It's 1978 at the BBC studios, long before the smoking ban and Billy sits behind his piano on a moodily lit stage with his band dotted around him. He pulls out a cigarette and jokes with the crowd that the smoke will give the place a “sleazy atmosphere,” no special effects here folks, the music will provide that. Continuing to play with the crowd he puts on a pair of Horatio Canes, which never look good on anyone indoors unless they are a musician – so of course Billy pulls this off.
Billy then strolls into the opening bars of 'New York State Of Mind' still with the cigarette in his mouth and it's only when he starts to sing that you wonder where this little guy got THAT voice from, it's almost as if it doesn't belong to him yet he does carry a certain unassuming charm.
Electrifying is a word often used to describe musical performances but if being electrocuted involved having a chill sent down your spine followed by a tingling of hair raising goosebumps I would quite happily go to a pylon and electrocute myself every day!
The goosebumps come six minutes into this performance. Billy stops playing the piano, the lights dim, and the neon tetra blue spotlight shifts to the man playing the saxophone, who for almost two minutes, does a mind blowing solo that could lift the hairs off Michael Phelps. Phelps is a swimmer by way for anyone who doesn't get that :P
Billy casually walks over to the centre of the stage, cigarette in hand, points at the saxophone player and nods his head while muttering something along the lines off “how fucking good was that” (or was that just me) and the crowd erupt in approval.
But the performance isn't finished yet. Billy gets back into his seat “New York state of....” looks in the direction of the band, inhales a deep breath of air into the microphone.....”MIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNND, YEAAAAAAAAAH.”
Sorry Big but clearly, I had never heard anything like that before!
Here is the performance :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZh8YjbDiVk
Only Mohammed Knows
:D
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