The Piano Man announces the publication on 1er February of a new song, Turn The Lights Back Onthe first since 2007.
“Did I wait too long… before turning the lights back on?” asks Billy Joel (“ Did I wait too long… to turn the lights back on ? “) in this new unexpected song. At least that is what the press release which accompanies the announcement made yesterday specifies; the video posted online on social networks only letting a few brief and seductive piano notes resonate.
Turn The Lights Back On, which would embody, according to the same press release, “all the characteristics of Billy Joel’s sound,” is the Long Island bard’s first release since All My Liferecorded in 2007 for his wife Katie Lee (from whom he divorced in 2009) and Christmas in Fallujah, a duet with Cass Dillon, who was then his son-in-law. The legendary 74-year-old singer also launched in 2001 Fantasies & Delusionsa collection of instrumental pieces played by his friend, South Korean pianist Hyung-ki Joo.
His last real full album of real songs? It was River of Dreamsin 1993, a record that really doesn’t count among his best.
Billy Joel has often confided in interviews that he has always continued to compose music, but music that deviates from the pop-rock format that allowed him to settle permanently at the top of the charts in the 1970s and 1980s. don’t feel the need to record this music,” he explained to the magazine Rolling Stone in 2009.
The Piano Man, however, never left the world of entertainment. It was on stage at Madison Square Garden last December that he first spoke of the imminent arrival of new material. His monthly residency at the Rangers’ home, which began a decade ago, will end on July 25.
His last visit to Montreal dates back to June 3, 2009, when he headlined the tour Face to Face with Elton John.