And So It Goes makes for an interesting comparison with the two-part Paul Simon documentary from last year, In Restless Dreams.
They are both comprehensive stories of the before, during and after of exceptional careers in popular music. The extra time allowed for with a two-part structure allows for the music to extend a little more than it would otherwise, making for a less frustrating experience.
Both make good use of their subject’s first-person memories but also contributions from others who were present. Both artists have excellent archives of their own and were in the media so regularly in their heyday that there is ample contemporary material to illustrate the storytelling.
The difference between the two films is the difference between the two men.
In Restless Dreams follows a Paul Simon who desperate to continue creating, Evan as his faculties fail him. The music that the film watches him write and record is spiritually resonant and questioning. Seven Psalms is more challenging for an audience than his regular fare but was more challenging for him to make too.
At 81, Simon was still creatively restless but in 2023 his contemporary, Billy Joel, hadn’t released an album new songs in 22 years. That retirement from songwriting is the most interesting thing about Joel, in my opinion, but it doesn’t get dealt with in any depth. For many artists it’s the career rigmarole — the touring, the appearances — that gets too much and they want to concentrate on their creative lives but for Joel it appears as if it was the songwriting that got too hard, took too much out of him. And he certainly had nothing left to prove.
In And So It Goes, today’s Billy Joel appears to be content with his romantic, family and performing life, not something that could be said for earlier on. There were plenty of career ups and downs, contributed to by makers and record company people who did not have his best interests at heart but also by Joel’s inattention. The rock and roll lifestyle was standard operating procedure at the time but Joel’s fondness for booze was entirely his own and continued well into the 21st century.
I was lucky enough once to see Joel play in Auckland in a double-bill with Elton John. He blew John off the stage that night (to be fair Elton was suffering from a cold) but the electricity and energy of that performance, and that catalogue of songs, dominated the show. (And let’s not forget, Elton doesn’t write lyrics while Billy Joel’s talent in that department is as strong as his musicianship.)
Where to watch Billy Joel: And So It Goes
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