Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Nile came from a musical family—his grandfather was a vaudeville pianist who played with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Eddie Cantor; his uncles played boogie-woogie. His listened to the music of Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Fats Domino, brought home by his older brothers. Nile himself began playing piano at age eight and took classical music lessons until he was a teenager, when he taught himself his first rock & roll song. He soon began to compose short songs and continued the habit into his college years, when during the summers he made trips into New York City to frequent hootenanny clubs like Folk City and the Gaslight.
Nile studied philosophy at the University at Buffalo where he received a BA in 1971, before heading for Greenwich Village. After graduation, Nile took an apartment in the heart of Greenwich Village; however, during his first winter in New York, he contracted pneumonia, which put him out of commission for about a year. He continued writing songs while recuperating, determined to make a name for himself as a latter-day troubadour. That he did throughout the ’70s, becoming a fixture in the Village folk and rock scenes and getting tabbed as the next big thing to come out of that long-thriving artistic community.
He began hanging out at clubs like CBGB's, where he would see bands like Patti Smith, Television, the Ramones and Talking Heads.
EARLY CAREER
Establishing residency at the Village club Kenny's Castaways on Bleecker St., Nile began drawing ever-growing crowds, which in turn led to his first record deal. In a glowing review in The New York Times, rock critic Robert Palmer wrote of Nile; "Every once in awhile the times seems to produce an artist who is at once an iconoclast and near-perfect expression of contemporary currents. He is one of the best singer-songwriters to emerge from the New York scene in a long time."
Following a flurry of critical acclaim, he found himself courted by representatives from close to a dozen record companies; he chose Arista Records, and went into the studio with a band that included Jay Dee Daugherty from the Patti Smith Group. More rave reviews compared the singer to Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly, and called him "a one-man Clash." The excitement surrounding his self-titled debut album, Willie Nile, prompted Pete Townshend to request Willie's presence on the Who 's summer tour. Nile and his band were soon on the road with The Who, only a few months after Willie's first experience playing with a band. After two acclaimed albums, the self-titled 1980 debut and 1981's Golden Down, Nile fell prey to protracted legal problems which derailed his career for a number of years.
RE-EMERGENCE
Although he continued to write, Nile did not perform live or record again until a 1987 performance in Oslo, Norway, with Eric Andersen. A videotape of Nile’s performance in Norway prompted a Columbia talent scout to sign him to the label in 1988, but production on his album didn't start for two more years. Issued in 1991, His Columbia Records CD Places I Have Never Been contained the songs "Everybody Needs A Hammer" and "Heaven Help The Lonely." Places I Have Never Been featured appearances by backing musicians including Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Roger McGuinn, and members of the Hooters and the Roches. His 1992 EP release, Hard Times in America, became a favorite among some listeners in Europe.
Nile has recorded and performed with many musicians, including Ringo Starr, Tori Amos, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Ian Hunter, and Barenaked Ladies. A live Central Park concert album, Willie Nile-Archive Alive, was released on Archive Recordings, and Nile was one of the vocalists on the ensemble album Largo, along with Joan Osborne, Cyndi Lauper, Levon Helm, The Chieftains, Taj Mahal and Carole King. Another project found Nile writing and performing most of the songs for the soundtrack to the Kevin McLaughlin film Pinch Me!
In the fall of 2003, Nile was invited to share the stage at three concerts with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, including the two final Giants Stadium shows.
“Nile’s defining quality is his charismatic spirit. It’s a passion and enthusiasm that is infectious and earned Nile the admiration of fans and peers alike.” From Shea to the clubs and concert halls of Europe, "his live performances are legendary.
Studio albums
* 1980 - Willie Nile
* 1981 - Golden Down
* 1991 - Places I Have Never Been
* 1999 - Beautiful Wreck of the World
* 2006 - Streets of New York
* 2009 - House Of A Thousand Guitars
* 2010 - The Innocent Ones
Live albums
* 1997 - Live in Central Park - Archive Alive!
* 2007 - Live at Turning Point
* 2008 - Live From the Streets of New York
Gathering together his resources over time, he put out his first self-released album, Beautiful Wreck of the World, in 1999. It was chosen as one of the Top Ten Albums of the Year by critics at Billboard Magazine, The Village Voice and Stereo Review. Lucinda Williams called "On the Road to Calvary," Nile's song for Jeff Buckley, "One of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard." The album reached the finals of the Independent Music Awards for Best Rock Album of the Year.
In 2006, Nile released Streets of New York, which some consider to be his best work to date, due to quality production and clever songwriting. Former Time magazine music critic and Academy Award winning screenwriter Jay Cocks writes of Streets of New York, "The tunes he writes and plays with such blowtorch vibrancy get the myth and magic and danger and sadness and love in this town--of this town--truer, and righter, than anything I've heard since Dion. This record is a head-twister and heart-wrencher. It's rock and roll at its best. It's New York at its best. And there's nothing better than that."[citation needed]
House Of A Thousand Guitars was released on April 14, 2009.
