Jane Fonda in Five Acts ) and first-time director Levin, And So It Goes boasts a powerhouse producing team that includes Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Sean Hayes, and Todd Milliner. It's a heavy-hitting lineup for a documentary that seems determined to do justice to Joel's complexity. Part 1 premiered July 18th on HBO Max, with Part 2 following on July 25th.
Forbes
18-07-2025
- 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
17-07-2025
- 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
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- 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
