C.W. Post, May 6, 1977

My friend John has always created music mixes for friends. Today he'll create playlists or burns CDs, but when we were teens cassettes were the only option. One of the many he painstakingly recorded for me stuck with me because it was remarkable in a couple of ways. For starters, it was the only cassette John ever made me that wasn't a mix, and secondly because it was a rare live recording of Billy Joel's that included the debut performance of “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.” I'd never heard a version of “Scenes” that matched the energy of that first live rendition, and I played that cassette to death. After a couple of years my car's tape deck got sick of hearing it and ate it.

A couple of weeks ago I happened upon a stack of CDs that I hadn't ripped before, and one was the two disc Billy Joel “Best of,” and it got me remembering that old cassette and wondering. Could I buy a copy of that live recording? Where was it originally recorded. I hit Amazon and found that Joel's first live album was “Songs In the Attic” from 1981, but “Scenes” was on “The Stranger” and that's from 1977. Google didn't help, but it did lead me to the great folks at JoelFans. I posed my question and got a quick response that read, “CW Post 77.” Was “CW” a reference to another thread, I asked? Nope, C.W. Post is a college on Long Island, and the performance was recorded there on May 6, 1977, a date which made sense considering the release of “The Stranger.”

This was exciting. My mind strained to hear the past and recall that debut of “Scenes.” Another poster said that version was in the media gallery section on the site, but I combed through and no such luck. Someone else said he'd upload it, then returned to say the file was too large. Without a way to buy it, I found myself looking at pirate sites and demanded a minimum of 5 GB of rare music before even talking about a trade.

And then, I got a private message from a guy named John who not only had that version of “Scenes,” but the entire C.W. Post show. He asked for my address because he was burning me a copy. I offered to pay him but he said it was no trouble. I got the discs yesterday, and thanked John with a gift certificate to Amazon.

People like John reaffirm my love for the Net, and for people in general. First thing I'm going to do is make a copy for my old friend John and repay the favor he did for me eighteen years ago.