This is my first diary ever so please be kind.
Saturday night I attended the Billy Joel concert in Chicago. I'm not a huge Billy Joel fan but have enjoyed many of his songs throughout the years and was happy to have the chance to go even with the inclement weather we had Saturday. The concert was really good. Billy Joel comes off as a really humble person despite the success he has had over the years. Between songs he adds commentary and even pokes fun at himself which I found truly entertaining. But what really moved me was a song he debuted in Chicago called "Christmas in Fallujah".
He started off by saying that many people this time of year have forgotten about the sacrifices our troops are making for us in Iraq and Afghanistan. This brought a round of applause from the audience. He then mentioned that over the past couple weeks he had been working on a new song for the troops in response to letters he has received from them. Before the song he also mentioned that he felt the song required a younger voice to sing it so he brought out Cass Dillon to sing and play guitar for the song.
I don't know if I can explain how moving the song was. Cass Dillon's voice sounded very much like Kurt Cobain and the song in general was Nirvanaesque, very hard hitting and powerful. During the performance of the song, 8-10 servicemen in uniform stood in the back of the stage with their heads bowed. Between the song and the visions of the soldiers I was brought to tears. The song and the soldiers received the largest standing ovation from the crowd of the night.
The song is due to release on iTunes on Tuesday Dec 4th and the net proceeds benefit a nonprofit called Homes for Our Troops. The Bush administration and wingnutland in general will not be happy with this song. Like I said it is very hard hitting and powerful. Lyrics such as "we are the crusaders" and "we are the empire" I remember hearing in the song.
Update I found a youtube video of the performance. It's not as powerful as it was live and the applause is very muted at the end.
Christmas in Fallujah