Talk:The Downeaster "Alexa"

Song title
Anyone know why Billy Joel called his fictitious boat the Downeaster Alexa? As far as I can tell, all Downeasters (made by Down East Yachts) were cruising vessels. Or was it a reference to Down East, an geographical location in New England. And who was Alexa?

--Legis (talk - contributions) 15:02, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Alexa is Billy Joel's daughter. AJD 16:59, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Recent Move to The Downeaster 'Alexa
Are you sure that shouldn't be The Downeaster 'Alexa', like it says on the album cover? 'Alexa just looks wrong. AJD 16:59, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Moved it. It was probably a failed move to remove the 's on both sides. We could alternatively also move it back to using two 's... Ingolfson 08:46, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
 * So, wait a minute. What's the official title of the song? CarpetCrawler (talk) 07:30, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It looks like this has been stagnant for a while...This needs to be fixed. Somebody fix it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.140.145.55 (talk) 21:33, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Itzhak Perlman
The Itzhak Perlman article says that Perlman played the violin solo in this song, and names a radio program that included this information. That seems worth noting.

Link to article "Down Easter (ship)"
The word "downeaster" in the second and fourth paragraphs under Content is linked to the Wikipedia article "Down Easter (ship)." This link is misleading; the linked article describes a type of large (~300') square-rigged cargo-carrying sailing vessel, while the song (as stated in the fourth paragraph under Content) refers to a much smaller (36 - 46') powered commercial fishing boat. I'm not a sufficiently well-versed Wikipedian to know if this should be fixed simply by removing the links, or if a section should be added to the linked article noting that the term "downeaster" has been used, at least in this song, to refer to a completely different type of vessel. I also don't know if "downeaster" is commonly used in New England to refer to small vessels like Maine lobster boats, or if Billy Joel just got the word wrong in the song. Woody832 (talk) 18:44, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

add to Music Video section
Melissa Leo appeared as Billy Havens' (wife/other) (waiting for his return from the sea) because her father Arnold Leo III, an editor at Grove Press, fisherman, and former spokesman for the East Hampton Baymen's Association. Billy Havens is also a real fisherman there. sources ... https://www.easthamptonstar.com/archive/billy-havens-longtime-bayman-finest-kind ... https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/melissa-leo/bio/3030218972/.... I was going to try to edit but I cant do it 2602:306:8B24:4610:447D:2935:8DFD:F7CA (talk) 04:33, 4 July 2022 (UTC)