Ok, this post might not belong here, but it fits in with recent events: Any Billy Joel fan will instantly think of his sci-fi song, “Miami 2017” talking about the destruction of NYC by some unclear threating force. Assuming he tours in the future, will Billy sing this song in concert? What must Billy Joel be thinking? And, what might have inspired him to write this song?
Is this the song?
Miami 2017
I dunno. I’ll have to study the lyrics a little more in depth. I doubt it would bother anyone, though.
See ya. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Billy Joel’s “Miami 2017” does talk about the destruction of New York CIty, but the destroyers aren’t foreign terrorists. Rather, it’s the rest of the USA that decides New York has to go!
The song was written around 1974 or 1975, when NEw York City was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. When then-mayor Abe Beame asked then-President Gerald Ford for a massive bailout, Ford refused, saying (correctly, I believe) that New York City had been overspending for decades, and had to get its own financial house in order.
This refusal was summed up in the famous New York Daily News headline- “Ford to City: Drop Dead!”
Since New York City was then bankrupt, filthy, crime-ridden, and apparently hated by the rest of the country, Billy Joel wrote a song in which the federal government wipes out New York City once and for all.
Well, I read the lyrics and did a little research.
But I have nothing to say, since astorian so astutely “stole my thunder”.
Peace,
mangeorge
As a Billy Joel fan, I must admit that this thought did cross my mind yesterday. I’m surprised it hasn’t come up on the BJ mailing list I subscribe to.
Wow, I never thought too much about it and so always thought he was talking about the power outage back, when was it, in the 60s? This makes much more sense and my ignorance on this matter has been successfully fought. Thank you.
Apparently the destruction of New York has been a horror fantasy of screenplay writers, authors, even songwriters for decades. Just recently rap group The Coup pulled it’s album cover which portrays the lead singer about to blow up the WTC. The pilot episode the Lone Gunmen climaxes with a plance heading right for the WTC; I’m sure there’s more.
The NY band “I Am The World Trade Center” released their debut CD on Tuesday. Timing couldn’t have been any worse.
astorian:
The Daily News? That looks more like a New York Post headline. Cite?
The list of “NY destroyed” scenes in movies is pretty long. These are the films I can think of just off the top of my head:
When Worlds Collide
War of the Worlds
Escape from New York
Independence Day
Armageddeon
Fritz Leiber’s great “Coming Attractions” has a chilling image of the stump of the ESB sticking out of bombed-out NYC.
The towers toppled over due to the tidal wave in Deep Impact.
And they were frozen in place like toothpicks in ice cubes in A.I..
Don’t forget the original Planet of the Apes.
I don’t see any pictures on the web, but I’ve seen pictures, and it is the News. Exact date is Oct. 30, 1975.
“Ford to City: Drop Dead” was definitely a New York Daily News headline.
Bear in mind, in the mid-70s, Rupert Murdoch didn’t own the Post! TODAY, the Post is associated with lurid headlines, gossip, and right-wing editorials. But when I was a kid, the Post was a VERY serious, and VERY liberal paper.
In THOSE days, the Post’s editors would have regarded such a headline as vulgar.
Now that things have calmed down enough for me to put things where they belong, I’m moving this to Cafe Society.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Billy Joel kept singing that song about JFK blown away, totally insensitive to America’s grief from that tragedy. So I figure he can sing his New York song again safely in about 25 years.
(And how many times has he performed “We Didn’t Start the Fire” since the Branch Davidian standoff?)
TheeGrumpy, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was intended to be about the history of the US from the fifties to the late eighties. The assassination of JFK fell within that time frame.
And FTR, he played it at a concert I attended at the Target Center in Minneapolis in April of 1999. As good as it is on the CD, it’s better live.
Robin
Robyn,
Hence my .
Fail Safe
Maybe they should change their name to “I Was The World Trade Center”?
(i’m sorry, that was tacky … but someone else was bound to say it)