Brett Eugene Ralph wrote: Billy. Ever been to a goddamn bar?

firstly:

secondly : i dont know what ive done to you lot but Billy Joel is fantastic.
i know its all opinions but this hurts now.
im sure someones in my head feeding you lot with all my favourite stuff and telling you to slag it off. other than river of dreams and uptown girl he hasnt made a bad record.
even the aatilla stuff is great.

now all just shut up and start slagging off someone elses music.

jk

The most abysmal sort of edgeless crap.

Not catchy, either. Repeating something over and over is not "catchiness" or "melody" or a "hook" - it's hypnotism.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:Is it elitist to want the music you consume to be good? Then I'm a card-carrying elistist!

...

And I don't think being "conscious of the quirkiness" gets Bill off the hook. One of the things I hate most about the post-modern mindset (not that I think Billy Joel is "post-modern" or anything) is the notion that, if you're conscious of something, all bets are off. Look: if you wrote a shitty song and are aware of it and were being all ironic and shit, you still wrote a shitty song.

SING IT.

Intern_8033 wrote:I am a little surprised to see this forum so unanimously against him, yet respectful of another one of my favorites, Harry Nilsson. I postulate that Harry is for all practical purposes THE SAME as (classic pre-1980) Billy, with the following exceptions:
1. Harry uses no saxophone
2. Billy's lyrics are generally ridiculous.
3. Billy Joel "the man" is generally ridiculous (this results in a "McCartneyesque" dichotomy)

Let us not forget:

Movin' Out
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Until the Night (you probably don't know this one, but you should download it immediately. It's on 52nd st)
Stiletto
Summer, Highland Falls

and there are at least three or four more.

If you can find one billy Joel song that is better than Me and My Arrow or Everybody's Talkin',.....i'll be fuckin'....suprised.

Billy Joel can't even touch Without You.


c'mon....

...or One. I mean, Nilsson wrote the first emo song ever, right there.



and I don't mean that in a bad way.

kerble wrote:
If you can find one billy Joel song that is better than Me and My Arrow or Everybody's Talkin',.....i'll be fuckin'....suprised.

"Everybody's Talkin'" was written by the great Fred Neil. But Nilsson's version is beautiful.

A few months ago I heard "Only The Good Die Young" for the first time in years, and I realized that Billy Joel had written the worst Paul Simon song ever.

But The Stranger was the first LP I ever bought, and, along with 52nd Street, it brought me much pleasure in the eight, ninth and tenth years of my life.

I admire him for trying to write songs that belong in The Great American Songbook. And, not that we're better off for it, "Just The Way You Are" made it in there.

I think this is an appropriate addition to the thread...

What I Would Be Thinking About If I Were Billy Joel Driving Toward a Holiday Party Where I Knew There Was Going to Be a Piano

Enjoy!

geiginni wrote:
What I Would Be Thinking About If I Were Billy Joel Driving Toward a Holiday Party Where I Knew There Was Going to Be a Piano

Here's what I would be thinking about if I were Billy Joel driving toward a holiday party where I knew there was going to be a piano:

"I should try to avoid driving into a tree and/or house this time."

I hadn't seen this thread until today, but I gotta throw a vote for NC on this one. I've been a closet BJ fan for years, but NO MORE! He's far from perfect, and he can be unbelievably cheesy, but damn he's penned some killer pop songs. "Summer, Highland Falls" is possibliy my favorite, but there are so many others. Yes, his later stuff really started to fall off, and yes he can be a bit of a dick-with-ears, but all that gets him is a bit of a waffle.
The Not Crapness of Billy Joel is certainly greater than the not crapness of ABBA, to reference another thread in this forum. Where were all you pop-haters on that thread?

I never bought into anything this guy did, and I live in Long Island. I know where one of his incredible mansions on Lloyd Neck was before he sold it. The guy is an alcoholic ego maniac. He named one of his albums Cold Spring Harbor, which is the name of one of the villages on Long Island. Real original album title asswipe........and he gets into more car "accidents" than any musician I can recall. I don't know how his PR people do such a good job in keeping up his undeniable "genius" image that some people have of him, but I pray for the day that image crumbles.

My ex-girlfriend had an experience with him when she was very young and she swares by it. Her uncle(I think it was just her Dads friend, but she called him Uncle)was looking at BJ's house because he was interested in buying it. He had this staircase that looked like piano keys. My ex, who was about 6 or 7 was running up and down them. Now this is how she quoted him......"Get your god-damned kid off my stairs..." Her Dad remembers the incident as well and said he was a real piece of shite.

henceforth.....

CRAP