THE STORY – An expansive portrait of the life and music of Billy Joel, exploring the love, loss, and personal struggles that fuel his songwriting. With unprecedented access to never-before-seen performances, home movies, personal photographs, and extensive, in-depth one-on-one interviews, the documentary intimately explores the life and work of Joel, whose music has endured across generations.
THE CAST – Billy Joel, Elizabeth Weber, Jon Small, Liberty DeVitto, Doug Stegmeyer, Russell Javors & Richie Cannata
THE TEAM – Susan Lacy & Jessica Levins (Directors/Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 147 Minutes (Part One)
Not everything needs to be a song – a show, a novel, or a movie – but Billy Joel has always made the case that, at the very least, everything could be put to a tune. “Everything I’ve lived done, everything I’ve lived through has made it into my music,” the rock icon says a few minutes into Susan Lacy and Jessica Levins’ “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” a self-described “expansive portrait” of the dizzy, crooning life of Long Island’s finest. (Did you know Billy Joel was from Long Island?) His first wife, Elizabeth Weber, the ex-wife of his former bandmate Jon Small, inspired a bevy of tracks, from “Just the Way You Are” and “She’s Always a Woman” to the crueler, more pointed “Stiletto.” A drunken motorcycle ride on a rainy night led to an argument with the same wife, and to the point where the bike practically wrote the lyrics to “You May Be Right (I May Be Crazy)” itself. The early days of his adolescence and career spent in and around the Big Apple infused the melodies of “Piano Man” and “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” as well as more than one of his albums in full, like “52nd Street” and “Turnstiles,” to name two. Frustrations with his record label became the impetus for “The Entertainer”; despising his California-influenced sound allowed the aforementioned “Turnstiles” tracks “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “Summer Highland Falls” to feel more aligned with “Piano Man.” On “Hollywood,” Joel tickles the ivories to bits and sings about moving on. “So many faces in and out of my life,” he bellows. “Some will last, some will just be now and then. Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again.”
The recent concern regarding Joel has been that an official goodbye in some form might come sooner rather than later. On May 23rd, the singer announced that he would be canceling all upcoming concerts due to a brain disorder diagnosis. As a statement posted on Joel’s Instagram account describes, the condition has “been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance.” And for anyone who knows Joel’s music and performance style, you’ll know that all three are intimately involved in his on-stage persona. He shimmies and leaps; he slams the piano with a verve that often invites comparisons to Elton John (though their styles could not be more different, a fact Joel makes evident in the documentary); even in his advanced age (he celebrated his 76th birthday last month), he’s maintained a unique blend of aggression and temerity with his instrument, one that he refuses to give up. But despite the news of his health concerning fans, he has recently assured both in the film and to friends that he’s anything but finished. Yeah, you can tell people I’m not dying,” he told Howard Stern, per the host’s June 3rd radio show. Ahead of “And So It Goes'” world premiere on Wednesday, June 4th, both Lacy and Levin asserted the same: Not only that his story is far from over, but that while getting old sucks, it’s preferable to being cremated.
And so it indeed goes for Joel, whose sweeping, refreshingly honest – if occasionally over-indulgent – life story and similarly storied career is detailed in full in Lacy and Levins’ documentary, which will air in two parts on HBO and HBO Max (yes, that’s what we’re calling it again) this summer. The 147-minute first installment opened this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and though the news that they wouldn’t be seeing the “film” in full left a gasp-heavy crowd briefly exasperated – something about not being able to hold the theater for more than two-and-a-half hours – it’s ultimately for the best that Joel’s tale is segmented into halves, as there’s perhaps much more meat on the bone than even diehards might have realized. Part one of “And So It Goes” jogs through Joel’s earliest escapades and stargazing efforts from the 1960s to the release of his 1980 album “Glass Houses,” specifically lending its focus to Joel’s relationships with Small and (especially) Weber, who would eventually become his manager; his devotion to longtime collaborators Liberty DeVitto, Doug Stegmeyer, Russell Javors, and Richie Cannata; the conflicts he endured with Columbia Records, Artie Ripp’s Family Productions, and the like; and his behavioral tendencies, from heavy drinking and eventual drug use to his ability to write a song in less than 60 minutes.
