Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)

Listening to this song the familiar grind of working your fingers to the bone for some status strikes a familiar note. It refers directly to the working class who immigrated to the United States trying to achieve the American Dream overworking themselves in more than one job. The question Joel is asking here is, is all of that hard work really worth the material objects? Hackensack, quoted in the first verse of the song is in fact a suburb in New York City.
The upbeat tune that the song is currently sung to was not the original melody that Joel had in mind. The first time he performed the song in the studio for his band they recognized the ballad immediately as “Laughter in the Rain” done by Neil Sadaka. He decided to change the tune to the rocking tune which makes for a catchy track.
The song became a stage production opening in 2002 on Broadway and running for about a year. The production was such a hit that it went on tour and lasted for another three years from 2004.
The car screeching sounds heard in the background were made by fitting a microphone to the exhaust end of Doug Stegmeyer’s, the bassist’s, car. The car was a 60’s Corvette which gave some great footage to work with. They let the car tear down the road having a great deal of fun with it while the album’s producer, Phil Ramone sighed, letting boys be boys, saying that they may not even use much of it anyway. Joel says it is one way to learn to self edit.