Looking Back: Fall 2014

Billy Joel was supposed to open for Roger McGuinn at their February 8, 1974, concert at Trenton State College. But when some of Joel’s band members and instruments got stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike because of a snowstorm, the headliner became the opening act.

Words by Tony Marchetti ’96, MA ’02

Billy Joel was supposed to open for Roger McGuinn at their February 8, 1974, concert at Trenton State College. But when some of Joel’s band members and instruments got stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike because of a snowstorm, the headliner became the opening act. After a two-hour set from McGuinn, and a screening of Reefer Madness to buy more time for Joel’s musicians to arrive, the other future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer on the bill that evening took the stage. Joel played his entire Piano Man album as well as many songs from Cold Spring Harbor, thanking those who stuck around for the marathon affair. It “was probably the best concert ever hosted by Trenton State,” Signal reporter David Rago wrote afterward. Do you agree? Write to us at magazine@tcnj.edu with your own concert memories.