Category: Music & Concert Specials
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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 Retrospective: ‘The Beatles: 1962-1966 (The Red Album)
The Beatles’ Red Album (1962–1966) was originally released in April 1973 by Apple Records in collaboration with EMI/Capitol, and reissued on compact disc in September 1993. It features 26 Lennon–McCartney tracks from the band’s early years, offering a curated glimpse into their meteoric rise before Sgt. Pepper. 🎵 A Personal Reflection on The Beatles: 1962–1966…
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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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Music Album Review: ‘Platoon and Songs from the Era: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’
Platoon and Songs from the Era: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Year of Release: 1986 Record Label: Atlantic, Warner Records (International) Genre: Film Score (Classical/Pop/Rock) Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) remains, nearly four decades later, one of the most searing and authentic portrayals of the Vietnam War ever committed to film. Drawing from Stone’s own harrowing experiences…
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Music Album Review: ‘Holst: The Planets’
Holst – The Planets: Chicago Symphony Orchestra/James Levine Label: Deutsche Grammophon Released: 1991 Genre: Classical/Symphonic Review: Holst’s The Planets – A Celestial Tapestry in Seven Movements Two years before Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status (not that Pluto minds, I suspect), I wrote an earlier version of this reflection on Gustav Holst’s The Planets,…
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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: ‘Great Performances: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia para un gentilhombre’
🎼 Echoes of Spain: A Journey Through Rodrigo and Albéniz with John Williams There’s something quietly transcendent about hearing the guitar sing in the hands of John Williams. Not the film composer, but the Australian virtuoso whose fingers seem to coax memory itself from the strings. In Great Performances: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia para un…
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Music Appreciation: My First Encounter with Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique’
🎼 A Fever Dream in Five Movements: Remembering My First Encounter with Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique One of the most memorable experiences from my college years—now four decades ago—took place on a rare cool afternoon in South Florida. I was sitting in my Humanities class at Miami-Dade Community College, where Professor Jay Brown, a talented musician…
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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…
A Certain Point of View, Too 