Billy Joel: Rocky Waters

PROFILES | PERFILES
W
Billy Joel:
Rocky Waters
© Billy Black
Billy Joel:
Pasión por el agua
Text by | Texto por Lisa Overing
Photos by | Fotos por Billy Black
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hether stockpiling mansions or adopting
orphans from impoverished nations in the
name of everlasting love, most stars live
outside society in a way that mortals, struggling to
pay the minimum due on their credit cards, can
hardly relate.
Singer-songwriter Billy Joel is no different, his most
pronounced eccentricity is his lifelong love affair with
the sea which has endured the rise and fall of fame, fortune and several trips back and forth to divorce court.
Despite the fame and the many millions, Joel, now
60, has worked to stay connected to the water, both
as a sailor and as a designer, creating jobs for the
Mainers in 1996 with the development of the Shelter
Island Runabout vessel line, when the economy
turned sour. These 38-foot, go-fast lobster boats,
which run 55 mph, put boat builders who were dangerously close to standing in the unemployment line
back on the assembly line.
“Billy didn’t come from money and he considers himself very lucky in this life,” says Capt. Gene Pelland,
l cantautor Billy Joel ha estado enamorado del
mar desde sus primeros años A pesar de su
fama y sus muchos millones, Joel, de 60 años,
ha trabajado para seguir conectado con el agua, como
navegante y como diseñador, generando empleo para
los Mainers en 1996 con la creación del Shelter Island Runabout cuando la economía se volvió inestable. Estos barcos pesqueros de langostas de 38 pies,
que alcanzan los 88,5 km/h, devolvieron sus puestos
de trabajo a constructores de barco que se encontraban peligrosamente al borde del desempleo.
E
De Long Island a las giras
El romance entre Joel y los barcos comenzó más o
menos al mismo tiempo en el que comenzó a tocar el
piano, alrededor de los cuatro años, cuando “tomaba
prestados” los barcos de otras personas que él y sus
amigos de Long Island siempre devolvían. Cuando era
niño soñaba con navegar los Mares del Sur en un
tramp steamer, lo más lejos de Nueva York posible.
Joel llegó a ser dueño de hasta cinco yates al mismo
tiempo y de incluso una flota de impactantes Downeasters. Siempre que podía, en sus giras con Elton
John en los últimos 20 años, Joel se quedaba en uno
de sus embarcaciones con sus perros, Fionoula y Sabrina, en lugar de hospedarse en un hotel.
Los yates de Billy
Joel diseñó junto con Doug Zurn su yate de 57 pies,
Vendetta. Este barco de época para transporte de pasajeros navegaba a unos 80 km/h de máxima, llevando a Billy a toda velocidad desde su casa en
Oyster Bay hasta Manhattan. Argos, un Ellis 36 con
un estilo muy retro, es su barco de pesca en mar
abierto y se encuentra amarrado en Miami. Argos alcanza los 30 nudos, bastante bien para un barco pesquero de langosta. Su “jeep” es una embarcación de
aluminio de 28 pies que sirvió de embarcación auxiliar para su joya, Audacious, un Inace de 95 pies, vendido recientemente.
Granito de lujo y jatobá, una madera nativa de Brasil, conforman el tradicional interior del Audacious,
que se completa con tonos neutros para los muebles,
los mamparos y la alfombra. Este explorer presenta
un camarote principal en cubierta ubicado detrás de
la timonera, en donde se encontraba originalmente la
“
© Billy Black
Downeaster Alexa
“Like all the locals here I’ve had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone
So I could own my Downeaster “Alexa”
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can’t fall asleep”
Billy Joel
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PROFILES | PERFILES
the man entrusted with Joel’s boats. “In his upbringing, if you didn’t work for something you didn’t get
it. Billy has a strong work ethic, whether it was playing a wedding until 2 a.m. or getting up at 4 a.m. to
jump on a boat as a kid.”
A New York State of Mind
Joel’s love affair with boats began about the same time
that he started playing the piano, around age four,
“borrowing” people’s boats that he and his Long Island
buddies always brought back. As a boy, he dreamed
about cruising in a tramp steamer on the South Seas,
about as far away from New York as he could get. An
inauspicious child of divorce, musing of an adventurous sea life served as both an escape and a goal.
As a songwriter, Joel channeled his working-class
roots while his success carried him far away from
them. His career began playing weddings in The
Echoes at 16 and he had a stint as a bar singer. His
first album, Cold Spring Harbor, was released in 1971
and included She’s Got A Way, re-released as a hit
years later. After leaving the real Cold Spring Harbor
of his inspiration, he moved to Los Angeles and became a household name, skyrocketing to superstardom in 1973 with the title track, Piano Man. While it
only hit #25 on the Billboard Top 100, it stands as
one of Joel’s anthems, right up there with My Life and
Uptown Girl, the iconic video with model ex-wife
Christie Brinkley.
He wed Brinkley on a yacht cruising the Hudson River
at the height of his fame in 1985. The six time
Grammy winner has sold over 100 million records,
has had top10 hits in three different decades and was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
The fortune he amassed tickling the ivories enabled
him to stop borrowing boats and indulge his oceanic
obsession, owning as many as five boats at a time,
including a fleet of head-turning Downeasters. Whenever possible during tours with Elton John over the
past 20 years, Joel stayed on one of his boats with his
dogs, Fionoula and Sabrina, over a hotel.
