MTA!

I am talking about Billy Joel.

I haven’t written my blog for some time but today, I have to write it. I’m still overwhelmed by the atmosphere last night, and yes, I went to Billy Joel Live to Hong Kong concert yesterday night!

I seldom went to concerts, the last one I went was Diana Krall, yes, she’s a (jazz) pianist! This is the only category of singers that makes me pay to go to their concerts. It’s personal. And hopefully Tori Amos will come to Hong Kong, too!

Last time I went to Diana’s, I paid for the second most expensive (or cheap?) tickets, and by then I swore to myself if I ever go to concert again, I will go for the most expensive ones… cos the seats were just … unbearable. So, this time, when I know BJ is here, even the tickets are pricey, esp during the financial crisis, I didn’t hesitate… and I am not regret that decision.

The concert started strong and then followed by some cantonese greetings from Billy. From my observation, almost 70% of the audiences are not Chinese-Cantonese, so probably that’s not necessary. But of course, the localization is most welcomed. He then played the song, according to him, composed for his first x-wife, ‘Honesty’. When he started playing the piano, I just cried all over … I have no idea why cos this song is not my most favourite but his live performance just touched me.

The arrangement of songs in his concert is just superb. The crowd just got heated and most people stood and danced along starting from the middle of the concert. Just before the show ended, he played ‘Piano Man’ and all the audiences sang the chorus with him… then whenever the chorus part comes, he kept silent and let everyone sing it. I … dont know how to put it, but I feel REAL good to sing with all the BJ’s fans.

He likes to refer himself as “Billy Joel’s dad”, and in fact, I haven’t expected such an energy coming from a man in his age, but, last nite his performance, his (great) band and the arrangement in the concert just blew me away. I’m not familiar with all the songs he sung, but for those that I didn’t quite fond of before, now I have to say I love it. They are much better performed live than in the CD. “The New York State of Mind” is the most surprising song to me. It was just awesomely performed.

I read some blogs here which also reviewed the concert, and I have to agree with their comment of people who arrived late. The concert started at around 8:30pm (official time 8:00pm) and people are still looking for seats in the dark around 9:15pm… I don’t understand why they still come (I expect the concert lasts 1.5 hours) … And why concerts dont have those practice as in the drama/musicals, etc. that bar people from coming in until the first act is finished, something like this. I wish that will help people to get serious about being prompt.

Billy Joel’s Dad, you rock!!

這隻歌旋律很好聽, Billy Joel 的演繹又很”肉緊”, 所以很耐聽, 不會多聽數次便生厭. 雖然對它的歌詞不算很有共鳴, 但一邊聽一邊唱, 也是很享受的事.

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第一次聽這首歌是 Sarah Brightman 唱的, 當時只覺得旋律好聽, 但歌本身並沒有甚麼特別… 可以說並沒有靈魂. 後來買了 no.1 musicals 這隻 compilation, 聽後對於 Tina Arena 唱的這個版本覺得晴天霹靂, 很難相信是同一首歌… 原來歌者對一首歌的演譯, 對那首歌的可聽性有那麼大的影響! Tina 不是 classical 唱法, 但感情的表現郤比 Sarah 的版本”棚拜” (唔識寫)得多, 我覺得會更貼近歌詞想表達的意思. 現在這首歌榮升做我的 lyrics collections 之一.

Cover by Tina Arena (or she is the original singer?!)
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman
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Suddenly come across this (old?) song in a bunch of MP3s from my sister’s collection. I will categorize it as soft rock and its melody is attractive. And on top of everything, I like the way she performs this song and it makes me want to find out what the song is about. The lyrics is posted here for my reference only.

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在月頭借了數隻 cd 給同事聽, 她在上週五還了給我.

其中一隻 cd 是 Queens 的 Jewels, 那是香港的唱片公司在木村托哉的 pride 播出後因那首主題曲 hit 而推出的. 老實說, 全隻唱片我最不喜歡的就是那首歌… 一聽它便想起木村那自以為很 cool 的樣子, 令我作嘔.
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