BILLY JOEL Laura (Music Reaction) He pays The Beatles a huge homage! First time hearing

[@lcassamas]

Most of the Nylon Curtain album is inspired by The Beatles, and it is a great album. Billy’s favorite of his albums, and perhaps mine too.

[@carlbaumeister3439]

His masterpiece, I think.

[@arothko8939]

And Laura is the best on the album. My opinion.

[@davidgalvez5341]

I'll never understand how Paul McCartney and Billy Joel didn't think about collaborating to create an album (or a song) together.

[@dana_brooke_27]

They did play together at Shea Stadium before it was knocked down. Paul made a special trip to NY for Billy to perform and almost didn't make it.

[@joelliebler5690]

They still can while they are still breathing!

[@thetrevorosborne]

Great video as usual .Another Billy Joel hidden gem that would be worth investigating is "The Entertainer " a brilliant witty take on the fickleness of stardom and the music business in general

[@jamishops]

He’s done it

[@thetrevorosborne]

@@jamishops cheers ill have to look it up

[@gioconda43]

Exactely! That's What I thought too, The Beatles!! 😀😀 I believe he love them! Lennon vocals!

[@joelliebler5690]

Paul was a huge Beatles fan as were so many musicians of that era!

[@seanscanlon9067]

Billy?

[@joelliebler5690]

@@seanscanlon9067 Yes, Billy!😃

[@carlbaumeister3439]

“Laura” sounds very White Album to my ears, kind of Lennonesque. The solo sounds like George. “Surprises” sounds like a McCartney tune from Magical Mystery Tour. Another interesting thing is on on very last song, “Where’s the Orchestra,” at the very end, he revisits the first song, “Allentown,” fading out on it, which is what McCartney did on his Band on the Run album.

[@NathanVeenstra]

Yes, I was thinking 1967/1968 Beatles, which was when the White Album was released (end of 1968).

[@Prof_Jeff]

Deep cut from The Nylon Curtain! Nice choice. 👍 I remember being caught off guard by him dropping an f-bomb in this song. When I first played this album as a teen, I thought "Did I just hear that right?" Had to play the track again to make sure I had heard correctly. Glad I was using headphones at the time! 😀😂

[@debbiechang5781]

Jami A, thanks for choosing this. I remember thinking how much he sounded like John Lennon when I first heard this many years ago. Harri had trouble wrapping his head around this one. I love hearing his take on things 🌺✌️

[@masabuu88]

This album is my favorite. Especially “allentown” is one of favorite Billy’s songs.

[@richardkafka5625]

Rosalinda's eyes is actually about his mom. Another great song.

[@JorgeGomez-gk2oc]

I totally agree!

[@jamishops]

Yeah. He says its the letter his father should have written to his mom. I guess she was a romantic and his dad was not. Have you ever heard Rosalinda? Its an early song and never recorded for an album. Its on KZbin though. Very sad I’m sure it was written about his mom as well. Both Alexa Ray and Liberty Devitto have said Laura was about his mom. Billy just always says its about a family member. All great songs though.

[@Blue-k9p4y]

Thank you so much Harri, I completely forgot about that song! Fantastic!

[@davidtullis2810]

Billy love to honor different musicians by writing songs in their style

[@jamishops]

Especially since this came out shortly after Lennon was killed. I think he was subconsciously channeling him.

[@patticrichton1135]

WOW, I am NOT familiar with this song and you are RIGHT, HARRI....If I had heard this, not knowing who it was, I would have thought, " WAIT, what is THIS? HOW did I miss THIS Beatles' song, when I have everything they ever recorded! AMAZING, but not surprising because Billy has always been a big Beatles' fan. Yeah, that guitar solo sounds SO GEORGE HARRISON. Plus the backing vocals! He really sounds like Lennon, especially in the first half of the song. INCREDIBLY "Beatlesque" I LOVE it. I am a fan of Billy Joel, but somehow I have missed this one! THANKS for reacting to this Harri!!

[@seanscanlon9067]

Maybe have a listen to A Room of Our Own, Scandinavian Skies and Surprises from the same album. And as a bonus, Billy's cover of I'll Cry Instead.

[@ScottPattison-xz9su]

Word has it that Billy's mom had alzhimers as my mom did as well tough times but dad and I say it through.

[@davebzen795]

Great find and submission, Jami.

