Billy Joel Only The Good Die Young Liberty Devitto

Billy Joel tells how "Only The Good Die Young" came to sound the way it does crediting Liberty Devitto

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Billy
• Joel
• Only
• The
• Good
• Die
• Young
• Liberty
• Devitto

[amazed66]

Phil Ramone also had some input in Billy's music but never took any royalties as a writer and Billy could have used any number of producers and any number of drummers but he did all of the song writing himself.

Again when Garth Brooks covered Shameless as a country song with steel guitar replacing electric guitar, should he have received royalties too for his arrangement, even though the musical notes and lyrics were the same?

[pheekuh]

Yes actually, I DO believe they are all due to some compensation. I didn't use the word "royalties", you did. I'm a giver not a taker. I aknowledge when someone has done something for me. I appologize for the way I was brought up.

[amazed66]

I have a lot of time for Liberty Devitto and think it's a real pity that a 30+ year friendship ended how it did and when one of them eventually dies before the other, then I'm sure they will have regrets that they didn't patch things up. So now here's the but part...but I still think it doesn't warrant paying him royalties if he didn't write the melody or the lyrics. Otherwise every time an existing song is covered but in a different style or tempo, should the covering act get royalties too?

[pheekuh]

I amazed you feel that way. Lib was part of a band. He was asked to contribute and he did; his ideas were used successfuly. Why should his input got unrewarded. I know what I would do, but then again, I have a conscience

[Bowlen000]

i love the regge version...if only there was a full version of it

[pheekuh]

There is. It's on Billy's "My Lives" album

[GrandMasterIV]

"The closest you get to Jamaica is when you change trains in Queens" xD

[GimmeKitty]

This is funny. Hahaha.

HATE that Billy and Lib parted ways like they did :( It's the shit.

[ninjacoralinekitty]

@Bowlen000 They have a full version of it on "My Lives."

[sdanger666]

The royalties thing is always a tough one, how does it work if the drummer suggests a different melody works it out with the guitarist/keys and its used. How's the split. I've seen bands go on the % of song they've contributed to. It's just bad when bands go their separate ways and the law suits begin.

Billy let a great, great drummer go.

[AdaumontFarm]

@mikesquill you hit it on the head. can't copyright drum parts, guitar riffs, solos or instrumentation.

[mikesquill]

changing rhythm, genre, or instrumentation does not at all constitute songwriting credit. a song is chords, lyrics, and melody. the song(s) belong solely to Billy.

[lakelandchief]

I would like to hear a full version of this song and see a piano tutorial that would be cool!

[MegaObserver1]

@Zosia91 This was taped in 2001 at the University of Pennsylvania as part of his "Masters Class" tour of colleges. It was taped as an A&E Network special and later a home video was released. The entire "class" was on YT at one time, but, sadly, has been removed.

[jpnagleproductions]

I have to disagree as far as drummers are concerned. A great drummer can make a good song great...This is a fact. Liberty was part of the band that made all of the hits for Billy Joel. I guess every great musician could just use any drummer, but a great drummer will make the song. Songs become classics due to the total input from all of the musicians,the producers, the promoters...etc...Liberty was part of the Billy Joel sound...Listen to the old live recordings vs the new live recordings...