Billy Joel - Live(1998)The Stranger - Just the Way You Are - Allentown

[ninjacoralinekitty]

What's up with the weird faces during "Just the Way You Are?" He looks confused. And why did he skip a verse? That verse was my favorite.

[amazed66]

@ninjacoralinekitty it was written for his first ex-wife &Liberty Devitto (the drummer) was in his band at that time too & he is making fun of the lyrics that must have applied then but don't any more so seem a bit embarrassing now.....The reason he skips the verse about "don't change the colour of your hair" is because Mark Rivera (on saxophone) plays the wrong section or comes in too early with the sax part that leads him (Billy) with nowhere to go except into the bridge.

[ninjacoralinekitty]

@amazed66 Wow, that's interesting. I knew that he wrote it for his first wife, but I didn't know the rest! Thanks! :)

[amazed66]

@ninjacoralinekitty No problem and you're welcome and he wouldn't be the first nor last probably to have written a song to a women that now seems a bit awkward to have to sing. :)

Plus The Stranger was a bit hit as both a single and album in Japan and so I suppose her feels obliged to do certain songs in particular countries where those ones have been successful.

[amazed66]

@amazed66 by that I mean performing Just the Way You Are too being that it's also from The Strange album.

[NoIdeaForNickname]

it's funny to see eye contacts with drummer and faces he is making during Just The Way You Are, we all know why he's doing it. Damn, I'll never leave a man that wrote something like that for me. :)

[amazed66]

Maybe it was just a typo but I'm almost certain it's '98 on a Face to Face tour with Elton John. The Stranger was a hit in Japan so that would probably be why he put it in his set list. In '88 he probably would have done the whistling himself too.

He later does I Go To Extremes (from Storm Front '89) and The River Of Dreams (from River of Dreams '93) so '88 would be too early.

[nontandasu3]

@amazed66

Confirmation, March 29,1998 （videotape）　I'm sorry

[amazed66]

@nontandasu3 @nontandasu3 That's OK and no need to be sorry, it's just that a few of us were trying to pin down the date just as a matter of interest but thanks for putting up the video anyway.....I see you're on the ball anyway and have already updated it......you don't muck about, do you? :P

If you wanted more views though it might be worth adding The Stranger into the title for when people search for the song as well as the singer Billy Joel.

[KennyIngram10]

@amazed66 Yep, this is the face to face Elton John tour from '98.

[upstatenyphann]

the cheesy dave rosenthal synth is killing me. just play a friggan hammond organ and be done with it.

[JIF882]

This isn't from '88. Billy didn't have a beard in '88, or any gray. This is from the River Of Dreams period.