It’s a lot to get through in an episode that ultimately amounts to the length of a major Hollywood blockbuster, but if it’s any consolation, Joel seems to need it. Much like his musical career, the film is so dedicated to its comprehensiveness that it works to the detriment of everything else in one’s daily life, like reasonably-timed bathroom breaks and a good night’s sleep. (In other words, the documentary seems to have been greenlit with HBO’s pause feature in mind.) It’s no wonder Lacy and Levin allow Joel and his cohorts more than enough room to recall the past to the point where every iota of these 20 years is analyzed and recounted to an exhaustive tee. Then again, no one can blame the filmmakers for giving the man behind “The Longest Time” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” free to wax poetically about his accomplishments, nor for allowing his friends, ex-lovers, and a few famous fans the screentime to fill in any gaps that may have been drowned out by decades of playing to sold-out crowds. The premiere’s Beacon Theatre audience certainly didn’t seem to mind “And So It Goes'” length, if only because it offered them ample opportunity to laugh, cheer, and sing along to ditties that hit especially close to home. (“New York State of Mind,” anyone?)
Such elements will undoubtedly make for a less-disruptive at-home viewing experience – theater etiquette is so cooked nowadays that, and I kid you not, one fan pulled out a full-on camcorder to film the documentaries “Piano Man” sequence; they were not reprimanded – as well as perhaps one too many meal preparation appointments soundtracked to “The Stanger’s” many bangers. But those searching for a cinematic memoir shan’t meet disappointment with “And So It Goes,” not least thanks to Joel being far from the film’s most dominant interviewee. He’s featured most prominently, of course. Still, DeVitto, Cannata, and others all receive their fair due, with Joel not only mentioning how he refused to use Elton John’s band at the behest of the then-Beatles producer George Martin in favor of his own but those bandmates being able to recall what that meant to them.
More than that, what Joel means to them, no matter the status of their relationship today nor how difficult it might have been to watch his antics back in the day. Weber, the film’s de facto second subject, discusses the impossible task of managing her ex-husband during his wildest times, namely how Joel’s alcoholism came to light in the 70s, the star’s suicidal ideations in the 60s nearly ending his life and career after incessant bouts with insomnia and self-doubt, and yes, dealing with record labels who didn’t believe a single existed on the entirety of “The Stranger.” She fought for “Just the Way You Are” while they preferred “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song).” Eventually, both were released as solo tracks ahead of the album launch, along with “She’s Always a Woman” and “Only the Good Die Young.”
Structurally, the film uses Joel’s discography as a framework for its timeline, a fitting tactic given just how many winners he has released over the last 60-ish years, and its occasional non-linear path affords “And So It Goes” a necessary natural growth that isn’t nearly as reliant on straightforward narrative storytelling as it is (regrettably) on a Powerpoint-esque format heavy on still photographs to set the place and time. It’s easy enough to let that slide, though, when a film as fundamentally basic as this has is still willing to shine a light on how “The Entertainer” – “If you wanna make a hit, you gotta make it fit, so I cut [Piano Man] down to 3:05” – clapped back at record labels’ restrictions and “Only the Good Die Young” was banned by the Archdiocese of St. Louis for its description of Catholic school uniforms.
Billy Joel was and remains a challenger just as much as he is a songwriter, and that’s where the true artistry lies, after all. He still serves as living proof that great voices are further elevated by the beholder’s storytelling abilities and a generational knack for musicality. Joel has both in spades, in addition to representing the personification of a venerated artist whose songs are a window into the tortured, passionate soul. If nothing else, and in epic fashion, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes” promises to prove, as Joel sang in “Summer Highland Falls,” “though we choose between reality and madness, it’s either sadness or euphoria.” It’s safe to assume that we’d all prefer the latter.
THE GOOD – Lacy and Levins’ depiction of Billy Joel is honest and, as promised, comprehensive. In the first part of “And So It Goes,” they go to great lengths to fully understand Joel’s rapidly ballooning stardom in the 1960s and 1970s.
THE BAD – Part one is 147 minutes long and extensive but often repetitive in how Joel and his cohorts recount their memories of specific events. We need only hear it described generally once; the same description of a rehearsal or night out from five different figures becomes exhausting after a while.
THE EMMY PROSPECTS – None
THE FINAL SCORE – 7/10
