The Vinyl Dialogues Blog

Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Tag: Billy Joel

Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot bring the Billy Joel big time

By

On June 15, 2019

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot performed Friday, June 14, 2019, at the Ambler Arts and Music Festival in Ambler, Pa. (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot performed Friday, June 14, 2019, at the Ambler Arts and Music Festival in Ambler, Pa.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

From the very first song I heard Mike DelGuidice and his band Big Shot perform at last year’s Ambler Arts and Music Festival, my thought was, “Hey, this guy is pretty good. He really nails those Billy Joel songs.”

Well, that’s because DelGuidice and Big Shot have been performing Billy Joel’s music for nearly two decades. In fact, DelGuidice  is so good that in 2013, Joel hired him to be a backing vocalist and guitarist for Joel’s band. If you do an artist’s songs so well that the artist hires you to help him do his own songs, that’s pretty doggone good. 

But I didn’t know any of that the first time I heard DelGuidice and Big Shot. And I love those moments when I first discover an artist whose work I hadn’t previously known. I research the artist, listen to his/her stuff, become a fan and start to follow them, keeping an eye on the touring schedule to see when they’re coming back to my area.

And Friday, June 14, DelGuidice and Big Shot returned to the Ambler (Pa.) Arts and Music Festival and there we were, The Blonde Accountant and I, in our lawn chairs with the rest of the sinners and saints. To know exactly how big a deal this was, not many artists can get us out of the house on Friday nights. By the end of a long work week, we’re pretty much asleep as soon as dinner is finished.

Mike DelGuidice has been a member of Billy Joel's touring band since 2013. (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Mike DelGuidice has been a member of Billy Joel’s touring band since 2013.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

But not this time, not when Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot are within shouting distance. And kudos the Ambler Arts and Music Festival braintrust for being savvy enough to recognize that Ambler loved this artist and band the first time they were here.  Bringing them back this year was a no-brainer and if the Ambler poohbahs are smart, they’ve already booked the band for next year.

DelGuidice, a Long Islander like Joel, is the real deal. He still tours with Joel all over the U.S. and world in major arenas and appears with Joel every month at Madison Square Garden in New York. When he’s not doing that, DelGuidice and Big Shot tour the U.S. themselves, bringing Joel’s music to places like Ambler. 

I had this ridiculous thought on the way to the show: What if Billy Joel decided to make an unbilled, surprise walk-on guest appearance with DelGuidice and Big Shot that night? But I quickly dismissed such tomfoolery. The odds of Billy Joel showing up at a local street festival in on a Friday night were lower than Mr. Blutarsky’s grade point average. 

But we didn’t need Billy Joel. Mike DelGudice and Big Shot are very, very good wth Billy Joel covers. For me, though, the highlights of the Ambler show weren’t the Joel tunes. 

DelGudice inserted one of his original songs into the setlist called “Mona Lisa” that is absolutely brilliant. Check out the video online (starring actor-comedian Kevin James of “The King of Queens” fame), which is equally as brilliant. (Shameless Promotion Alert: Buy the CD, download the album, support this artist.)

Mike DelGuidice included one of his songs, "Mona Lisa," in the setlist for this show. (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Mike DelGuidice included one of his songs, “Mona Lisa,” in the setlist for this show.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

The other highlight for me was DelGuidice’s cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” written by Steve Tyler for the band’s 1973 self-titled debut album “Aerosmith.” I had decided to leave the comfort of my lawn chair and go down to stand in the pit in front of the stage when the band played “Dream On.” It was loud, it rocked and I didn’t fracture a hip while dancing to it. All positive things, by the way. 

The only blemish on an otherwise perfect show — and this is personal and not indicative of the overall performance itself — is that DelGudice and the band ended the evening with a Led Zeppelin song. I am not a Led Zeppelin fan at all. I didn’t like its music growing up in the 1970s — “Stairway to Heaven” is the worst make-out song in the history of make-out songs — and I don’t like it now. In fact, I’m not even familiar enough with Zeppelin’s catalog to report the title of the song that ended the show. Not that DelGuidice and Big Shot didn’t perform it superbly, they did. But that’s the song I can’t identify that I was humming to myself on the way to the car. Thanks, Mike.

The bottom line, though: Go see Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot. Support the music. And support your local music festivals. 

