Billy Joel has released an early version of his iconic song “New York State of Mind,” recorded live during a 1975 San Francisco performance.
This recording predates the official release of “New York State of Mind,” which would not occur until it appeared on Joel’s 1976 album, Turnstiles.
“We were all living in California in 1974-75,” Brian Ruggles, who was then Joel’s engineer and live sound producer, told Rolling Stone. “Billy was in Malibu and I was living in Hollywood. He’d been in California for a few years and was really homesick for New York. He wanted to get back there. His roots are in New York and he missed it a lot.
“He came up with the idea for the song as he rode — on the Hudson River Line, actually — to his house in Highland Falls, New York,” Ruggles added. “He wrote the song down when he got home. This was months before we recorded Turnstiles.” The live version will appear on Joel’s forthcoming box The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1. The set arrives on Nov. 5 and includes an unreleased live album, Live at the Great American Music Hall – 1975, in addition to his first six LPs.
Are you excited to here the unreleased live album? We are!
