broadway i saw the empire state lay low ♪ ♪ life went on beyond the palisades they all bought cadillacs left there long ago ♪ ♪ to tell the world about the way the light went out to keep the memory alive ♪ >> it's all these human emotions. for some reason we can tap into that as musicians. >> when we came up with this idea of doing this series of in-depth interviews with really extraordinary people we started thinking about whom we should try to get and whom we should ask. and we thought about the usual political figures, obama, the dali lama. and i come back to the idea of interviewing the person i really wanted to interview, and that was billy joel. and the reason is i've been in love with his music ever since i was a teenager growing up in india. billy joel has been a rockstar for five decades. today he keeps up his nearly ten-yearlong residency at madison square garden playing the piano and belting out the lyrics that so many fans adore. he's sold more than 150 million records, but he hasn't recorded a new rock album in almost 30 years. i've wanted to understand all this. i've wanted to understand him and his talent. so here we are on our way to billy joel's house. i'm excited, a little nervous. we'll see how it goes. fingers crossed. i still remember hearing "glass houses," getting the album, the vinyl and that photograph of you with the rock, and you're about to throw it. ♪ ♪ friday night i crashed your party saturday i said i'm sorry ♪ >> it was electric. ♪ you may be wrong but you may be right, you may be wrong but you may be right ♪ >> so you write for whom? >> i write for me. i mean it may sound selfish. it may sound self-serving, but the only person i know who can judge what i'm doing correctly is me. i know when i've written something that's not that good, but i've also written some stuff which is really damn good. and when that happens i'm very, you know, ecstatic. i don't know how that happened, but thank you. almost if i stuck my head into this rarefied atmosphere and it came into me and went through my fingers. >> when you think about your songs, what's the one you are most proud of, that you feel like you're saying, you know, when you write sometimes you think this is damn good? >> i think a song like "and so it goes" is a song i'm very proud -- it's very short, very simple. there's not a lot of accompaniment. the chords are really evocative. you hear the dissonance? there's always a -- a little bit of a sour note in every chord. ♪ ♪ in every heart there is a room, a sanctuary safe and strong ♪ >> there's an unresolved -- >> like the tension a little -- >> yes, there's this tension through the whole thing. ♪ a ♪ and so it goes and so you will soon i suppose ♪ >> when i finished writing i said that's really good. >> a lot of times when you write you're moved by events. you know your music is kind of rich with history and culture, so you hear about new york going bankrupt. >> yes. >> and you hear about ford saying to new york city drop dead, that famous headline. and that motivates you to write "miami 2017," right? >> yes. i mean i'm part of the world also. aside from being a musician i'm affected by events. if you think about it right before the beatles hit which was on the ed sullivan show 1964 what happened right prior to that? the assassination of john f. kennedy. who was the young vigorous man who represented youth in the future and he was taken away from us. and the country had the blues and big time. everybody was depressed over the kennedy assassination, and it lasted for a long time. who took us out of that depression? the beatles. they represented youth, they represented the future, they represented vitality. >> you remember the first time you heard the beatles. was the first time the ed sullivan show? >> the first time i saw them was the ed sullivan show. i think it was i want to hold your hand was a big hit. and this was different. what is that? who is that? that's the beatles, and it changed my life. that's why i do what i do now because of what the beatles did. this was like a band from the neighborhood, kind of like me and my friends. they were working class guy, and they were hugely successful and made their own music. that's what i want to do. >> how old were you when you were -- >> in 1964 i was 14 years old. >> but at this point you have already had ten years of piano -- classical piano lessons because you started at 4. >> right. >> do you look at that as a body of work and training that allowed you to do the kind of music that you do now? >> now i would have to say, yes. at the time i didn't know to what end i was learning to play the piano. my father played the piano. he was a good pianist but he worked at a corporation doing another kind of work. my mother was musical, she sang, and i took piano lessons because my mom wanted me to take piano lessons. i lived on a house on a quarter acre and we had an upright lester piano, which is not a very good pipiano and i was taking lessons. to what end i didn't know. >> when you look at people have a genes and