Billy Joel and Guests Make a Memorable Last Play at Shea

Shea Stadium, Queens, New York
Friday July 18

Billy Joel played two concerts at Shea Stadium last week to bid farewell to the Mets ballpark which, along with Yankee Stadium, will be torn down this year in favor of new, more modern, stadiums being built next to each. The Friday night show, which I attended, was spectacular. The setlist was fantastic; the sound was particularly impressive for a stadium show--enhanced by a whole string section, and the set lit up brightly, often with New York images. This concert was indeed a celebration--of New York, of baseball, and of Billy Joel's brilliant musical career.

The setlists of the two Shea shows varied slightly and very special guests took the stage for each; the only one in common for both shows was jazz legend Tony Bennett, who sang "New York State of Mind" with Joel. While it was rumored that a Beatle or two might appear, given that the Beatles were the first musical act to perform at Shea in 1965, nobody really believed it would happen. But then, during the encore, Paul McCartney took the stage!!! It was phenomenal. He and Joel's band performed "Saw Her Standing There." Then, after Joel closed his set with "Piano Man," McCartney reappeared to sing "Let it Be," solo at the piano, while Joel looked on, awestruck.

There were other guests throughout the night as well. The Who's Roger Daltrey popped on stage to sing "My Generation," appropriate for the nostalgia of the night. Aerosmith's Steven Tyler came on to belt out, "Walk this Way." The one sour note was Garth Brooks singing "Shameless," the Joel cover he made a hit a decade ago. Brooks smartly sported Mets gear and got nothing but love from the crowd, but he was off tempo, then off key, then, luckily, just off.

Even without the special guests, the three-hour show made every Billy fan ecstatic. He sang plenty of the hits and a few of the more obscure ones that obsessed fans such as myself swooned over. In the first hour-plus, all but one song came from his 70s collection. He included four songs from the coveted Turnstiles album, including the subject-appropriate "Miami 2017," the first song he performed after opening with the National Anthem. And, the surprise gem for me was "Summer, Highland Falls" also from that album, which he dedicated to all the manic depressives in the crowd, for the chorus chimes, "It's either sadness or euphoria." Toward the middle of the set, he showed off his piano prowess with "Root Beer Rag," a song off the very early Streetlife Serenade album and introduced it by saying, since it's instrumental, it'd be an opportune time to use the restroom. :-)

This show was intensely emotional for me, because Shea is closing, because it was in New York, where I was raised, because Billy Joel's music affects me so deeply, and because I sat at this show among good friends. One friend next to me said, "How can Billy top this? How can you ever go see him again after this?" Perhaps he won't top this, but I plan to catch his shows as long as he keeps performing.