Is the Billy Joel song Moving Out based on a real life person named Anthony?

[Hawkee]

I am still on a Billy Joel kick and I like listening to the song Moving Out and I would like to know if the person in the song Anthony really existed? Moving Out is a cool song and I think the lyrics are neat. Was Anthony a friend of Billy's or a fan he liked?
Bestie

[Schmoopie]

That's one of the few Billy Joel songs I like. I found this on Wikipedia....

"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" is a song written and recorded by Billy Joel. The track details the singer's disgust with the upwardly mobile bourgeois aspirations of working- and lower-middle-class New Yorkers who take pride in working long hours to afford the outward signs of having "made it".[1] Characters have stereotypically ethnic names (Anthony, Mama Leone, Sergeant O'Leary, Mr. Cacciatore) and blue-collar jobs. Joel considers their rejection of their working-class roots (trading a Chevy for a Cadillac and buying a house in Hackensack, New Jersey) ultimately futile. Near the end of the recording is the sound of a motorcycle starting up and driving away; the bass player Doug Stegmeyer's 1960s Corvette was used.

According to Joel, Anthony is not a real person, but rather "every Irish, Polish, and Italian kid trying to make a living in the U.S."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movin%...hony%27s_Song)

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by Schmoopie

That's one of the few Billy Joel songs I like. I found this on Wikipedia....

"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" is a song written and recorded by Billy Joel. The track details the singer's disgust with the upwardly mobile bourgeois aspirations of working- and lower-middle-class New Yorkers who take pride in working long hours to afford the outward signs of having "made it".[1] Characters have stereotypically ethnic names (Anthony, Mama Leone, Sergeant O'Leary, Mr. Cacciatore) and blue-collar jobs. Joel considers their rejection of their working-class roots (trading a Chevy for a Cadillac and buying a house in Hackensack, New Jersey) ultimately futile. Near the end of the recording is the sound of a motorcycle starting up and driving away; the bass player Doug Stegmeyer's 1960s Corvette was used.

According to Joel, Anthony is not a real person, but rather "every Irish, Polish, and Italian kid trying to make a living in the U.S."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movin%...hony%27s_Song)

Thanks for the info Schnoopie! I always wondered myself.

[Hawkee]

Thank you very much for the info Schmoopie. I have a mega crush on Billy Joel and every morning that's one of the Billy Joel songs I listen to on Youtube to start my day going even though my mother dislikes hearing Billy Joel's music every morning. I have three Billy Joel albums on my birthday list and The Stranger is one of them
Bestie