STORY:
"2000 Years: The Millennium Concert"
Billy Joel profiting off New Year�s Eve concert with big double CD-disc
As a concertmaster, the more Billy Joel lets the music just happen, the
better the show is. The piano man did just that during his New Year's
Eve "Millennium Concert," which was recorded live for this two-disc,
25-song collection.� The CD is now out in stores.
At what was arguably the most important performance of Joel's career,
he treated 20,000 Madison Square Garden fans (willing to brave the then-unknown
Y2K terrors) to a rollicking, finely paced show that even included covers
of Ludwig Van's Ninth Symphony; Op.125 Choral, the Rolling Stones' "Honky
Tonk Woman" and a boom chaga lagga-less version of Sly Stone's "Dance
to the Music."
The atmosphere captured here is party festive and living room comfortable,
as if Joel were having a few friends over to his house for beers, snacks
and to hear a few songs he'd written.
Though fans will have all of these songs here on albums (some more than
20 years old), this is still an anthology worth having. Songs Joel wrote
as a boy are given total justice here, and like fine wine are richer for
the aging.