Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography, by Fred Schruers

[Note: This book was given free of charge by Blogging For Books/Crown Publishing in exchange for an honest review.]

This book will likely be the definitive biography of Billy Joel, especially because at this time of life Billy Joel has written and performed the songs that made him famous and has a legacy that seems likely to endure, and because at this stage of life he is preparing for eternity and has (hopefully) found his Abishag as he prepares for the inevitable decrepitude of old age. Yet Billy Joel, even as a flawed person (as we all are) is a compelling figure to read about, and someone whose life bears some striking and unsettling parallels to my own, which made reading this book a bit jarring at times. To give but a few examples, Billy Joel is portrayed as being a striking mixture of qualities, a sensitive child of divorced and mismatched parents (a remote father and a manipulative and emotionally needy mother) who grew up poor and with a chip on his shoulder and a decidedly anti-authoritarian bent, cynical and mistrusting of others yet with a constant longing for romantic love that he continually sabotaged through his lack of trust and problems building intimacy, a person who seemed to have constant drama with others and somewhat heated in argument and debate yet was widely recognized as being forgiving towards others who had wronged him, all the while medicating his pain and sensitivity with constant effort and alcohol. The man that appears in these pages mixes deep vulnerability with a certain false bravado that attempts to provide a tough guy appearance for all of his obvious romanticism.

The book itself takes a chronological view of his life, starting from the experiences of some of his father’s family in escaping (minus their wealth) from Nazi Germany as hunted Jews. Not all were fortunate enough to find a safe refuge. Then the biography covers his childhood in poverty, his struggle at the beginning of the career, his eventual success, his three broken marriages, his efforts at being a good father for a daughter he loves but found difficult to connect to, his intimate and confessional style of lyrics, often written about specific people and situations, and his struggles to make a living as a musician while finding plenty of others who were willing to break the law and behave in corrupt ways to take a cut of the money gained from his songs and performing. What makes it a definitive biography is its searching honesty, including the author’s prickly attitude towards members of the press, his appreciation of accolades as well as collaboration with other musicians, his desire to maintain friendly relations even with ex-wives and lovers, as well as his marked reluctance to accept the “higher power” that is required as part of Alcoholics Anonymous’ twelve step program. This honesty, as well as the insight provided into the situations behind many of Joel’s most famous songs, makes this book an essential read for anyone who wants to appreciate the complex character of Billy Joel and how it shaped his music and relationships, even if it is a sometimes uncomfortable read.

Perhaps the most ironic part of Joel’s life is the marked ambivalence of his relationships with God and women. Joel comments in here frequently on his view of a three minute pop song as a sort of miniature work showing excellence in design and elegance, and also his view of crafting albums by designs with a clear concept. Yet despite this clear use of design, including a process for writing songs that started with music and then crafted lyrics and that was soul-searching and intimate, and yet relatable to many, Billy Joel is unwilling to see God’s similar interest in design and craft in the universe. Whether this is because of his own hostility to authority, father figures, or his own wrestling with the grim fate of the Holocaust that engulfed many of his relatives, or (more likely) a combination of the above is hard to say. Likewise, his own combination of fear and longing with regards to romantic love is easy enough to relate to as well, going back to his teenage years and his use of playing music as a way to meet girls despite his own social awkwardness and intense shyness and timidity. Unfortunately, he found to his chagrin that over and over again his love of touring and his obvious emotional vulnerability made it hard for his wives and girlfriends to trust his loyalty, allowing suspicion to ruin relationship after relationship. And yet Joel’s own need to play music to feel alive and to be himself compelled him over and over again to tour even when it exhausted him and left him in frail health. This is a book that is honest about its subject, and despite the rough edges of Billy Joel’s life and behavior, one is compelled to feel a sense of compassion for a man in the grips of major compulsions and trying to make the best of them. Sometimes that is all we can do in life, and so we ought at least to appreciate the suffering that led to such great art, and a reputation that will hopefully remain for generations to come, even if there is much to criticize in what can be found in these pages.