Lost in Let's Remember

Talking hired guns, Billy Joel, and childhood memories

“…seems like I’ve been lost in

let’s remember….”

-Billy Joel

A few weeks ago, I piecemeal watched Hired Gun in my car as I waited to pick up my daughter from school, watching about 15 minutes each day.  Hired Gun is a documentary about musicians who are hired by other, larger name musicians to play their hit songs “behind them.”  They are not IN the band, just part of it for as long as they are hired.  They are, in essence, background musicians, although hired guns, as they are nicknamed in the biz, are so much more than that.  Often the real stars of the show, they are incredibly and mystically talented musicians who could absolutely be the lead instrumentalist of their own bands, had their life paths gone differently.  

It’s an excellent documentary that I highly recommend and will certainly re-watch myself.  I love anything that gives me a greater insight into the music I love, namely, rock n’ roll music and all the variants it’s inspired over the years.  I love the history of music, learning about the life of the musicians themselves, their own inspirations, and anything that adds to the depth of my own musical muddy river.

In Hired Gun we hear a lot from Liberty DeVitto, who was the drummer for Billy Joel for three decades.  He says many things about Joel, across the spectrum, but the one thing we hear in his voice is the love of the music.  We can see an older Liberty in the documentary, then flip over to YouTube and watch a younger him smash the daylights out of the kit on the “Big Shot” video, right there, BOOM!  And you can see, even all these years later, talking about the music and the songs, how much it really means to him and how contributing to the musical language of the world has been his personal blessing.

It was a fascinating documentary, and I don’t want to spoil too much for anyone, so check it out if you can.  What I would like to talk about today is Billy Joel.  After hearing Liberty talk so much about his time with Billy Joel in Hired Gun, I thought it would be interesting to go and listen to a few Billy Joel songs.  Perhaps “Keeping the Faith” was featured in the movie, or perhaps it was mentioned somewhere, for I found the catchy tune had wormed its way into my ear, and it was the first song title I typed into YouTube.

Wrapping my JBLs over my head, I was instantly taken there, to Joel’s formative years, a story held together with a beat that makes me feel like I’m walking down a city street, taking big, swaying steps.  I repeated the song for probably an hour, getting lost in the details of the story and song.  It wasn’t about “me”, but it was.  It was everything I was, I had been, we all had been, have been.  Looking back on the teenage years of trying to be cool, trying to figure it out, learning on the fly while pretending you’re a pro. 

I’m older than Joel was when he released the song, and I couldn’t help but connect to the ending: “…gonna listen to my 45s, ain’t it wonderful to be alive, when the rock n’ roll plays!”  Thinking how even a super famous rock and roller with a supermodel wife just wants to go outside, drink a cold beer in the shade, and listen to music.

While listening, I realized I already knew almost every single word.  Not having actively heard this song in decades (not including whatever songs play in the background at the dentist,) I was mildly surprised at how ingrained this tune was in me, how it felt so natural, so comforting.         

It took only a few more songs before I realized that I knew almost all of the words to all of the big hit songs.  Suddenly and rather bizarrely, it occurred to me that Billy Joel was a major part of my childhood musical experience, although nobody in my life was a “Billy Joel Fan” per se.  I couldn’t help but wonder if my current strong connections to his musical themes and lyrics had, at least in part, been guided by the fact that I had grown up listening to his music on the radio.  Everyday.

Billy Joel was across the airwaves when I was born in 1983 and his songs were a tenant in my mom’s red two-door Chevy Cavalier, where I slid around the burning hot seats and stared out the tiny window.  Back then, whatever was on the radio was what was on, and judging from my memory bank, my mom flipped her dial between oldies and what would be considered contemporary of the time. 

Back then, I couldn’t tell you the name of an artist or a song or how many tracks it was recorded on, but as a kid, I knew what I liked and I liked the catchy stuff.  My favorite tune of the day, hands down, was “America” by Neil Diamond.  I loved “Creeque Alley” by the Mamas and the Papas.  “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys.  

As I got older and my musical tastes began to form, I started stepping away from some of the music I grew up on to explore new genres and artists.  I began to listen to songs not played on the radio, began to hear bands that weren’t featured on Top 40 FM.  I started listening to the local college radio, WCHC, the radio station up at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA.  Mostly because 88.1 was the only channel that came in on my old Chevy Cavalier, white with four doors. 

As far as I recall, I haven’t willingly listened to a Billy Joel song in years but hearing tune after tune after tune of enormous hits which filled the charts, I can’t help but think what a wonderful artist he truly is.  Listening to “Tell Her About It” in my kitchen while putting away dishes, I was taken back to being a young girl and hearing that on the radio and thinking it was an “oldie”, which is exactly what Joel was trying to do.  Well, he certainly fooled me! 

Memories of singing along to “Uptown Girl” and “Piano Man”, listening intently to the story inside “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, and trying to decipher all the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” came flooding back.  Singing “River of Dreams” in middle school chorus.  Hearing my sister’s class sing it again two years later.

It got me thinking about how much of our lives are shaped by what kind of music our parents listened to, especially back then.  These days, young kids are lightyears ahead, even my 8-year-old daughter has her own phone and her own taste in music.  And, as a music lover, I certainly appreciate her contributions to diversifying our household listening selections, and I enjoy seeing her tastes already growing and changing.

That being said, the majority of the music both my children listen to still come from her father and I.  Growing up, all we heard was my mother’s music, and she had music playing all the time.

All the time.

The house was filled with the easy thumping beats of songs mostly from the 1960s and 70s.  Whether it was her oldies CDs and tapes or music in the car, it was basically the same cache of songs played in different orders.  These songs got into me, made me, shaped me, turned car rides into music videos, got me through the most boring church sermons. These songs wriggled and wiggled and wormed their way into my life and are just as much a part of me as my very own heartbeat. 

And Billy Joel was a huge part of the mix, and I didn’t even remember until I watched Hired Gun. 

Well, folks, I’m signing off for today…. and until next time, remember to keep the faith!

        ROCK AND ROLL FOREVER!

                        ~Meaghan

***

Have a kid? 

Know a kid?

  Still a kid at heart?

Check out my line of picture books over at www.meaghanracicot.com!

(Available wherever fine books are sold.)