Billy’s Boats
Joel’s been labeled a balladeer and reincarnated himself as a rocker, but he will always be a hard working
piano man yearning for the sea. He co-designed his
57-footer, Vendetta, with Doug Zurn. The vintage
commuter ran 50 mph at the top end and, zipping
Billy from his house in Oyster Bay into Manhattan.
Argos, a very retro-styled Ellis 36, is his offshore fishing boat moored in Miami, a surrogate home. Argos
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© Billy Black
cubierta superior cerrada, con tres camarotes dispuestos generosamente bajo la cubierta, todos con
baño en suite hecho en granito. Todas las cabinas de
la tripulación fueron remodeladas para lograr un confort más moderno, una de las cuales se encuentra en
la cubierta de proa. Los camarotes y las cabinas de la
tripulación fueron reubicados en el proceso de modernización de la embarcación, cuando también se
creó un espacio de carga a medida para tres de las
motocicletas de Joel, dos Royal Enfields y una Honda
Valcary para explorar las islas del Caribe.
La configuración funcional de este yate de expedición
siempre ha capturado a Joel. Con el aspecto y las funciones de un barco de carga, lo atrae casi tanto como
la idea del pesquero de langosta. Se trata del mismo
© Billy Black
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PROFILES | PERFILES
tops out at 30 knots, good for a lobster boat. His
“jeep” is a 28-foot aluminum landing craft that served
as a tender for his recently sold jewel, Audacious, a
95-foot Inace.
Luxe granite and jatoba, a native Brazilian cherry
wood, comprise Audacious’ rather traditional interior,
complemented with neutral tones for furniture, bulkheads, and carpet. This explorer sports an on-deck
master stateroom located behind the wheelhouse,
where the sky lounge was originally located, with
three generously appointed staterooms below deck,
all with granite ensuite heads. All crew quarters were
refurbished for modern comfort, one of which is in
the fos’cle. The staterooms and crew cabins were relocated during the vessel’s retrofit where a custom
cargo hold was created for three of Joel’s motorcycles, two Royal Enfields and a Honda Valcary to explore Caribbean islands.
The expedition yacht’s functional configuration has
always captured Joel. With the look and function of
a cargo ship, it entrances him almost as much as the
lobster motif. It’s the same genre: a vessel that salty
men with calloused hands actually live and work on.
“I want a boat to look like a boat and feel like a ship,”
Joel says. “Even my fishing boats are anachronistic
looking, like something out of the 1930’s.”
He grew up fishing and has been a sailor all his life .
You can hear it in his songs, especially those that pull
your heartstrings.
Joel used the nautical metaphors in the 1993 hit Lullaby to explain the concept of death to his then young
daughter, Alexa. His Grammy nominated album
Storm Front, with its number one, Top 40 hit
Downeaster Alexa, is a tribute to the bay men still
struggling to eke out a living in one of the world’s
most dangerous occupations. He connects with the
type of people associated with the water, bonded by
camaraderie in the elements. Cold Spring Harbor, one
of Joel’s first hits in 1970, is a direct influence of his
working class, Long Island roots. Whether turbulent
or peaceful, the ocean, as one’s ultimate destination,
if not at least mentally, permeates Joel’s psyche and
lyrics as embodied in River of Dreams.
And what would happen if the piano man developed
a permanent case of stage fright? He’s got royalties
galore and myriad business interests beyond Maritime
Music, but with an incurable case of boat on the
brain, he’d probably be back on the water, busting his
back, earning a living the hard way. Just for kicks.
“It’s in his roots: you dig your heels in and you work,”
Pelland says. “He’s not above jumping back on that
oyster boat that made his hands bleed.”
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© Billy Black
género: una embarcación en la que vivían y trabajaban hombres de agua salada con callos en las manos.
“Quiero una embarcación que se vea como un barco
y se sienta como un buque”, comenta Joel. “Incluso
mis barcos pesqueros tienen un aspecto atemporal,
como salidos de los años ‘30”.
Su amor por los barcos se puede escuchar en sus canciones, especialmente en las que tocan el corazón. Joel
utilizó metáforas náuticas en el éxito de 1993 Lullaby
para explicarle el concepto de la muerte a su pequeña
hija, Alexa. Su álbum nominado al Grammy, Storm
Front, con su éxito número uno en el Top 40 Downeaster Alexa, es un homenaje a los hombres de la bahía
que todavía luchan por ganarse la vida a duras penas
en uno de los oficios más peligrosos del mundo. Cold
Spring Harbor, uno de los primeros éxitos de Joel en
1970, tiene una influencia directa de sus raíces de la
clase trabajadora en Long Island. El océano, turbulento o pacífico, penetra en la psiquis y en las letras de
Joel, como su destino final o al menos mentalmente,
como se observa en River of Dreams.
“
Joel’s been labeled a balladeer
and reincarnated himself as a
rocker, but he will always be a
hard working piano man yearning
for the shore.