Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993 TAG: 9404090002
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One such moment is an explanation of his new song ``Lullabye,'' written after Joel's 7-year-old daughter Alexa asked him about death. He told her: ``Whatever you've done in your life, whatever impact you've had on other people stays with them and impacts the world, and that's how, in a way, you stay alive.''
Recently, Joel elaborated. ``Music is very powerful stuff. It transcends mortality. In a way, Beethoven is as alive as he ever was. Music has the power to do that. Art has the power to do that. Great works have that power, to outlast the lifetime. I wanted my daughter to understand that concept later on. I wanted her to understand that as long as we're in each others' hearts, we continue to live.''
The lyrics read in part:
Someday your child may cry,
and if you sing this lullabye
Then in your heart there
will always be a part of me.
Someday we'll all be gone,
but lullabyes go on and on,
They never die.
That's how you and I will be.
``Lullabye'' is a song Joel would never have written when he was younger, a man who became enraged by critics' remarks and was so depressed that he at least once considered suicide.
``When I look back, I realized that most of the reviews I got were positive,'' he said. ``But because I thought someone had written something that was unfair or untrue, I would pay a lot of attention to a negative review. Now I realize that if I like something I write, then it's passed my critical test, and whatever anyone else thinks about it, they're entitled to.''
Today, Joel agreed, he is a happier person, having weathered a split from his longtime manager that left him ``looking into the abyss'' financially and creatively.
The last week of September 1989, Joel was on his way to catch the Concorde at Kennedy Airport to embark for London and his ``Storm Front'' tour when he was rushed to New York Hospital for surgery to remove kidney stones.
The next day Joel's attorney filed a $90 million lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against Frank Weber, charging he had squandered or illegally diverted $30 million of Joel's money. Weber was also Joel's former brother-in-law, godfather to his daughter.
``Life had gotten kind of nasty,'' recalled Joel. ``People I had put a great deal of trust in betrayed me. I found out that there are some people who are beyond redemption. There are some people who are broken, who can't be fixed. I had always written with a boundless optimism. I believed in the nobility of man. I lost that. I was depressed, I was down. I was looking at the financial abyss at the time, and I was someone who should have had a lot socked away.''
The experience had its effect on his creativity. ``I put off writing. I wasn't sure if I could write, write the things I want to write. I was afraid that people would not want to hear Billy Joel singing the blues. But my wife (model Christie Brinkley) encouraged me to write what I felt.''
``River of Dreams'' reflects a more upbeat Joel. ``I keep referring to faith on this album. I mention faith in a lot of different songs. I believe now that what this album is about is a person who has a crisis of faith and goes on this search for justice, and realizes there is no justice, there is only faith. What this character finds is that what matters is family, the love of a good mate, friendship, music, the skills that he has, the things he always believed in in the early days.''
The influences of Joel's wife and daughter turn up on this album as well, not only in ``Lullabye'' but also in the unusual ``Blonde Over Blue,'' with a soaring chorus that Joel calls ``the Roy Orbison part.'' ``It's a very strange song,'' Joel said. ``I don't know how I came up with that one. It's sort of schizophrenic.'' Brinkley also painted the album-cover illustration, a dreamscape reminiscent of the work of artist Frida Kahlo.
At 44 (``a nice age to be''), Joel is also pleased to find his concerts filled with ``teen-agers, people in their 20s - obviously we brought some new people in along the way.''
In writing, though, ``I don't even think about an audience. I write for me. And I don't do singles. I make an album and I hand it in to the recording company, and they choose the singles. I worked just as hard on every piece, whether it was a single or not. Sometimes I have more affection for the more obscure pieces, like the children that were neglected.''
Joel has six Grammys and 16 BMI Awards and was inducted last year into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
by CNB