Many years ago, I wrote a nasty missive about Billy Joel on the previous EA Board that was very satisfying. I have limited writing gifts, so it was not exactly poetry. But it was mean-spirited and original enough that I would occasionally remember it and grin/chuckle. I'd really nailed just exactly how that guy sucks.

This afternoon I see that Billy Joel has a brain disorder and has canceled all of his concerts. I bet that I would have reacted to that news with glee back in 2008 whenever I wrote that first post. Today, my honest first reaction was a tiny and remote speck of shame.

This bums me out a bit because I honestly get pretty straightforward delight on a well-written tear down of a deserving subject. Or I used to.

But time and perspective make me realize that to indulge that pull to really get someone is just cultivating a part of oneself that could also just be ignored. And ignoring it is the right thing to do.

So I guess I'd say to my past self: being a hater can be really fun but it's not who you want to be. So don't.

Sorry to Billy if he was ever a lurker on the forum and got sad about what I wrote.

= Justin

I don't like Billy personally (aside from Atilla), and he has a storied history of drunk-driving. But I can appreciate the sentiment in your post.

That's real nice of you to admit something like this, but more importantly, understanding that you've grown.

I don't think that someone's suffering at some point much later should really make you feel this much regret. He's got his problems, I'm sure, but you don't know him personally and are free to have your opinions for such a public figure.

I hadn't heard of his brain disorder until you posted this, but about a week ago I was just going down a wikipedia rabbit hole on him and learned that he was the god father of Christie Brinkley's daughter from a later marriage. What would make your ex-wife want you to be her daughter's godfather?

One thing I learned firsthand on Threads is that if you talk shit about Billy Joel you will get dragged. this was before the brain disorder, and I wasn't even targeting him as much as saying I didn't understand why my peers in high school listened to shit like BJ which to me was our parents' music (though my mom had better taste than that). All of a sudden mad people were mad. Well anyway I don't regret that but good luck to the chooch from Long Island.

I regret making fun of The Cure in high school. Not that I'm making excuses but music fandom was severely tribal for Gen X. My school was a private Catholic school ran by Carmelite monks with a strict dress code and to stand out we declared our allegiances to our favorite bands. We couldn't advertise them, but like most schools cliques formed and I ran with the metal/hard rock crowd because holy shit can you just imagine hearing "For Whom the Bell Tolls" for the first time off of a traded cassette? There was one kid who though dressed like everyone else you could just tell they were into a different kind of music; one that we would describe as being gay which is ironic because I had a low low-key crush on my male Algebra teacher/football coach. I look back on a lot of that time with much regret. I could've became great friends with the boy into The Cure, squashed my internalized hate, and he could've turned me on to so much great and beautiful music that I discovered down the road.

Funnily enough I've always liked Billy Joel. "Just the Way You Are" gives off dream pop vibes and I will die on this hill.

The whole being-an-asshole-about-music-is-cool thing going away is a net gain from a humanist angle. That said I sometimes miss the overblown power of those signifiers. My friend in a post hardcore band would wear a Dark Side of the Moon shirt when they'd perform and that seemed provocative, like you weren't supposed to do that.

I can loosely loop this in with BJ. I enjoyed a Chuck Klosterman essay about Billy Joel. He describes discovering his early records as a kid and his process of trying to understand them. One of his major points was that it was really hard to tell if Joel was cool or not, but that he might have been unique as a pop artist in that his potential coolness (Elvis) or lack of coolness (Elvis Costello) had no effect on how we receive his music, which hasn't normally been the case in pop music. He was cool agnostic, or cool inert.

But he fucked Christie Brinkley, so technically he was a lucky dweeb by the standards of the time.

losthighway wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 8:19 am
I can loosely loop this in with BJ. I enjoyed a Chuck Klosterman essay about Billy Joel. He describes discovering his early records as a kid and his process of trying to understand them. One of his major points was that it was really hard to tell if Joel was cool or not, but that he might have been unique as a pop artist in that his potential coolness (Elvis) or lack of coolness (Elvis Costello) had no effect on how we receive his music, which hasn't normally been the case in pop music. He was cool agnostic, or cool inert.

I have that book - Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs - that has that Billy Joel essay. It actually inspired me to listen to Glass Houses and The Nylon Curtain. And both those albums have some quality deep cuts - Laura, Where's the Orchestra, She's Right on Time, Sleeping With the Television On, All For Leyna - Chuck was right.

My mother is a nurse and knows all about hydrocephalus, I forwarded her the article about Joel's diagnosis. She says they don't really know what causes NPH, but it usually affects older people. It is treatable, usually a shunt is used to drain the fluid to the abdomen.