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“I'm fine – let me screw it up somehow.” From the big hits to luggage, Billy Joel interprets the arch of his life and his career in And that's how it worksA massive two -part documentary that is broadcast on HBO Max for two nights. Directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin and Execed by Tom Hanks, produced, So it works Wedges open sitting with Joel, now 76, into an oral history that dig deep into his long Island roots, sometimes combative personality, his family and marriages (including being Christie Brinkley) and the creation of many of its most iconic songs. With more than 5 minutes, “Piano Man” has long been after a radio hit that has become generally accessible. But every part of Billy Joel: And that's how it works Watches with over two hours!

Opening shot: His boat, that AlexaIs parked outside. And Middlesea, its red brick villa, hugs the hills of Long Island's North Shore. He always wounded the life of these rich people when he worked on oyster boats as a child. “Well,” says Billy Joel in a voice -over, “I'm now having this house.”

The Gist: Middlesea is actually for sale when lying around $ 30 million. But in part one of Billy Joel: And that's how it worksWhen he sits on a beautiful Grand piano with an un laid -down cigar, the multiple Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fam remembers life and the times of William Martin Joel. “Love can make you write music. But heartache can do the same.”

No narrative here, but there are cutaways. When Joel remembers his early life as a child who moved from Bronx to Long Island, and his first forays in music-von piano lessons at home until the first “Bad Beatles Song”, which he wrote, and a Hammond B-3 as a member of the Juke Box-Grün also hear from Elizabeth Weber. Weber was married to Jon Small (also interviewed here), Joel's bandmate in the difficulties and later the Scragly organ drum duo atilla. But it was her connection with Joel who defined a time in her life that moved the needle on her own romance and his aspiring career. They came together, she became his manager and at the time of the name of 1977 The strangerElizabeth and Billy finally have control over what they wanted from the music industry. Remember, Joel is a guy who likes to get into “Pissing competitions” with the industry and his critical hazers.

Weber heard the strength and grace in the songs he wrote. “Piano man”, “Exactly as you are.” But she kept him and his band on the right track. “Some of my friends call me the general,” says Weber in And that's how it works. “It does not take anyone by train if they don't have a strong, efficient manager.”

We also hear from contemporaries and personalities in part one, including Bruce Springsteen, in 1972 at Columbia Records, in the same year as Joel. Paul McCartney, who says: “My ears have risen” when he heard Joel's music for the first time. And NAS, who says that “piano man” stands like a mirror with a mirror. Because sure, the microphone smells of beer. But Joel's Singalong Ballad is also a deeply lyrical examination of broken dreams that are set to a waltz. “We stuck to a lot where we came in what we wrote about,” says Springsteen, but Joel was also familiar with classic shapes, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley. “That's why Billy's melodies are better than mine.”

Drei-Peating at the Grammys-1979, 1980 and 1981-be certainly turned them into a “big shot”. (Joel calls this classic a “hangover song”.) But we all have seen enough music documents to know And that's how it works Anticipate his second episode, it has the room and the steady, informative pace to examine all chapter of Joels life in detailed details. “If everything goes well, I wonder when the other shoe will fall.”

What shows do you remind you of? Our current streaming era is fat with all kinds of music documents. But And that's how it works join Never too lateElton John's open examination of his 50 years on the bench of a piano, and ReturnPeter Jackson's promotion in the Beatles momentary study in her crash-out era as a further top shelf view of a respected veteran artist.

Our attitude: Which huge pop star is writing songs like Billy Joel? Tate McRae? Don't answer that. One of the very cool things about And that's how it works is the research of the patient of Joel and the creation of songs. With a rich archive film and audio artery of Joels bandmate, industry legends such as Clive Davis and producer Phil Ramone and his colleagues and employees, there are so many details here that even “piano man” is one of the overloaded, wreckry-try songs on the planet-sound again. This is a real performance for a document and proof that the huge term of giant size of So it works is more than justified.

Since Joel in his own life, his career and his past in general, he has granted a similar place to interpret it as he would like. And without an external story it is his POV that dominates. Are there a few nods for revisionism? Probably. But Joel's sense for bug-eyed charm and east Coast Guy for storytelling are still important, and these properties appear in the document when he sees back after anecdotes and vice versa the times when he had messed up Royal. Make mistakes for resistance, and for five decades he has lived on a Grand piano between these poles and broke a bass line while he asked to sing about it.

Sex and skin: No. The first section of And that's how it works Comes more in the hijinks when Billy Joel and his band of New York – “The Mean Bros” – rode their waves of success. “We loved our alcohol,” as drummer Liberty Devitto puts him.

Farewell shot: After two and a half hours we were only in 1980 and only in 1980 Glass houses! But also the dissolution of Billy Joels marriage to Elizabeth Weber. And his serious motorcycle accident. And the ghost of alcohol abuse. And part two of And that's how it works Will just continue dig.

Sleeper Star: Elizabeth Weber, Billy Joel's first woman, was also his manager in these intoxicating 1970s escalating popularity, and her interviews are a wonderful, thoughtful guide by part one of the And that's how it works. But we also want to run out the guys in the band. “He needed some fat,” says Sax player and Long Island Guy Richie Cannata from originally with Joel. “And we were the sauce.”

Most pilot line: So many of the most memorable songs by Billy Joel were written about what he knew best: his own life. He seems to know that it is good and bad. “I cannot say that there was no time in which I had no fight with something. There was always a fight. And so I learned that life is a fight. And it was a good lesson to learn. After I had to learn. After I had to learn. After I had to learn. After I learn it. I was learning. Glass houses came out, I was always on the road. Work, work, work. I look back on this guy, I don't even know who he was. He had to be so ambitious to work so hard and work so much. Therefore, it didn't have to be easily married to me at the time. ”

Our call: Stream it. Presented in two large parts and ran to almost five hours, Billy Joel: And that's how it works is the ultimate statement about the singer, musician and band leader. “Only the good ones die young,” he told us once. But crying with the saints has to wait because Joel still laughs here with the sinners.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a writer based in Chicago. As the veteran of alternative weekly trenches, his work also performed in Entertainment Weekly, PitchFork, The All Music Guide and The Village Voice.