On September 30, 2009, at his show at Giants Stadium in E. Rutherford, NJ, Bruce Springsteen invited Nile on stage to play with the E Street Band.
In addition, on November 22, 2009 Bruce Springsteen again invited him onstage to play the second last song of Springsteen's final concert of his tour, which was in Willie's hometown of Buffalo at HSBC Arena. Nile joined Springsteen and the E Street Band for the cover of Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher".
Life on Bleecker Street
Willie Nile Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In a building of a street in this town
In a building on a street in a neighborhood complete
With the garbage and the sun going down
I work in the office of a rich man
At a desk with a pencil in my rear
Five days a week where I rarely get to speak
This is life on Bleecker Street
Where the tourists shuffle to a boom box beat
Old men sit and stare at their feet
This is life on Bleecker Street
The owner of the deli is a "Yes Maam"
He ogles all the woman going by
He tries to be discreet from his window on the street
He's a "how ya going honey" kind a guy
People talk revolution in the cafes
They debate right and wrong while they drink
There are buses there are cars there are shiny movie stars
There are starving artists standing on the brink
This is life on Bleecker Street
Where the tourists shuffle to a boom box beat
Old men sit and stare at their feet
This is life on Bleecker Street
All kinds of people come from who knows where
All kinds of people who knows how much they care
Who knows how much
The lady with the jewels and the Nikon
Wants to photograph another souvenir
She's looking for a sexy New York icon
To prove to someone she was really here
I meet my baby on the Bowery
In the dark of the Lower East Side
In a city made of stone we can finally be alone
Willie Nile's song "Life on Bleecker Street" paints a vivid picture of life in a small corner of New York City. The first verse paints a picture of the singer's living situation, residing in a basement apartment in a building on Bleecker Street. The street's rundown aesthetic is further emphasized by the presence of garbage and the sunset. The second verse describes the singer's work environment, where they spend their days in a wealthy employer's office, feeling their future slip away from them. The chorus then summarizes the lives of those living on Bleecker Street, with tourists shuffling to a "boom box beat" and old men either aimlessly staring at their feet or catcalling women from windows. The restaurants and cafes that line the street are frequented by artists and intellectuals who discuss the state of the world, while buses and cars whiz by alongside the occasional celebrity.
Throughout the song, Nile captures the coexistence of different types of individuals who are brought together by their residence or their presence on Bleecker Street, yet they may not necessarily have much in common. The lady with the jewels and the Nikon is merely seeking a souvenir of her time in New York, while the singer's narrator himself has found love in the dark corners of the Bowery. The song offers a snapshot of the gritty and often overlooked aspects of city life.
Line by Line Meaning
I live in a basement of a building
I reside in the basement of a building in this town
In a building of a street in this town
The building I live in is situated on a street within the town
In a building on a street in a neighborhood complete
My building is on a street in a complete neighborhood
With the garbage and the sun going down
Garbage can be spotted on the street and sun is setting
I work in the office of a rich man
I labor in the office of a wealthy individual
At a desk with a pencil in my rear
Every day, I sit at a desk with a pencil in my back pocket
Five days a week where I rarely get to speak
I work five days a week, yet I do not get to speak too often
As I watch my future slowly disappear
I watch my future slowly fade away
This is life on Bleecker Street
This is what life is like on Bleecker Street
Where the tourists shuffle to a boom box beat
Tourists walk through the area to the beat of a boom box
Old men sit and stare at their feet
Elderly men sit down and gaze at their feet
The owner of the deli is a 'Yes Maam'
The owner of the delicatessen responds with 'Yes, Ma'am' to all female passersby
He ogles all the woman going by
He leers at every woman who walks by
He tries to be discreet from his window on the street
He attempts to act covertly while looking out his window
He's a 'how ya going honey' kind a guy
He is the type of person who would say 'how are you doing, honey'
People talk revolution in the cafes
Individuals converse about revolution in the coffee shops
They debate right and wrong while they drink
While drinking, they discuss ideology, morals, and ethics
There are buses there are cars there are shiny movie stars
Buses and cars are visible, as are polished movie stars
There are starving artists standing on the brink
There are artists struggling to survive financially
All kinds of people come from who knows where
All kinds of people come from unknown places
All kinds of people who knows how much they care
It is unclear how much care any of these people have
Who knows how much
It is indeterminate how much, in reference to the previous line
The lady with the jewels and the Nikon
The woman with fancy jewelry and a Nikon camera
Wants to photograph another souvenir
She aims to take another photograph as a keepsake
She's looking for a sexy New York icon
She is hoping to find a New York City icon that is sexy
To prove to someone she was really here
In order to validate her presence, she needs proof of the iconic sites she visited and photographed
I meet my baby on the Bowery
I rendezvous with my loved one on Bowery
In the dark of the Lower East Side
We meet in Lower East Side during night-time
In a city made of stone we can finally be alone
Amidst this concrete city, we can be together undisturbed
Contributed by William B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.