100 Concerts / Concert #3

Headline Act: Billy Joel

Touring Album:An Innocent Man

Opening Act: none

Date: March 15, 1984

Venue: The Hollywood Sportatorium. Hollywood, FL

Ticket price: $15.75

"Sing us a song, you're the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. Well we're all in the mood for a melody and you've got us feeling all right..."

 

We gathered together on weekend nights where the sand met the salty air. Buzzed on cheap beer and teenage hormones, guys and girls leaned on each other for support, in more ways than one. We were the performers and the audience. We sang our asses off. The band was anyone's boom box which played one cassette tape after another. We sang like our lives depended on it, and maybe they did.

"A bottle of white, a bottle of red. Perhaps a bottle of rosé instead..."

Certain artists and songs can define specific moments in your life, but very few artists serve as the soundtrack for an entire era of your life.  For much of high school and college, Billy Joel was a common musical thread for many of my friends and me.

"They say that these are not the best of times, but they're the only times I've ever known..."

It's unrecognizable, but where a swanky high-rise condo now borders a city park along the Atlantic Ocean, there was a place that mattered to us. It was just a little side street off A1A, tucked between a few acres of mangrove trees and a generic little bank. It was close to a turtle-hatching enclosure, near some condos and run-down hotels built in the '50s. This is where we would gather on dozens of Friday and Saturday nights for a few years.  Located on Hollywood beach, Sherman Street was our teenage sanctuary.  

"Little Geo is a friend of mine, we get some money and we buy cheap wine, sit on the corner and have a holiday. Hide the bottle when the cop goes by, talk about women and lie, lie, lie. My other world is just a half a mile away..."

It was a place the Hollywood police (mostly) ignored, a place we would meet after lame movies or lame parties or lame high school football games, a place where we could drink beer and just be idiot teenagers. The boom box would crank out much of the Billy Joel library ("The Stranger", "52nd Street", "Turnstiles", "Songs In The Attic") and it seemed each one of us knew every word of every song.

"Saturday night and you're still hanging around, you're tired of living in this one-horse town. You'd like to find a little hole in the ground for a while..."

We didn't care if it was considered the coolest music around, it wasn't punk or artsy or edgy or even fresh, but we felt it.  No matter the era, Billy Joel's lyrics speak the truth about love, romance, betrayal, anger, isolation, show biz, dysfunctional families, the suburbs, New York, Vietnam, rock and roll, and so much more.

"Well we all have a face that we hide away forever and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone. Some are satin, some are steel, some are silk and some are leather, they're the faces of the stranger but we love to try them on..."

When I first saw Billy Joel in concert, it was a reunion with an old friend I'd never met. Thanks in part to my older siblings, I'd grown up hearing Billy from "Piano Man" (1973) all the way up through "An Innocent Man", his new album supported by this 1984 tour . "Glass Houses" (1980) was the first of his albums I digested when it was new, followed by "The Nylon Curtain" (1982), perhaps his most underrated album.

While many artists needed MTV to make their name,  Billy had already been there, Grammy'd that.  Having sold millions of records and won numerous awards, he could afford to look into his past. He crafted a love letter to his musical heroes of the '50s and early '60s with "An Innocent Man". Its musical engine was driven by the spirits of Elvis Presley, Dion & The Belmonts, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons and the like. 

"If you said goodbye to me tonight, there would still be music left to write. What else could I do? I'm so inspired by you. That hasn't happened for the longest time..."

 

Mrs. Joel #2

In 1984, Billy was still married to the "Uptown Girl", supermodel Christie Brinkley.  With her looks and his musical charms, Billy was an MTV staple for a little while, reaching a new audience with the album's first single, "Tell Her About It", a tribute to Motown-era groups like The Supremes.

"Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood. Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood. Me, I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line. I'm in a New York state of mind..."

Billy's on-stage persona is fairly unique. He's equal parts rocker, balladeer, storyteller, jokester, smartass, and one hell of a singer/songwriter/ musician. I can't say I remember all the details of this show, but I know that 6 or 8 friends (from the Sherman Street gang) were there with me in the upper levels of the arena. And we sang our asses off.

"I am the entertainer and I know just where I stand, another serenader in another long-haired band.  Today I am your champion, I may have won your hearts, but I know the game, you'll forget my name. I won't be here in another year if I don't stay on the charts..."

Here's the unofficial setlist: Prelude/Angry Young Man, My Life, The Stranger, Piano Man, Don't Ask Me Why, Allentown, Goodnight Saigon, Pressure, Just The Way You Are, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, An Innocent Man, The Longest Time, Stiletto, Sometimes A Fantasy, It's Still Rock And Roll To Me, Uptown Girl, Big Shot, (Encore) Tell Her About It, You May Be Right, Captain Jack, Only The Good Die Young

On a side note, this was the first of several shows I saw at the Hollywood Sportatorium, "The Sporto", accessible from a 2-lane road (now Pines Boulevard) in west west west Hollywood (present day Pembroke Pines, west of I-75). This legendary venue was the site of performances by numerous Hall Of Fame artists: Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, The Eagles, and many more.  It was also the site of numerous arrests for drugs and weapons, overdoses, and a million other stories.

The Sporto from the outisde.

Before a 1981 Rush show, police sprayed tear gas on several fans who attempted to storm the gates, this led to some rock throwing and general chaos. The Sporto had plenty of issues over the years and the old barn was razed in 1993 following damage from Hurricane Andrew.

The Sporto from the inside.

Its fate was sealed when the state-of-the-art Miami Arena opened in 1988.  In typical South Florida fashion, the Miami Arena only lasted 20 years and was demolished in 2008, several years after the AmericanAirlines Arena opened just blocks away. Much more on those downtown venues in future posts. If you want to read more (mostly true Wikipedia) info about the infamous Sportatorium, click this link.