Dave and Milt welcome two top-shelf Billy Joelologists: Scott Eckstein and Russ Flicker. We crack open the emotional songbook that is the HBO Max doc And So It Goes—a title that screams “quiet devastation,” like only Billy can.

We’re not just talking about Uptown Girl and Glass Houses. We go deep: the musical shapeshifting, the very Jewish energy, the marriages that aged like milk, the loyal bandmates that got canned, and the critics who never really got him (but oh, how we do).

You'll hear memories of epic Billy concerts, emotional gut-punch lyrics, underloved deep cuts, and hot takes on everything from “tonic and gin” to “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” being the Bohemian Rhapsody of Long Island.

It’s a love letter. It’s a roast. It’s a nuanced nosedive into the joy, the ache, and the genius of one of pop music’s most fascinating contradictions: a guy who made stadiums weep and critics wince. Come for the legacy, stay for the therapy session.

Topics

00:00 – 🎙️ Welcome to Past Tens, where we tell time by top tens

00:37 – 🥂 The “tonic and gin” debate no one asked for, but here we are

01:04 – 👏 Shout-outs to our guests and Billy buffs

02:04 – 📽️ Quick primer on And So It Goes (spoiler: not a rom-com)

03:00 – 🧠 Meet the Billy Braintrust: Scott and Russ

03:58 – 🎹 First concerts, last rows, and Piano Man magic

09:41 – 🔥 10 Hot Takes on the Billy Joel Doc

10:12 – 🥊 Early career struggles and Long Island angst

21:04 – 💔 Elizabeth Weber: The wife, the manager, the mystery

30:38 – 🧐 Lyrics that are both literal and metaphorical (very Billy)

38:33 – ✡️ Billy’s Jewishness: subtle, strong, and always there

44:49 – 🎭 Style chameleon: from ballads to barroom bangers

47:49 – 📰 Why critics never got him (and why we always did)

51:37 – 👶 The surprising multi-gen appeal of Billy Joel

58:10 – 🗽 Billy and New York: a love story with traffic

01:04:46 – 🧾 Legacy and the unfair critic treatment

01:10:19 – 🎧 Hidden gems and forgotten tracks

01:19:04 – 🤐 What the doc left out (and what we won’t)

01:26:48 – 🫶 Final thoughts on a complicated icon