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My Lives

Billy Joel - My Lives Audio CD

A fair review of the Billy Joel "My Lives" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Billy Joel reviews here, or go back to the Billy Joel tabs.

Band: Billy Joel
Title: My Lives
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-11-22
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: My Journey's End * - The Lost Souls 2: Time And Time Again * – Lost Souls 3: Every Step I Take (Every Move I Make) - The Hassles 4: You’ve Got Me Hummin' - The Hassles 5: Amplifier Fire – Attila 6: Only A Man * (Demo, Never Released) 7: She's Got A Way (Album Version) 8: Oyster Bay * (Demo, Never Released) 9: Piano Man * (Demo, Never Released) 10: The Siegfried Line* (Demo, Never Released) 11: New Mexico * (Demo, Never Released - Became “Worse Comes to Worst”) 12: Cross To Bear * (Demo, Never Released) 13: Miami 2017 * (Demo, Never Released) 14: These Rhinestone Days * (Demo, Never Released – Became “I Loved These Days”) 15: Everybody Has A Dream 16: Only The Good Die Young * (Alternate Version, Never Released) 17: Until The Night (Album Version) 18: Zanzibar (Album Verison, Unfaded) 19: It's Still Rock and Roll To Me (Album Version) 20: Captain Jack * (Live Version, Never Released) 21: The End Of The World * (Demo, Never Released -Became “Elvis Presley Blvd”) 22: The Prime Of Your Life * (Demo, Never Released - Became "For Longest Time") 23: She’s Right On Time (Album Version) 24: Elvis Presley Blvd. 25: Nobody Knows But Me 26: An Innocent Man (album Version) 27: Christie Lee * (Demo, Never Released) 28: Easy Money (Album Version) 29: And So It Goes * (Demo, Never Released) 30: I'll Cry Instead (live) 31: Keeping the Faith 12" 32: Modern Woman (Album Version) 33: Baby Grand with Ray Charles 34: Getting Closer with Steve Winwood * (Alternate Version, Never released) 35: House Of Blue Light 36: Money Or Love * (Demo, Never Released) 37: The Times They Are A Changin' (Live Album Version) 38: The Downeaster “Alexa” (Album Version) 39: I Go To Extremes * (Live, Never Released) 40: Shout 41: All Shook Up 42: Heartbreak Hotel 43: When You Wish Upon A Star 44: In A Sentimental Mood 45: Motorcycle Song * (Demo, Never Released - Became “All About Soul”) 46: You Picked A Real Bad Time 47: The River Of Dreams * (Alternate Version, Never Released) 48: Hard Days Night 49: Light As The Breeze 50: To Make You Feel My Love 51: Hey Girl 52: Why Should I Worry 53: Where Were You On Our Wedding Day (album version) 54: Highway 61 Revisited * (Demo, Never Released) 55: Movin’ Out 56: You May Be Right duet with Elton John * (Live, Never Released) 57: Big Shot 58: Don’t Worry Baby 59: Goodnight Saigon – Vietnam Veterans Version 60: Los Angelenos 61: New York State Of Mind 62: Opus 1. Soliloquy (On A Separation) 63: Opus 8. Suite For Piano (Star Crossed) 64: Elegy: The Great Peconic 65: No Man's Land 66: Pressure 67: Ballad Of Billy The Kid 68: Leningrad 69: Allentown 70: My Life 71: I Go To Extremes 72: Shades Of Grey 73: The River Of Dreams 74: Goodnight Saigon 75: We Didn't Start the Fire 76: Hard Days Night 77: Big Shot 78: Piano Man

Disappointing For The Long Time Joel Fan.
There is no doubt a lot of great music here, but how much of it do we really not already have?

Of the sixty-something songs, only 23 are previously unreleased, mostly demos or live recordings. As someone who has loved Billy Joel for years and professes to own pretty much all officially released Joel material (and then some), I cannot help but express disappointment of the decidedly poor handling of this boxed set. While these are definitely treasureable recordings, it leaves the listener with too much of a feeling of wanting more. Sure, most of the previously released stuff is the obscure albums tracks (such as the excellent ballad "Until The Night" from "52nd Street), and the demos (such as the lovely 1983 take of "And So It Goes") give good insight into how some of the greatest recordings in popular music came to be, but when you consider how much of this stuff has already been released (in some cases, several times over), it really makes you wonder how much thought Billy really put into this. Billy, to be fair, has never been one who gives his fans the unheard gems they so crave, as he is very self-critical and figures that if it was shelved, it was for a good reason.

Only on Disc 4, which features a plethora of great live tracks, does the casual fan have reason to celebrate. Two duets with Elton John, a raucous "You May Be Right" and a cover of "Hard Day's Night," are good consolations to the fact that we've never heard an official cd or dvd release from any of the five (soon to be six) Face2Face tours. There's an explosive rendition of "Big Shot" dating to the late 1990s' that ranks among Billy's best performances of this song (one of his weakest musically, though I love it because it's fun). His beautiful cover of "Don't Worry Baby" from the 2000 Brian Wilson tribute is also included, and is one of th best recordings Billy ever did, live or in the studio. Towards the end the cd gets a bit tedious with the classical stuff, but the hidden track, a hilarious interview from 1980 promoting "Glass Houses," makes up for it.

The dvd is admittedly disappointing. Taken from Billy's June 18th, 1994 concert in Germany, the performances themselves are excellent, but the show itself is severely truncated, missing great performances from that night such as deep, introspective rendering of "Honesty" and a soulful "An Innocent Man. " (There's an excellent soundboard bootleg of the complete show floating around. )

The booklet is impressive, with a very nice essay, but ultimately provides little. Overall, "My Lives" is a fairly worthy collection, but it's not the definitive collection it could've been.

Real good stuff
On the other hand if you are a person that just like to hear his hits then, pick up the billy joel's( The Complete Hits Collection 1973-97). For people who are hard core billy joel this will work for you. The My lives CD has a lot of songs that i myself never got to hear. Plus comes with a dvd which makes it real nice to see billy doing a live concert. The sound is great,includes rare solo demos, b-sides, soundtrack hits. .

Great Quality
Fabulous collection of Billy Joel music. Came quickly and package appropriately so CD's were not damaged. Can't go wrong for the extreme Billy Joel fan!.

Very poor songs - nothing you want to hear
But the songs on this compilation are terrible. I still love Bill's output from 1971 to 1981, and a few songs after that. They should have stayed in the dusty cardboard box at the bottom of the closet. I couldn't even listen to all the discs because they're so poor. After enduring as much pain as I could I realized I wasn't a Billy Joel fan after all. Beware.

For the serious Billy Joel collector/Fanatic
Some of the songs due to the nature of its recordings have some echoes and do not sound as great as the releases versions of the songs, however, the collector should expect that. This box is for very serious Billy Joel collectors/fanatics, who are looking for demos, b-sides, lives, soundtrack, alternative versions, and pre-Billy Joel solo/root material of songs. The DVD is super since it includes software that allows you to remix 'Zanzibar', "I got to Extremes".

If this set was targeted for the serious collector, which I think it is, I don't see why we would need the album studio tracks of some songs such as innocent man, still rock 'n roll, since any fanatic of Billy Joel would have these songs on their original albums, and remasterd CDs, or even the great compilation.

In short, this box is for Billy Joel fanatics. Others would be served with "1973-97-Complete Hits Collection" much better.
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You can see a complete list of all Billy Joel discography, or go back to the Billy Joel tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.