With the flip of a digital switch, Billy Joel fans have their first new song in 15 years, “Turn the Lights Back On.”
It has all the markers of a classic Joel ballad: the rhythm and rolling chords of “She’s Always a Woman,” the plea to accept someone “Just the Way You Are,” the percussive bass and snare of “The Downeaster ‘Alexa.’” There’s even a lick in the piano solo some may recall from “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” – much slower, yes, but we should all be so lucky to be making new music into our 70s.
With the flip of a digital switch, Billy Joel fans have their first new song in 15 years, “Turn the Lights Back On.”
It has all the markers of a classic Joel ballad: the rhythm and rolling chords of “She’s Always a Woman,” the plea to accept someone “Just the Way You Are,” the percussive bass and snare of “The Downeaster ‘Alexa.’” There’s even a lick in the piano solo some may recall from “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” – much slower, yes, but we should all be so lucky to be making new music into our 70s.
The official lyric video for Billy Joel’s ‘Turn the Lights Back On.’
But what does it all add up to? Does this mean that Billy Joel is back? Did he ever go away?
In my scholarship, I explore the legacy of musicians – how their music reverberates and transforms over time, long after the works themselves came into the world.