The Ballad of Billy the Kid
Encyclopedia
"The Ballad of Billy the Kid" is a Billy Joel
song from the album Piano Man
. It is a fictionalized story of Billy The Kid
. In an interview from 1975, Joel admitted,"Basically [the song] was an experiment with an impressionist type of lyric. It was historically totally inaccurate as a story."
Examples of these inaccuracies include when Joel sings that, "[Billy the Kid was] from a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia
" and that "he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma." However, the actual "Billy the Kid" never robbed a bank and although his birthplace is incertain, no account suggests that he was from West Virginia.
The song also says that Billy the Kid was captured and hanged, with many people attending the hanging while in reality, he was shot and killed by Pat Garrett
.
Joel has stated in interviews and concerts that he wrote the song when he was traveling west from New York to California for the first time and has cited Aaron Copland
as a musical influence on the song. Copland himself wrote the music for a ballet, Billy The Kid
.
In 1983, Joel's song was released in a live version on the album Songs from the Attic. In the liner notes for the album, Joel insists that the "Billy" from Oyster Bay in the lyric was not Joel, but rather a bartender who worked there.
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
song from the album Piano Man
Piano Man (album)
Piano Man is a rock album by Billy Joel, released in 1973. Piano Man, Joel's second album and his first with Columbia Records, emerged out of legal difficulties with his former label, Family Productions, and became his breakthrough album...
. It is a fictionalized story of Billy The Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
. In an interview from 1975, Joel admitted,"Basically [the song] was an experiment with an impressionist type of lyric. It was historically totally inaccurate as a story."
Examples of these inaccuracies include when Joel sings that, "[Billy the Kid was] from a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
" and that "he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma." However, the actual "Billy the Kid" never robbed a bank and although his birthplace is incertain, no account suggests that he was from West Virginia.
The song also says that Billy the Kid was captured and hanged, with many people attending the hanging while in reality, he was shot and killed by Pat Garrett
Pat Garrett
Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender, and customs agent who was best known for killing Billy the Kid...
.
Joel has stated in interviews and concerts that he wrote the song when he was traveling west from New York to California for the first time and has cited Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
as a musical influence on the song. Copland himself wrote the music for a ballet, Billy The Kid
Billy the Kid (ballet)
Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet written by the American composer Aaron Copland and commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein. It was choreographed by Eugene Loring for Ballet Caravan. Along with Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, it is one of Copland's most popular and widely performed pieces...
.
In 1983, Joel's song was released in a live version on the album Songs from the Attic. In the liner notes for the album, Joel insists that the "Billy" from Oyster Bay in the lyric was not Joel, but rather a bartender who worked there.