12 Gardens (2006)
Disc One
1. Angry Young Man
2. My Life
3. Everybody Loves You Now
4. The Ballad of Billy the Kid
5. The Entertainer
6. Vienna
7. New York State of Mind
8. The Night is Still Young
9. Zanzibar
10.Miami 2017 (I've Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
11.The Great Wall of China
12.Allentown
13.She's Right on Time
14.Don't Ask Me Why
15.Laura
16.A Room of Our Own
Disc Two
1. Goodnight Saigon
2. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
3. An Innocent Man
4. The Downeaster "Alexa"
5. She's Always a Woman
6. Keeping the Faith
7. The River of Dreams
8. A Matter of Trust
9. We Didn't Start the Fire
10.Big Shot
11.You May Be Right
12.Only the Good Die Young
13.Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
14.Piano Man
15.And So it Goes
16.It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
*Bonus ITunes Tracks*
1.Honesty
2.Stiletto
 
At last! A Billy Joel live album that
makes sense! Unlike his previous attempts at live albums this is
basically what a live album should be. It's not a collection of
mostly unheard of tracks, nor is it a pseudo documentary of life behind
the iron curtain, nor a New Year's Eve party bash. It's simply a
collection of great songs from some great performances.
A lot of performances actually, yet they're from the same place at
roughly the same time. As you may guess from the title, he played
twelve shows at New York's Madison square Garden earlier in the
year when he recorded these songs. If anything, the fact that he could
justify having twelve shows anywhere thirteen years after he
retired from recording says a lot for the man. He changed the set list
throughout the performances, so there's a wide variety of material here.
Sure, there are some that were actually at the shows that will gripe
about what was left off this record, but the only thing that would make those
people happy is if he recorded and released a live album of every song
he's ever done (hmmmmm.......come to think of it......).
The set list is a pretty good representation of how his shows went. A
lot of hits, a lot of fan favorites and lot of gems thrown that rarely
ever get played. The in-between songs banter is missing. But
when you pack this many songs on two cds, more talk would have meant
less music. So I'm glad there's more singing and less yakking. Of
course, all of this would be moot if the performances had been lacking.
They're not. Joel proves that he can still put on an incredible live
show.
P.S. - If you buy the whole album from ITunes, there are 2 additional songs. Not really a good thing,
since you can't buy the songs separately. In other words, if you bought this anywhere else and then
found out about the itunes deal - you were basically screwed. It still amazes me how the record
industry still treats the public after they've essentially destroyed themselves through greed.
Back To Main Page
Go To Next Review