genes for musical talent. your daughter is now an accomplished performer. >> alexa, yes. >> or was it the hard work of all those -- those years of the piano and later with the bands? >> i think it's a combination of the two. i think there must be something genetic which is inherent to be musical. you don't just pick up a guitar and go banging and you're an instant star. there's a lot of work involved. but there's also the background. i grew up hearing all kinds of music. i was exposed to classical music at a young age, broadway shows, folk music. >> what was the first tune that you ever played? >> the first tune i ever played -- wait a minute, i'll show you this. my daughter has the same book. i'm plugging this shamelessly. the john thompson piano course, book 1. first grade book. john thompson, music for piano. the first piece i learned was called believe it or not "off we go to music land." >> do you remember it? >> yes. >> can you play it without looking at it? >> here it is. okay, and it goes like this. and it even has words. ♪ off we go to music land learn by eye and ear and hand ♪ >> so when you were taking piano lessons and your mom's in the next room and you're doing piano practice and you're meant to be doing a mozart sonota, what would you actually do? >> well, i would start to learn the piece so i got a feel for, you know, how it should go. say the mozart sonata in "c." ♪ and then the next part. ♪ but i wouldn't play that because that was a lot of notes there. so i went -- ♪ and i would just make it up as i'm going along. >> so that was -- you started with mozart but then you just went into billy joel? >> yeah, i just made up my own stuff. >> you were telling me you thought "uptown girl" has a mozart element to it. ♪ >> yeah, if you break it down to its basics it's -- ♪ then you add an alberti base. ♪ ♪ and when she's walking she's looking so fine and when she's talking she'll say that she's mine ♪ >> but it's from the classical period. and there's a couple of songs like that. "for the longest time." ♪ it's very classic. >> could you mimic beethoven? >> if i was going to mimic beethoven it would be -- ♪ >> there's always an edge of anxiety and unfulfillment and anger and passion. >> is that why you like him more than mozart? >> i think beethoven is one of the most human of composers because he wrote in fits and starts. mozart is like perfect. >> right. >> he's like an angel, like he came down from heaven and everything he writes is perfect, effortless. he just kind of glides along and plays exactly what should be played. beethoven, i had a copy of "the night symphony," the actual notation. and you see these huge pages scratched out, like he never wanted anybody to see the lousy stuff he wrote. and i'm looking at this and going, wow, he wrote in fits and starts just like human emotions. and there's a lot of that in his music, fits and starts and insecurity and confidence, anger and love and passion. it's all there. which is why i love beethoven more tn any other composer. pain hits fast. so get relief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. and now get relief without a pill with tylenol dissolve packs. relief without the water. so, you're 45. that's the perfect age to see some old friends, explore new worlds, and to start screening for colon cancer. yep. with colon cancer rising in adults under 50, the american cancer society recommends starting to screen earlier, at age 45. i'm cologuard, a noninvasive way to screen at home, on your schedule. and i find 92% of colon cancers. i'm for people 45+ at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. businesses have to find new ways to compete in order to thrive in an ever-changing market. the right relationship with a bank who understands your industry, as well as the local markets where you do business, can help lay a solid foundation for the future. pnc provides the resources of one of the nation's largest banks and local leaders with a focus on customized insights to help your business achieve its goals. that's how we make a difference. ♪ ♪ does it get better than never getting lost? ♪ does it get better than not parallel parking yourself? ♪ alexa ask smartfeed to feed the dog. does it get better than feeding your dog from 50 miles away? yes... it does. at buick we see a future that's even better. because the life enhancing innovations you've never even dreamed of? buick is dreaming of them every day. 