 

The Lords of 52nd Street: We still like them just the way they are

By

On January 16, 2017

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

Original Billy Joel band members Richie Cannata, left, Russell Javors and Liberty DeVitto, rock Havana in New Hope, PA, on Jan. 14, 2017. (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Original Billy Joel band members Richie Cannata, left, Russell Javors and Liberty DeVitto, rock Havana in New Hope, PA, on Jan. 14, 2017.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Billy Joel had made four albums for Columbia Records in the early to mid-1970s – “Cold Spring Harbor” in 1971; “Piano Man” in 1973; “Streetlife Serenade” in 1974: and “Turnstiles” in 1976. Joel had moderate success with a couple of those albums, but not enough for the Columbia suits. They wanted better sales results.

Columbia thought that Joel needed a strong producer on his next album, which would be called “The Stranger.” And Sir George Martin, the man who had produced the Beatles and was famous enough at that time to be known as “the Fifth Beatle,” was interested. He was coming to see Joel and his band, which included Liberty DeVitto on drums, Doug Stegmeyer on bass, Russell Javors on electric and acoustic guitar and Richie Cannata on saxophone and clarinet, all of whom had contributed to the “Turnstiles” album.

Martin liked what he saw and after the show told Joel that he’d like to produce the next album. But Martin didn’t want to use Joel’s band, he wanted to use studio musicians instead.

Liberty DeVitto (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Liberty DeVitto
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Bill Joel said thanks but no thanks to George Martin.

Enter Phil Ramone, a producer and engineer who by this time had worked with Peter, Paul and Mary, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Paul Simon, with whom he won a production Grammy for his work on Simon’s 1975 album “Still Crazy After All These Years.”

Ramone watched Joel and his band perform at Carnegie Hall and liked what he saw. In particular, he was impressed with the raw energy that Joel and the band showed during its live performance.

“We had playing down live. We could rock the place,” said DeVitto. “When Phil heard that, he knew how to get what he heard live onto a record.”

Ramone ended up producing “The Stranger” and the rest is history. (An interview with DeVitto about the making of the album is featured in “The Vinyl Dialogues Volume III: Stacks of Wax.”)

The album reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums chart. Five singles from the album were released, four of which charted in the U.S., including “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” which reached No. 17 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and No. 14 on the U.S. Cashbox Top 100 singles chart; “Just the Way You Are,” No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Easy Listening chart and No. 3 on the Hot 100 singles chart; “Only The Good Die Young,” No. 24 on Billboard and No. 25 on Cash Box; and “She’s Always a Woman,” No. 17 on Billboard and No. 2 on Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.

Russell Javors (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Russell Javors
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

The raw energy that Ramone saw live and was able to get onto “The Stranger” is still evident 40 years later. It lives on in The Lords of 52nd Street, the name that Ramone bestowed on Joel’s band back in the day.

And it was noticeably still intact Saturday night at Havana (a great venue with outstanding food) in New Hope, PA, as former Joel band members DeVitto, Cannata and Javors rocked the house. They have been joined by lead vocalist and pianist David Clark, guitarist Ken Cino, Malcolm Gold on bass and keyboardist Doug Kistner, all of whose contributions cannot be understated. Together, the current lineup of The Lords of 52nd Street complement each other superbly.

Still, it’s difficult not to focus on the original Billy Joel band members. They make it clear that they’re not a Billy Joel tribute band. And that’s true. They’re still playing their own parts on the songs that they originally recorded.

Richie Cannata (Photo by Mike Morsch)

Richie Cannata
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

That’s Richie Cannata playing sax on “New York State of Mind” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” just as good, if not better, as he did on the original records. That’s Liberty DeVitto with as much energy on the drums as we heard in 1977. That’s still Russell Javors on guitar, with the added benefit of still having some of the greatest hair in rock and roll history. I particularly liked his lead vocals on “Until the Night,” Joel’s tribute to Phil Spector, a song that’s on the “52nd Street” album.

One cool aside from the show. Doug Stegmeyer died in 1995, but his presence was still felt during Saturday night’s show. Stegmeyer’s family had given Doug’s bass guitar to DeVitto, and Liberty brought it along for Malcolm Gold to play, which he did quite well.

“The one thing that we always had when we were with Billy – and me and Lib have been together since we were 15 years old – we click into this craziness and we’re having a lot of fun with each other,” said Javors. “I think it comes across on stage.”

It certainly does. Go see this band . . . they still might be the lunatics you’re looking for.

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