This month, we're sharing a live version of Billy Joel's "Root Beer Rag", taken from a gig by EJ's college band G-FORCE on May 9, 1986, a week before we graduated from SUNY Potsdam in upstate New York. This was a "farewell gig" in the college's on-campus "night club" called "The Bear's Den". As one can hear, the crowd was an integral and active part of our gigs. It was a "home team crowd", all on the same side, rooting us on, sharing good times, celebrating four years of friendships and college. It could also be a pretty discriminating bunch, with a large contingent of music majors from the Crane School of Music. Listening to this after all these years, it struck me how much fun we had and how rowdy the crowd could get, without any alcohol or any other stimulant being necessary. Just good clean fun and music.

It was recorded with a couple of microphones in the back of the room, one in each corner. When listening on headphones, it has a "surround sound" feel, like one is hanging out in the back, with conversations going on to the right and to the left and in front. The tape has held up well after 23 years. Most of the talking into the microphone you hear is our drummer Bryan Celano, who joins me on this piano-drums duet.

I got a kick out of listening to this; I hope you will too. A few of my college buddies might even hear themselves among the voices in the crowd. I recognized a few of them. Those gigs would not have been the same without you.

Not a bad rendition, pretty clean. I pulled a few ideas from some of Billy Joel's live versions I'd heard at the time that are different from the studio version. At least I didn't miss any of the lyrics. If you want to hear it the way it should be played, by Billy Joel himself in his prime, check out this YouTube video.

Enjoy!