Movin' Out
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| "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Billy Joel | ||
| from the album The Stranger | ||
| Released | 1977 | |
| Format | 7" | |
| Recorded | 1977 | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 3:28 | |
| Label | Columbia | |
| Producer(s) | Phil Ramone | |
| Chart positions | ||
| Billy Joel singles chronology | ||
| "Just the Way You Are" (1977) |
"Movin' Out" (1977) |
"Only The Good Die Young" (1977) |
- For the Joanne song, see Pack Your Bags.
"Movin' Out" is a hit song written and recorded by Billy Joel. Subtitled "Anthony's Song", the track details the singer's disgust with the upwardly-mobile bourgeois aspirations of working and lower-middle class New Yorkers - aspirations he finds to be ultimately empty.
It originally appeared on his 1977 album, The Stranger. A live performance of it can be heard on 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert.
[edit] Origins
"Anthony's Song" refers to the New York working-class immigrant masculine ethos, in which wage-earners take pride at working long hours to afford the outwards signs of having "made it" in America (houses in Hackensack, Cadillacs). Named characters have stereotypically immigrant or first-generation American names names (Anthony, Mama Leone, Sergeant O'Leary); their jobs are blue-collar. The general idea behind the song is the ultimately futile quest for material possessions and status: In the end, the rewards are a "heart attack" or "a broken back," which the author contrasts with his bohemian refusal of such a work ethic (see, for instance, Joel's portrayal of himself in "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant").
According to Joel, Anthony isn't a person from real life, but he is every Irish, Polish, and Mexican kid trying to make a living in the U.S.[1]
[edit] Broadway musical
The Twyla Tharp Broadway dance musical Movin' Out, featuring the songs of Billy Joel, opened at the Richard Rodgers Theater, New York, on October 24, 2002, and played 1,307 performances before closing in December 2005. The lead piano player and singer of the show was Michael Cavanaugh. It will tour the US extensively through 2006 and 2007. The show transferred to London's West End on April 10, 2006, at the Apollo Victoria Theatre - where James Fox (singer) played lead piano and sang, with Darren Reeves as second piano man. However, it closed early on 22nd May due to poor ticket sales. Despite this, the show had received positive reviews.
Movin' Out is also the title of the original Broadway cast album taken from the above musical.
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