Billy Joel has debuted two songs from his previously unreleased concert album Live at The Great American Music Hall – 1975, which will be available as part of his upcoming box set Billy Joel – The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1, due out November 5.
The performances, renditions of “New York State of Mind,” and “Everybody Loves You Now,” have been released as a two-track bundle available now via digital formats.
As previously reported, The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 is a nine-LP set featuring the famed singer/songwriter’s first six studio efforts — 1971’s Cold Spring Harbor, 1973’s Piano Man, 1974’s Streetlife Serenade, 1976’s Turnstiles, 1977’s The Stranger and 1978’s 52nd Street — plus his first live album, 1981’s Songs in the Attic, and the aforementioned Live at The Great American Music Hall. The latter album, which will appear as a two-LP set, was recorded in June 1975 in San Francisco.
Joel’s studio versions of “New York State of Mind” and “Everybody Loves You Now” appeared, respectively, on Turnstiles and Cold Spring Harbor, and the San Francisco performance of the former tune came months before Billy recorded the song.
“We rehearsed the song and played it at the show one of the first times it was ever performed live,” Joel’s Turnstiles-era live sound producer Brian Ruggles told Rolling Stone. “Billy liked the arrangement, so they recorded it that way on the album.”
Ruggles also recalled that the concert was taped using a recording truck owned by Creedence Clearwater Revival drummer Doug Clifford that was parked outside the Great American Music Hall.
“It was old school recording, but we were able to put together a pretty good recording for this special release,” Ruggles noted.
You can pre-order the box set now.
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