Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man

Billy Joel is a very humorous person. This did not come across in this book, but one can't expect everything. The book was very well researched and read very easily. It also did a very good job documenting the hard experience that was necessary for Joel to become the rock star that he is. (This is a signficant contrast to many rock stars that are created as an afterthought-- usually by some marketing executive.) It was worth every penny of the second hand purchase price-- and worth rereading every now and then.

This biography of Billy Joel is the best one I've ever seen of Billy. It's also the only one I've ever seen. Bordowitz has put together a decent, though not definitive, look at Billy Joel's career by splicing together interviews with ex-associates of BJ's, articles from other magazines, and a few of BJ's TV interviews. To say that the sources are thin would be an understatement. Bordowitz also makes a few glaring chronological errors that should've been edited out. He refers to 1981 as the end of the Reagan Years in the White House, when really it was just the beginning. He also refers to Axl Rose as an early 1980's contemporary of Billy's. For all of this book's faults it's still interesting. It is a quick read and will tide over fans of Billy Joel until the autobiography comes out. That'll probably happen when Billy is ready to get married a 4th time. Maybe in three years.

I find myself scratching my head at the reviews who say there is "nothing new" here. I've been a devout Billy Joel fanatic all my life, and there is a LOT of new info here. One thing that stands out is Billy's attempted suicide: Billy always kind of laughed the incident off, saying he "just went around farting furniture polish. I'd sit on the chair and polish the furniture." The Borowitz book reveals that (a) Billy was admitted to the hospital in a coma; (b) he did not admit himself into a mental health facility (as he long suggested) but was admitted by the authorities; (c) he did not get himself sprung (again, as Billy has suggested) but had to get his then-manager Irwin Mazur to pose as a psychologist(!) to get him out. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not to call into question the fans who say they already knew this stuff--but unless you're Billy's sister, you did NOT know all of this. And yes, band members, former managers, and family members were contacted for this book, and many of them--for a change--apparently talked. As of this writing, this is by far the most detailed Billy bio out there.