Posted on 01/24/2009 9:21:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
This may seem an odd moment to bring up the subject of Billy Joel. But the recent death of the painter Andrew Wyeth revived a long-standing debate over whether his art is respectable or merely sentimental schlock. (Say it: good or bad?) It got me to thinking about the question of value in art and whether there are any absolute standards for judging it. It indicates the question is still alive, not relegated to irrelevance by relativism.
And then I picked up The Art Instinct, a new book by Denis Dutton, the curator of the Arts & Letters Daily Web site. The book strives valiantly to find a basis for judging the value of art from the perspective of evolutionary psychology; in it, Dutton argues that a certain kind of artistic talent offered a competitive advantage in the Darwinian struggle for survival.
Which brings me to Billy Joel—the Andrew Wyeth of contemporary pop music—and the continuing irritation I feel whenever I hear his tunes, whether in the original or in the multitude of elevator-Muzak versions. It is a kind of mystery: Why does his music make my skin crawl in a way that other bad music doesn't? Why is it that so many of us feel it is possible to say Billy Joel is—well—just bad, a blight upon pop music, a plague upon the airwaves more contagious than West Nile virus, a dire threat to the peacefulness of any given elevator ride, not rock 'n' roll but schlock 'n' roll?
I'm reluctant to pick on Billy Joel. He's been subject to withering contempt from hipster types for so long that it no longer seems worth the time. Still, the mystery persists: How can he be so bad and yet so popular for so long? He's still there.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
The only song I can really stomach by him is Captain Jack though.
I despise Jackson Brown and Springsteen.
Two things:
1. In the “Allentown” video, Billy Joel is playing a guitar.
2. The picure of Joel on the back of “The Nylon Curtain”-he is holding a coffee cup with the handle toward the camera.
Billy Joel is pretty good.
Ron Rosenbaum is a pretentious idiot.
Milquetoast and Elvis Costello? I'm sorry, you just revealed yourself to be musically ignorant. There is no other musician that has been as varied or ambitious musically as Declan McManus. He's created high-caliber music in all genres - from pop to rock to country to classical to opera to jazz to zydeco to reggae. He's worked entire recordings with the Brodsky Quartet, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Allen Toussaint, Sophie von Otter, Burt Bacharach, Nick Lowe, Bill Frisell, Diana Krall and Sir Paul McCartney. Other smaller collaborations have been with Chrissie Hynde, Jimmy Cliff, Daryl Hall, Squeeze, the Pogues and many others.
You want milquetoast? That would be a stiff like Springsteen. Other than his 4 or 5 more upbeat songs, Bruce's entire catalog consists of same-sounding, mumbling, downbeat, self-indulgent shiite.
I am silly. I base my musical tastes sometimes on songs that just make me happy. I really like listening to Billy Joel. “Piano Man” is a favorite of mine. I heard “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was the worst of ‘89. I liked it because paying attention to it got me even more interested to the modern history.
I like ONE song by Bruce Springsteen. One. It’s the same as I like one song by Bob Dylan. With each song they don’t sound like the performer you expect. Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” is the only song of his I can think of that I like. Generally, he sounds like he took valium and stuck marbles to his tongue.
I always took some inspiration from Billy Joel. I mean, if a toad like him can nail Christie Brinkley, think of what, er, who, I could do!
You might be happy to know that Billy Joel and Elton John are touring together. My husband thought it an odd combination, but it made perfect sense to me for just the reason you mentioned.
Dylan for his style is fine. He's actually more a Folk singer than Pop and one great song writter. Put him together singing with Jeff Lynne {from ELO}, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison and he's absolutely fantastic :>} One of the best rock bands formed and never got the chance to tour. One album was cut with all them present then Roy died. The Traveling Wilbury's.
Now the absolutely worse pop singer ever second to none is Yoko Ono. Mortica on the Addams Family sang better LOL.
No somethin’ tells me you used to have the hots for Linda Carter - if so ditto! LOL
I do think entertainers mean well. I know of a musician who is the sweetest, most humble fellow I know. He is Christian, but liberal in some of his thinking. He said after talking about a particular thing that bothered him that perhaps he should speak out more. I realized then, that it’s really no different than when we air our political grievances on here. Only, they have a more wide reaching audience to listen to them.
I never cared for Dylan either. I used to think he surely had to work hard at sounding that bad, or maybe it was drugs.
No, Bob Dylan... worst EVER!!!!
There fixed it.
Did anyone other than Yoko ever really consider her a singer??? ha.
> No somethin’ tells me you used to have the hots for Linda Carter - if so ditto! LOL
(grin!) She was my first pre-teenage crush. Followed shortly thereafter by Joanna Lumley...
I guess only one man did and he's dead now.
For the longest time I thought “Lay, Lady, Lay” was someone else. I was floored to find out it was sung by Dylan.
Musta been luv. This will really get me into trouble, but I never thought he was much of a singer either.
You are a man of seriously good taste!
Lawane Gillmon
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