The Crane Pool Forum

Billy Joel is preparing to release his first new music in decades. Aside from "All My Life" (a Sinatra-pastiche from 2013) and "Christmas in Falluja" (2007; recorded by Cass Dillon), nothing new since 1993.

https://www.billyjoel.com/news/billy-jo ... ry-1-2024/

Just from the snippet it sounds like Let it Be

This is great news! I've missed new Billy music.

My son and his mom saw the MSG show last year, absolutely loved it

I just realize that there's a good chance "Turn the Lights Back On" might be a self-referential thing about Joel's famous tantrum in Moscow when he got pissed at either the Soviet powers that be or the American film crew (depending on accounts) for continually turning up the lights on his audience.

Gorbachev be like, WTF Billy?

Power pop's Matthew Sweet will require "extensive therapy [during] a long, difficult road to recovery” following a stroke suffered recently
in Toronto where he was on tour with the band Hanson.
Sweet, 60, has since been transferred to his home state of Nebraska for rehab and "round the clock therapy".

I just saw him locally on October 5th. Wishing him the best.

Oh wow!
I enjoyed the hell out of his GIRLFRIEND album back in the day, and also his more recent teaming with Susanna Hoffs where
they put out three albums of pop covers, roughly covering their '60s, '70s & '80s faves.

Sweet is an uninsured musician with likely a tough recovery ahead. A GoFundMe page has raised nearly $250K in 48 hours to help pay for his Canadian hospital bills, medically-aided transport back to the USA and first month of recovery.

Geez Matthew. Ever heard of Obamacare?

I interviewed him once. Modest guy and patient talking to a clueless stranger.

I wouldn't describe him as a dynamic live performer but he made lots of great sounding records.

He's opening for Hanson in Canada at 60, so Obamacare was prolly too expensive for him. Those plans usually don't cover much out-of-state anyway, much less out-of-country. He was probably hoping to coast for another 5 years without needing anything major.

Healthcare in America.

The idea that he was uninsured is just infuriating.

I'm mad that he didn't have enough bread for it, if that was the case.

I think it's been argued here before that the proximity of GIRLFRIEND to NEVERMIND did the former no favors, but there were several points where his career might have taken off in a more commercial direction but didn't.

He apparently had a lot of fans in Japan, that's usually a good revenue play. He did an album just for Japan release that was as excellent as any USA releases. I think sometimes he recorded stuff too compressed, and he had a tendency to put a few too many songs on his records, and like I said above he never blew me away as a live guy.

That's pretty gorgeous. Extra jangly compared his stateside releases. It's like NEW, IMPROVED MATTHEW SWEET! NOW WITH RICKENBACHERS!

I almost started putting these in the post-mortem juke box thread. Sorry Matthew, didn't mean to jump the gun.

Anyway, two selections from Sweet's partnership with Susanna Hoffs in which they bonded over their mutual tastes
in '60s (and later '70s and '80s) era singles. In all they released three 'Under the Covers' albums as 'Sid & Susie'

After fitty years of rocking and touring and touring and rocking, and generally not wanting to go home, Southside Johnny Lyon has announced his retirement to manage some ongoing health issues.

Pretty sudden too. He had a New Years Eve show on the books, among others.

He looked like he was slowing down when we saw him a few years ago.

In an answer/ask thread, you once asked if Southside Johnny was a notable artist in his own right or simply a coattail rider.

I don't know where I came down, but his act was really the best vehicle for Steve Van Zandt. As a writer, producer, arranger, and musician, Steve really found a great platform for his contributions to shine in SSJatAJ, whereas most of his role in Springsteen's act was an oddball sideman not big enough to escape BS's shadow and not given enough creative space to shine in such a big act with a controlling frontman, and he simply never found the voice or charisma to get over when he fronted his own show.

Anyhow, I've come to love "I Don't Wanna Go Home" a little more every year, and I'm guessing SSJ used it as his encore when you saw him.