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[laughter] ♪ ♪ this is the tempur-pedic® breeze° and its mission is to make sleep feel cool. so, no more night sweats... no more nocturnal baking... ...or polar ice cap air-conditioner mode. because the tempur-pedic breeze° delivers superior cooling... from cover to core. helping you sleep cool, all night long. don't miss our best offer of the year, with savings up to $700 on select* adjustable mattress sets, and experience the deep, undisturbed rest of tempur-pedic. learn more at *tempurpedic.com. people often say you're a great mimic, you've heard people say that like you can riff off -- do you like that? picasso said good artists copy great artists. >> yeah, there's probably something to that. it has to do with the ear. a lot of singers in pop music especially love the voice of ray charles. they want to sing like ray charles. rod stewart wants to sing like ray charles. robert from led zeppelin wanted to sing like ray charles. >> i always thought new york state of mind was your homage to ray charles. >> except i wrote it in such a high key i don't know if ray would be able to sing it. ♪ some folks like to get away ♪ >> it should be more -- >> did you wear glasses when you play? >> absolutely. but i thought of ray charles singing it in yankee stadium when i was writing the song, yes. >> and were you trying to do some kind of fusion i mean not just ray charles, but in general you have some influence and then you try to meld it into something you were doing? >> well, a lot of times i'm thinking of somebody else other than me singing what i'm writing because i don't like my own voice. i never did. i like to sound like somebody else and i'm thinking of somebody else when i'm writing. i want to conjure up somebody else. that allows me to go in any direction i want as a writer. it gives me a broad pallet. >> do you have a thought as to why your songs have lasted so long? >> they can be sung. almost all of the great music which is still viable today is mostly melodic music that can be sung or hummed or whistled. a lot of atonal music is almost impossible for people to remember or whistle to. so i think it's because it was melodic in the first place. >> when you write you always say the music comes first. >> yes. >> does that mean -- take us through that process. you get up in the morning and you start humming something and that stays with you? >> a lot of times i would have dreamt music i don't instantly remember when i wake up. but i do know what was that thing i dreamt last night and it was really good, it was almost symphonic, and i'll spend a good amount of the day trying to recall on the piano by playing it went like this, and it kind of went like that, trying to recall a dream. that's what happened with "just the way you are." i had dreamt it, i forgot it, and a few weeks went by and all of a sudden it reoccurred to me. and i was in the middle of a meeting with an attorney and accountant and i was like i've got to leave right now, i've got to write his song. and they went go, go write. and i was writing it and thinking i must have heard this before. did i steal this from somebody else, is this somebody else's melied. and i realize, yes, you idiot, you wrote it in your dream. you dreamt it and the dream reoccurred. and it's hard to do. i've tried to put a tape recorder next to my bed and hum into it and sing the melied, and it always sounds like -- i couldn't figure out what i was doing. so it doesn't work like that. 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"captain jack" after having done it for 30, 40 years, i've demoted him to private jack. it's two chords. ♪ and then it's just ♪ saturday night ♪ >> thank goodness there's a chord change. ♪ >> when you wrote "only the good die young" you thought of it as a reggae song. >> yes, i did. i heard it as -- ♪ my drummer, again, threw his sticks at me. >> how about the chorus of that? ♪ only the good die young, oh, yeah, only the good die young ♪ >> my drummer said the closest you've ever been to jamaica is the long island railroad when you stop at jamaica and change trains to go to manhattan. i said let's come up with a different kind of rhythm like instead of -- we did a shuffle. ♪ so i -- i credit the band for a lot of the arrangements. ♪ things that you might have done, well only the good die young ♪ >> sometimes your lyrics seem to me to be counteracting the melody. so, for example, the lyrics are soft and lyrical but the words are kind of cutting. >> it's an effective technique for writing a song. when they're opposites. she can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes. you don't think that's going to be like the words are -- it's like a nice folk song. ♪ she can lead you to love take you or leave you, she can ask for the truth but she'll never ♪ ♪ believe and she'll take what you give her as long as it's free ♪ ♪ yes she steals like a thief but she's always a woman to me ♪ >> and then you hear she's just a complete bitch, and then it just -- wait a minute, it's jarring. >> suddenly it gets harsh. >> yeah, but there are other songs where the -- the music actually complements what the lyric is. "summer highland falls" is kind of about panic depression. and it goes up and goes down, goes up and goes down, and this manic thing. ♪ there's a bipolar musical thing going on. and like -- and "so it goes," which is a sad song about knowing that heart break is going to come and you have that -- ♪ you hear those dissonant notes? than anybody else, apartments-dot-com can help you trade this love nest for... (woman) ...an actual nest. 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