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The Worst Pop Singer Ever. Why, exactly, is Billy Joel so bad?
Slate ^ | Jan 23, 2009 | Ron Rosenbaum

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 ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: billyjoel
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To: SeekAndFind
BJ is okay, sort of.

The only song I can really stomach by him is Captain Jack though.

I despise Jackson Brown and Springsteen.

81 posted on 01/24/2009 10:53:32 PM PST by Tolkien (Grace is the Essence of the Gospel; Gratitude is the Essence of Ethics.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

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.


82 posted on 01/24/2009 10:59:32 PM PST by getarope (I will give Obama as much respect as the MSM gave W.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Billy Joel is pretty good.

Ron Rosenbaum is a pretentious idiot.


83 posted on 01/24/2009 11:02:17 PM PST by devere
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To: Hoosier-Daddy
That's easy. After ‘The Stranger’, which was a great album, he went Milquetoast and his work in general sucked. Just like Elvis Costello.

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.

84 posted on 01/24/2009 11:02:47 PM PST by Sideshow Bob
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To: DieHard the Hunter

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.


85 posted on 01/24/2009 11:03:17 PM PST by HungarianGypsy (Love of country does not mean I have to follow my government blindly.)
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To: LucyJo

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.


86 posted on 01/24/2009 11:05:45 PM PST by HungarianGypsy (Love of country does not mean I have to follow my government blindly.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

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!


87 posted on 01/24/2009 11:07:39 PM PST by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
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To: ruthles

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.


88 posted on 01/24/2009 11:08:11 PM PST by HungarianGypsy (Love of country does not mean I have to follow my government blindly.)
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To: irishtenor
No, Bob Dylan... worst EVER.

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.

89 posted on 01/24/2009 11:09:53 PM PST by cva66snipe ($.01 The current difference between the DEM's and GOP as well as their combined worth to this nation)
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To: DieHard the Hunter

No somethin’ tells me you used to have the hots for Linda Carter - if so ditto! LOL


90 posted on 01/24/2009 11:10:43 PM PST by melsec (A Proud Aussie)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

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.


91 posted on 01/24/2009 11:12:21 PM PST by HungarianGypsy (Love of country does not mean I have to follow my government blindly.)
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To: HungarianGypsy

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.


92 posted on 01/24/2009 11:15:09 PM PST by LucyJo
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To: irishtenor
No, Bob Dylan... worst EVER.

No, Bob Dylan... worst EVER!!!!

There fixed it.

93 posted on 01/24/2009 11:17:05 PM PST by mountn man (The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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To: cva66snipe

Did anyone other than Yoko ever really consider her a singer??? ha.


94 posted on 01/24/2009 11:17:16 PM PST by LucyJo
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To: melsec

> 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...


95 posted on 01/24/2009 11:17:39 PM PST by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: LucyJo
Did anyone other than Yoko ever really consider her a singer??? ha.

I guess only one man did and he's dead now.

96 posted on 01/24/2009 11:18:59 PM PST by cva66snipe ($.01 The current difference between the DEM's and GOP as well as their combined worth to this nation)
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To: LucyJo

For the longest time I thought “Lay, Lady, Lay” was someone else. I was floored to find out it was sung by Dylan.


97 posted on 01/24/2009 11:21:08 PM PST by HungarianGypsy (Love of country does not mean I have to follow my government blindly.)
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To: cva66snipe

Musta been luv. This will really get me into trouble, but I never thought he was much of a singer either.


98 posted on 01/24/2009 11:22:11 PM PST by LucyJo
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To: DieHard the Hunter

You are a man of seriously good taste!


99 posted on 01/24/2009 11:24:26 PM PST by melsec (A Proud Aussie)
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To: SeekAndFind

Lawane Gillmon


100 posted on 01/24/2009 11:24:58 PM PST by ThomasThomas ( Never mind.........it may go both ways...)
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