Listen to Bob Dylan's obscure 1976 song Seven Days (this is a live performance, the song was unreleased until 1991: https://vimeo.com/215099207 What 1977 song does that remind you of? Go straight to 0:57 here https://youtu.be/E5ofVsxTPoc
I can see that. That one may be subconsciuous. In the case of Dylan & Billy Joel, I suspect either they came up with the riffs independently (since they did so around the same time), or I've missed the original source they were both knocking off.