[@romeosyne]

One of my favorites of his...mixed masterfully...

[@normanrose2711]

great choice ! Keep doing Billies less known stuff they are all gold. There is a song on this album called She's Right on Time. In an interview he said this was one of his favorite songs

[@wgdavis5353]

Hi Mr. Harri, U are correct.. ♠W.G.

[@somewhat.random]

It's funny, the Nylon Curtain isn't my favorite Billy Joel album but if anyone asked me "what is the best album ever by Billy Joel?" I'd say "The Nylon Curtain". You've got the musical behemoths of "Pressure", "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon" with one of my personal favorite songs by Billy: "Scandanavian Skies". Which is a musical exploration of the only time he tried heroin. It's discordant and strange and just fukking GOOD. Alongside that, you have one of the songs the artist himself picks as some of the best he ever wrote: "She's Right On Time", which suffered back in the day from a truly terrible music video treatment of the song and is another sneaky good song when you really listen to the lyrics. There's a reason Joel has mentioned this song at times as some of his best writing. "A Room of Our Own", "Surprises", and "Where's The Orchestra?" (honestly another sneaky good song, with deceptively simple lyrics that still tell an interesting story and has a really cool reprise of the Allentown theme worked into the music at the end)get the distinction in this list as "album tracks", which for this albums means they might have been a "hit song" from any other artist. And then, we have "Laura". So much goodness.

[@jamishops]

I wanted to request A Room of Our Own, but it didn’t have over 200k views. I was really surprised that the audio didn’t have that many. I love that song, especially when they play it in concert now. They really jam to it. Hopefully it will get enough views someday.

[@riccardoangeli802]

Piano Man non sbaglia mai un pezzo ... Talento incredibile .... Consiglio Leave a tender moment alone ... Live con Tootsie Tielemans... Fantastico

[@cjax2000]

although "Nylon Curtain" may not have a lot of what is considered Billy's greatest hits, it may be my Favorite album from a man who has Many of my favorite albums! dougmanxx reply just before my reply may explain it better .. also the fact that the only time I got the privilege to see Billy LIVE was on this tour may be part of it! (An absolutely AMAZING concert) I would say listen to more of that album!!!

[@davidgalvez5341]

Billy intentionally molded many of the vocals on this album to sound very Beatles-like, particularly Lennon's voice. The backing vocals as well.

[@thomastimlin1724]

Definitely an imitation of John Lennon more than the Beatles, but had a few elements of Beatles records. Lennon with a New York Accent lol.

[@RobotWillie]

I love this song so much, but I heard Billy himself say at a college speaking engagement in the 90s that is here on KZbin that Laura is about anyone in general who knows just what to say to get under your skin and their sole purpose to exist seems to be to annoy you, regardless of age and that can include both adults and children. And the woman in the audience who asked him about the song was named Laura and its paints them in such a negative light, but explains its no one specific and its the name that sounded good to him at the moment he wrote the song, and that no one named Laura was the target of his crosshairs specifically. Thats how much I like this song though, I have looked into it more on here as with much of his stuff I have and thankfully as I said he has spoke at many events and colleges and taken questions from the audience so a decent amount of info has come out from him about why and how he wrote many of these songs.

[@jamishops]

I saw that video too. She seemed really disappointed that he used her name. Both Alexa Ray and Liberty Devitto have said its about his mom. I’ve heard Billy say its about a family member. I’m sure he has mixed emotions about writing the song, but I think we have all been at the end of our rope with someone and felt that way. Its a great song though.

[@howtodoitdude1662]

This song is not strictly about his mother, as he once mentioned, it’s about different people. This is confirmed with what he says in one verse, Laura calls me when she needs a good fix. I doubt that refers to his mother.

[@kiffliescott6109]

The Beatles are all over this album. Especially John Lennon. John could have written "Scandinavian Skies."

[@evanistephani]

Yeah, for sure. I always thought "Scandinavian Skies" would've been a George song, but I can see John too

[@paulfuller8985]

Even the guitar sounds like The Beatles , maybe George Harrison did the session ? I don't know . Good song anyway .

[@jenniferkasowicz9463]

You should listen to “Laura” as recorded by Frank Sinatra. A breakout recording song for him. Hauntingly beautiful and from the movie “Laura”. ❤️✌️