{"id":1695,"date":"2021-04-02T12:59:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T12:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1695"},"modified":"2021-04-02T12:59:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T12:59:53","slug":"4-2-21-piano-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/4-2-21-piano-men\/","title":{"rendered":"4.2.21 Piano Men"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sing us a song, piano men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a little post-pandemic musical realization. When springtime finally comes and it\u2019s warm enough to go out in your garage and pore through the remains of a recent fire and restoration, and the left-behind possessions of two twenty-somethings, you eventually get to the record collections. All scrambled and piled up here and there. You gotta figure out what\u2019s what, whose is whose, and what\u2019s worth cleaning and saving. And, once done and all alphabetized on one rack, you realize you have a snapshot of the rock and roll era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To wit: the largest number of albums in the collection (including duplicates) are of the two titans of rock, Bob Dylan and the Beatles (if you include the various member\u2019s works, from \u2018Band on the Run\u2019 to \u2018Bangladesh\u2019). The next tier by volume is the acolytes of those acts, such as \u2013 on the Dylan side \u2013 Neil Young and Springsteen, and \u2013 on the Beatles side \u2013 the Rolling Stones and the Who. There\u2019s also the enigmatic Grateful Dead, with a huge album catalog that frankly is immaterial; DeadHeads listen mostly to bootlegs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third tier has lots of singer-songwriters like Jackson and James and Joni. And in that category is an interesting anomaly: the two best-known piano-based rockers sit, alphabetically, side by side. Can you guess?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Joel (Billy) alongside John (Elton), rubbing shoulders as if they are playing a duet. Which is funny because they have toured together twice. And which also reminds me of an interesting piece of trivia I learned not long ago. At the \u2018World\u2019s Most Famous Arena\u2019 \u2013 which is not on Madison, isn\u2019t Square, and is no longer a Garden, but that\u2019s another story<\/a> \u2013 Elton John long held the record for most shows played. But in 2015, Billy Joel passed him, with his 65th<\/sup> appearance. It was a pretty famous moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now it\u2019s an afterthought. Joel has since become an artist in residence, performing monthly shows at MSG, like other folks do in Vegas. You can call it cheating \u2013 all he has to do is schlep in from the Island \u2013 but, then again, he has been selling out every show for years. His MSG number is way past 100 now, while Elton John retired after playing his 70th<\/sup> show at MSG on the 70th<\/sup> date of his farewell tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic shut this all down, and we\u2019ve all endured some live music limbo. MSG pushed Joel\u2019s 2021 spring dates, first to the summer, and then to the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, hopefully with the arrival of vaccinations, musical acts both huge and tiny will take the stage again soon. To get ready, we\u2019re buying a Bluetooth record player and pulling out some vinyl. Our set list includes, \u201cI\u2019m Still Standing,\u201d \u201cHelp Is On The Way,\u201d \u201cI Shall Be Released,\u201d \u201cNew York State of Mind,\u201d \u201cLet It Be,\u201d \u201cStart Me Up\u201d and \u201cLong Live Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gentleman says, \u201c\u2019Live Music Is Better\u2019 bumper sticks should be issued!\u201d All in favor? Aye!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sing us a song, piano men. Here\u2019s a little post-pandemic musical realization. When springtime finally comes and it\u2019s warm enough to go out in your garage and pore through the remains of a recent fire and restoration, and the left-behind possessions of two twenty-somethings, you eventually get to the record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Records-1.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1698,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions\/1698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}