The Billy Joel floodgates are about to burst open with the release of Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert, an audio scrapbook of the Piano Man's show-stopping concerts at Shea Stadium, the last major events held at the iconic sporting arena before its closure and demolition.
Already documented in Last Play at Shea - a multifaceted documentary on the longtime home of the New York Mets and the Long Island-raised rocker who performed there (to be released on DVD next month) - Columbia/Legacy will release a multi-format distillation of the two nights in July 2008 in which Joel held court alongside some of the biggest names in classic and modern pop and rock, including Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, John Mayer and, in an historic moment, Paul McCartney, no stranger to Shea himself.
The set will be released as a CD/DVD package - the DVD featuring three extra performances with guests Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey and John Mellencamp - as well as a standalone DVD and a standalone Blu-Ray disc - Billy Joel's first release on the high-definition video format. All three packages will be available on March 8, and PBS will air a broadcast version of the DVD content for its Great Performances series later that month.
This is the first volley of Legacy's promised catalogue blitz for Joel - but if you've been checking pre-order pages lately, it looks like the best may be yet to come...
The set can be pre-ordered at Amazon now (CD/DVD, DVD and BD). Read the full track list after the jump.
Billy Joel, Live at Shea Stadium - The Concert (Columbia/Legacy 88697 85424-2, 2011)
Disc 1
- Prelude/Angry Young Man
- My Life
- Summer, Highland Falls
- Everybody Loves You Now
- Zanzibar
- New York State of Mind (with Tony Bennett)
- Allentown
- The Ballad of Billy the Kid
- She's Always a Woman
- Goodnight Saigon
- Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
- Shameless (with Garth Brooks)
- This is the Time (with John Mayer)
- Keeping the Faith
Disc 2
- Captain Jack
- Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
- The River of Dreams/A Hard Day's Night
- We Didn't Start the Fire
- You May Be Right
- Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
- Only the Good Die Young
- I Saw Her Standing There (with Paul McCartney)
- Take Me Out to the Ballgame
- Piano Man
- Let It Be (with Paul McCartney)
Bonus performances on DVD/Blu-Ray:
- Walk This Way (with Steven Tyler)
- My Generation (with Roger Daltrey)
- Pink Houses (with John Mellencamp)
All tracks recorded live at Shea Stadium, New York City - 7/16 and 7/18/2008
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WOW... OK, Billy writing a book ALMOST makes up for not having any music for almost 20 years. He was going to write a book years ago, but for some reason it never happened. I'm eagerly awaiting that.
I'm also glad that there's going to be a full, music-only CD/DVD from the Shea concerts. I wouldn't mind seeing the "Last Play" movie, but it's really the music that I want. I'm not sure why it's taken almost three years to get this out (McCartney's Citi Field shows were a year later, yet he got his CD/DVD out almost two years earlier than Billy).
I could also quibble about how several of the guest star spots are only the DVD as a special feature, Don Henley's appearance isn't included at all, and that pretty much everything on this release has been issued on other live albums. BUT... I'm still glad it's happening. I know me, I'll be getting both the CD and DVD.
Now I just hope the upcoming reissues and collections will have some goodies for the fans who have all of the albums.