Life of the Piano Man

Over the past two weekends, HBO released the two-part documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” a nearly five-hour look at the life of the New York singer, songwriter and pianist. As is expected with most deep dives into a musician’s life and legacy, it explores the ups and downs of his career, his influences and the highlights that have made Joel’s music stand the test of time.

I loved it. It was refreshing to see a music documentary spend so much time on the music-making process — of Joel talking about where the ideas for certain songs came from, which artists from his youth the style is an homage to, why his band was so important for certain albums and why the studio itself played a vital role in the creation of so many icon songs and albums.

Meanwhile, the personal drama and his life off the stage were presented in a much more frank and real manner compared to the soap opera one might expect when talking about three failed marriages, financial woes, substance abuse issues and other cliches of the musician biopic. Thankfully, this documentary gets it right and tells the whole story, good and bad.