Billy Joel - Live at Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ - May 8, 1987

Billy Joel Live at Brendan Byrne Arena East Rutherford, NJ, USA The Bridge Tour May 8, 1987 Attendance: 20,690 Audience Recording Sound Quality: B Setlist: Rhapsody in Blue - tape [cut] 0:00 1. A Matter of Trust 0:22 2. Pressure 4:43 3. You’re Only Human (Second Wind) 9:43 4. Piano Man 16:00 The Star-Spangled Banner - rough vamp 22:25 5. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant 23:24 6. Allentown 30:55 7. Goodnight Saigon 34:49 We Wish You a Merry Christmas - snippet 42:02 8. Prelude / Angry Young Man 44:27 9. My Life 51:15 The Night is Still Young - interlude 57:21 10. Don’t Ask Me Why 58:06 Happy (early) Birthday, Billy Joel! 1:01:47 11. Big Man on Mulberry Street 1:02:51 Band Introductions 1:09:33 Big Man on Mulberry Street (Reprise) 1:12:03 12. Baby Grand 1:13:58 13. An Innocent Man 1:19:21 14. A cappella samples: 1:25:46 What's Your Name? (Don & Juan) 1:27:00 You Belong to Me (The Dupress) 1:27:48 Rip Van Winkle (The Devotions) 1:28:21 15. The Longest Time 1:29:07 16. Only the Good Die Young 1:34:20 17. It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me 1:37:52 18. Sometimes a Fantasy 1:42:40 19. You May Be Right 1:46:20 ~Encore~ 20. Woah-Oh 1:52:12 Do Wah D*ddy D*ddy (Manfred Mann) - partial 1:53:29 21. Uptown Girl 1:54:18 ~Encore~ 22. Keeping the Faith 1:57:54 ~Encore~ 23. Big Shot 2:08:59 ~Encore~ 24. This Night 2:16:02 Billy Joel - lead vocals, piano, mute guitar (1), electric keyboard (3, 22), harmonica (4) Mark Rivera - saxophone, backing vocals, piano (1), metal pipe (6), claves (10), lyricon (11), synthesizers (13), percussion D. Eugene Brown - lead guitar Russell Javors - rhythm guitar, backing vocals, harmonica (8) Dave LeBolt - synthesizers, piano (13) Doug Stegmeyer - bass guitar, electric upright bass (11b-12) Liberty DeVitto - drums, maracas (10) Peter Hewlett - backing vocals, co-lead vocals (13), percussion George Simms - backing vocals, percussion, triangle (13) This tape ran an 1/8th sharp, so I corrected it here. Night five at "Brendan's Turnpike Cavern" features quite a few wildcard songs in the set, as was usually the case in this run. For starters, My Life is resurrected for the first time since 1984. Billy even points out that this is the first time they've done it on this tour. While it would reappear in subsequent Japan gigs, as well as the Tbilisi gig months later, it wouldn't be until 1990 when he would fully regain his interest for the song. During the lead-up into Don't Ask Me Why, Billy plays the hook from The Night is Still Young - its only confirmed stage appearance in the 20th century. Tomorrow is Billy's birthday, so the audience sings Happy Birthday to him at one point. During the a cappella section, the vocalists add an amusing lyric to What's Your Name? They also sing Rip Van Winkle as they had done in Buffalo earlier this year. Tonight's Woah-Oh bit leads to Billy doing a call-and-response segment of Doo Wah Diddy Diddy, much longer than in the previous show. He stops to exclaim: "I don't wanna do that stupid song!" Billy goes off vocally on a one-off rendition of This Night as the closing number. This would be the song's only known appearance this year, and its final appearance pre-millennium. This photo was taken by Danny Clinch at the Philly 1/24/1987 gig. I wish you all a Happy New Year! Here's to more uploads this coming year (and more consistency, hopefully)!