Category: Billy Joel
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Sunday Musicale for November 30, 2025
It’s early afternoon on this last day of November here in the Orlando area. Try as I might, though, I can’t seem to pick a topic for my daily blog, and I don’t feel like checking to see what the WordPress daily prompt is. So…how about some music videos instead?
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Music Album Review: ‘Billy Joel – Greatest Hits, Volumes I & II (1973-1983)’
🎶 Billy Joel – Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II Some albums become more than music—they turn into companions. For me, Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II was exactly that. I received the cassette in 1986 for my 23rd birthday, one of my last big celebrations. That tape became a lifeline:…
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The Quill and the Lyre: Music and ‘Comings and Goings’
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Music, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Audible, Billy Joel, Bryan Haddock, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Garratyverse, Ludwig van Beethoven, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Pathetique Piano Sonata (Adagio cantabile), Reunion DuologyEvery story has its soundtrack. For Comings and Goings, the most overtly relevant piece isn’t tucked away in a concert hall—it’s right there in Billy Joel’s “This Night”, spinning from Kelly’s stereo in Mission Hill. Yet, at the heart of this pop ballad lies Beethoven’s Adagio cantabile, whose timeless melody Joel borrowed and reimagined, creating…
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Music Album Review: ‘Billy Joel – 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert’
Billy Joel – 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert Label: Sony Legacy Genre: Pop Rock Year of Release: 2000 Billy Joel’s 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert may not be his most polished live album, but it’s one of his most emotionally honest. Recorded on New Year’s Eve 1999 at Madison Square Garden, this two-disc set captures…
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Writing Intimacy with Reverence: A Scene from ‘Comings and Goings’
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Billy Joel, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Love, Sex, & Relationships, Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda🛋️ Writing Intimacy with Reverence: A Scene from Comings and Goings There’s a scene in Comings and Goings that still lingers with me—not because it’s dramatic, but because it’s quiet. It’s Jim Garraty, nineteen, sitting in Kelly’s apartment in Mission Hill, letting the world slow down long enough to feel something real. It’s a moment…
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Music Album Review: ‘Billy Joel – 52nd Street’
52nd Street Revisited: Billy Joel and the Art of Returning There’s something hauntingly familiar about the first album that makes you feel seen. For me, it was 52nd Street—acquired through teenage negotiation, a bulky eight-track cassette wrested from my sister when she moved out. At the time, “My Life” felt like rebellion’s anthem, its defiance…
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Music Album Review: ‘Billy Joel Greatest Hits, Volume III’ (1997)
Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, Volume III: A Late Discovery Worth the Wait I’ll admit it — I nearly passed this one by. When Greatest Hits: Volume III dropped in 1997, I hesitated. Joel’s post-An Innocent Man output hadn’t exactly lit up my radar, and with my classical collection growing, I wasn’t keen on spending limited…
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“This Night”: Music, Memory, and the Moments That Define Us
There’s something about music that stays long after the moment has passed. A lyric looping quietly in the back of your mind. A piano chord that stirs a memory you hadn’t meant to revisit. In Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen, one such song plays softly in the background—Billy Joel’s “This Night.”…
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On Soft Light and Honest Songs: A Note to the Reader
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Billy Joel, Books, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Garratyverse, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Love and Sex, Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Movies, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaEvery story in the Garratyverse carries its own rhythm. Some sweep across decades, reckoning with inherited grief, generational wounds, and the long arc of forgiveness. Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen isn’t that kind of story. It’s smaller. Quieter. But no less true. This one lives in the hush between songs, the half-step…
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42 Years Ago, in a High School Not So Far Away (A Tempus Fugit Gig)
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Billy Joel, Blogging, Cold War (1945-1991), Computers, John Williams (Composer), Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Life in South Florida, Personal History, Personal Thoughts, Personal Thoughts, South Miami Senior High School, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Tempus fugit, U.S. History42 Years Ago, in a High School Not So Far Away…. Late Morning, Tuesday, June 17, 2025 — Miami, Florida “It was only high school, after all—arguably one of the most bizarre periods in a person’s life. How anyone emerges well-adjusted is nothing short of a miracle.” — E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly A…
A Certain Point of View, Too 